ORIGINAL RADIO SERVICE
Keep your antique vehicle 100% original
We enjoy bringing old radios back to life; however as time goes by it becomes increasingly tougher to offer this as a business -- which is why there are so few establishments who offer this at all. Worse yet, car radios are generally tougher to service than home counterparts, as exposure to the elements can make them much worse off and certain replacement parts have become almost nonexistent.
We have stopped offering service in the past, not only for these reasons but because of the high popularity of Stereo Conversions and reproduction radios. However we still receive calls on a daily basis, asking if we can PLEEEASE look at their original radio. So once again we've decided to offer this service.
A few things you should know however: just like your 60-year-old car has required a lot more than just tune-ups, its radio will require much more than the simple replacement of just one or two components. On a tube radio you can expect all of the paper, molded, and electrolytic capacitors replaced, as well as the vibrator. On a clean radio this may very well be all it needs; however on filthy or rusty junkyard finds you can expect failures of volume controls, tube sockets, IF cans and trimmers, and other parts to be bad. On hybrid radios (containing tubes and transistors), bad IF's, trimmers, and the PCB's themselves can create intermittent problems that can make the radio nearly impossible to fix. This is particularly true of Bendix radios of the period, and to a lesser extent, Delcos. In other words, some of these radios cannot be fixed reliably, or to do so might cost more than the price of another radio. We'll advise you the best we can of course, and in such cases the radio may not be worth rebuilding but could be a worthwhile candidate for a stereo conversion.
Since newer AM/FM radios and tape players generally include many more specialized parts and are more difficult to service, we are currently only offering service to AM radios.
Prices: This is something we simply cannot predict until we see the radio, and there's no telling what surprises may be encountered as we actually do the service. But, as a guideline, you can expect tube radios to be around $200-250, hybrids $150-200, and transistor sets $100-150. Typical turnaround is 30-60 days, but is not guaranteed -- as special parts may need to be ordered, or surprise problems appear, etc.
We'll be happy to warranty our work for a year; however with a similar caveat: if a radio should fail 9 months later and require an unobtainable part, the radio may not be repairable.