I'm proud of this one! (Pic)

How bakelite should polish (IMO) I love how this came out. And these Consoltones sound great! Recapped & aligned, cleaned. I used a heat gun, carefully, to straighten out the dial plastic.

Just wish I could get better sensitivity out of it. Anyone got some tips on this?

Click on the thumb to enlarge.



Rich

Yeah, use that Sony in the background!!
Seriously, that did turn out beautiful and what is that Sony model?

Turned out beautifully!

Gene

mbird97x wrote:Yeah, use that Sony in the background!!
Seriously, that did turn out beautiful and what is that Sony model?

Thanks!

ICF-5900W.

Rich

Wow. Nice job on the polishing! What do you use to get it to look like that? Buffing compound?

Nice looking bakelite there Rich. To me there's nothing more beautiful than polished bakelite. I use Meguiar's PlastX clear plastic cleaner and polish on my bakelite RCA 45rpm record players. It removes oxidation and puts a wonderful gloss on the bakelite and it's easy to use. I get it in the automotive department at Wal-Mart.

Nothing cleans a polishes bakelite like Brasso...hands down. No buffing and sweating and rubbing and rubbing. Just smear it on and wipe it off. Bam. I've used everything.


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david

hmmm.. who would've known plain ole' Carnuba wax would work so well? I tell you what I might try next time I get a bakelite set is this wax I got on sale that's made for campers. Its Meguires, but is a lot heavier and contains a lot more caranuba. I used it on both mine and my Wife's vehicles, which are both pretty old, and they looked like mirrors afterward. Bet it'd do a number on radios too.

Thanks for the compliments! I use Meguires 3-step system for the cars, paint cleaner, polish, then wax. I use the paint cleaner only to do Bakelite. Any wax I've tried left a whitish sheen on any Bakelite radios I did, so I won't use wax. After the paint cleaner it's good old lemon Pledge.

Rich

First: Very nice job; it looks great.

Second: Thanks for those other tips. I am not proud to say that I know to wax the car but never seem to get around to it.

It looks great.

Lee

Very sweet li'l Zenith there! It does look wonderful. Finding it interesting to see what everyone's suggestions for polishing up the Bakelite are. When my H723 arrived, it looked great. I asked the seller what he used, and he said just Armor-All. Immediately noticed that every single fingerprint and swipe shows up mercilessly, and it attracts dust like a magnet. Seems there are as many different ideas about getting Bakelite to shine as there were Zenith models!