Thanks for writing, Dave.

The key to the nice result was that the original
paint and silk screen were actually intact with
few "dings."  It was just very dirty.  I removed
the meter, the speaker, the wooden "h",
the DC vibrator supply, tubes, any other stuff
a little water might hurt.  Turned my yard
water hose on low and gently washed it
with a soft paint brush, then put it
in the sun for a few days.
Gave all the controls and relays  a good shot
of "De-Ox-It" and lubricated where needed.

When a black wrinkle radio has been this dirty,
no amount of gentle scrubbing is going to get
the micron-size dust out of the valleys and pores.
it's going to look like a thin layer of "micro-dirt,"
which is exactly what it is.  Attempting to remove
this by force is going to damage your paint.

I used another soft bristle paint brush,
dribbled 3-N-1 oil on the dry paint and
"brushed it in"until it was evenly covered.
I do this will all my black wrinkle sets
and even knobs like those on the TCS.
Have been very happy with the results,
as you can see.  I have sets I did this to
10+ years ago and (with a dust cover),
they still look nice.  The only thing  I
repainted was the "h" logo.

The new "h" grill cloth is not original,
but I like it.  Hand-cleaned the removed
stuff and reassembled.
Checked all the grounds (some were bad).
Replaced bad caps and "real bad" resistors.
Gently burnished the relay contacts.
and De-Ox-It on the power connectors
and tube sockets.
 Powered it up with external supplies  and
it past the "smoke test."

GL OM ES 73 DE Dave AB5S


On 4/28/2025 12:52 PM, [email protected] wrote:
>
> Dave:
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> Great referb!  How  did you get all the dirt off?  Did you re-paint it?
>
>  
>
> I have several in process radios that need cleaning- mostly ARC-5s
> and I was wondering how to get the dirt off without removing the paint.
>
>  
>
> Dave, WA4OBJ
>
>  
>
>