Capehart Radio Restoration Project

RF Cafe visitor Robin Sparkes wrote to ask for assistance with his undertaking of a restoration of his Capehart radio. He does not have much to go on at this point, and is not even able to identify the model number. The identification plate pictured below does not appear to have sufficiently retained the imprints of the vital signs, nor does it contain the model number.

Here is the letter that Robin wrote; he requested that I publish it here in hopes that someone will be able to help.

The radio has a compliment of 9 tubes plus a magic eye tube, a circular tuning dial with few markings except for 'Custom Built'. The amplifier has 10 tubes. There are two speakers and a record changer.

The chassis are in poor condition and there is no cabinet for them to sit in, I believe the cabinet was destroyed in the '50s.

Now my starting questions are;

Does anyone recognise this equipment

What model was it from

Does anyone have a schematic for it

What would the cabinet have looked like

As with may of the Capehart radios there was an antenna system assembly, does anyone have diagrams or instructions on how to build one as this is also missing (or was it never there)

I have included some photos of the two parts for info.

My aim is to restore it to its former glory or as close to as possible, so any help would be appreciated

I would be grateful if you would pose these questions on the page in the RF Café and maybe you could feed back to me, if you do not mind.

Maybe not the forum just yet as I am still researching this radio myself and want to try to solve the problems and find the info in libraries. (Had some bad experiences with poorly moderated forums in the past)

I don't know if you realise but I am located in the UK, so I am not sure if the product you mentioned [Evapo-Rust] is available here, I will however check the manufacturers site and ask the question.

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Here are some additional photographs provided by Robin. There is a comments area below the images where you are encouraged to leave comments an/or questions.

Capehart Radio Corporation Links

• Radio Museum
• eBay
• Antique Radios
• Radio Era (manuals)

Here are more antique radio restoration projects on RF Cafe.