Vintage rigs

[Ve3ids Don]

Anyone working on restoring vintage rigs? I have been doing a few over the past couple years and they are not that difficult to get working for the most part. The most recent is a Yaesu FT-101ZD mklll that I picked up on kwarc. It was untested, quite dirty and fortunately low priced. The face wasn't scratched up but the case needed painting. The knob inserts which originally are silver, were bronze from nicotine stains and the rest of the rig was grimy under dust and dirt. It cleaned up quite well and I repainted the cabinet with Rustoleum Winter Grey. I steel wooled the cabinet to remove the rust and glaze but I left the pebble texture in the original finish. The new top coat still shows the texture. Inside, I cleaned all the switches, pots, band switch wafers, relay contacts and all the harness connectors with deoxit. I had to net the trimmer for the display counter so it reads accurately. I have been using it for a few weeks now and it works great! It is great fun to use a piece of gear that you have brought back to life from the junk pile. Here is a before shot
73 Don ve3ids