Hallicrafters SX-111 Final Assembly and Operation

 Before...

 

 

 After!

 

In previous blogs I described repairing a knob, preparing to strip the face plate, and face plate painting / lettering / pin striping / and clear coating, and restoration of the knobs and face plate bezels. She's all finished and playing like new. In earlier videos below, I mentioned trying to repair and retain the original face plate paint, but that didn't happen. No matter what I did, I kept finding rust, and I just wasn't happy about that. In the end, I'm extremely happy with the result and glad I spend the extra tie on this sweetheart of a radio! Check out the videos below to see bits and pieces of testing and restoration.

Links to various videos of the process...

- Beginning checkout and restoration the SX-111

- Investigating AVC action issue... Discussing cosmetic stuff I changed my mind on later...

- More debugging, on SSB

- Even more debugging, on AM

- Recapping underway, still debugging...

- 1st Vid in shop after reassembly 

- Online in Studio A, on the 68 Group net on 40m SSB 

- Online in Studio A, discussing work done, on Southcars net 7.251 

- Another vid on 7.251 Southcars in Studio A, showing dampened S-meter action

- Online in Studio A, demonstrating the Notch operation 

73

Dave WB4IUY

www.WB4IUY.net

Hallicrafters SX-111 Knobs and Cabinet Trim Restoration

In previous blogs I described repairing a knob, preparing to strip the face plate, and faceplate painting / lettering / pin striping / and clear coating. Now it is time to restore the knobs and face plate bezels. 

The knobs were disassembled...that is to say that I removed the rear trim ring that has the font engraved for various settings and values. Using a Dremel Tool, a buffing pad, and Flitz metal polish, I slowly buffed each ring and polished them until that were almost to a mirror finish. The center "brites" (reflective center part) in the knobs were edge cleaned with #0000 steel wool, and polished in the same was as the rear escutcheons. The horizontal trim plates were polished by hand to protect the original Hallicrafters lettering. There was a little wear on that lettering and I wanted to retain as much of it as possible. Here's a few pics from that process...

Completing the Hallicrafters SX-111 Face Plate Restoration

 Once the electrical restoration was completed, it was time for the really heavy lifting...cosmetic stuff. In previous blogs I described repairing a knob, and preparing to strip the face plate. Photos were taken of the lettering and words on the front, measurements made of the location of the words and the pinstripe, and dimensions documenting the two tone paint scheme. Then, the fun began. Here's a batch of photos of the face plate work, mostly in reverse order...

 

Here's a pic of the finished front panel, ready for installation!

Here's a look at the pin stripe I hand painted on the face. That was a first for me, and since I did it after applying the lettering, I was pretty nervous about this step :-)

Here, the front panel has been sprayed, had the lettering and pin stripe applied, and awaiting a couple of coats of clear matte spray to protect everything.

A photo of the front panel with the lettering applied, awaiting the pin stripe application.

Meanwhile, the cabinet was taking shape. Here is is after sanding, filling, primer, and color being applied. 

 

Cabinet in primer, drying in the sun.

 

The cabinet being sanded, having rust removed, and prepped for filler & primer.

A test fit of the dial lens, after the two-tone paint was applied. 

Lower section sprayed gray...

Face being taped off to spray gray on lower section.

 

Whole face plate sprayed in black...

 

Face in primer, after sanding away all of the rust and old paint, filling the pitting, and prep.

 

Dave WB4IUY

www.WB4IUY.net

Hallicrafters SX-111 Faceplate...

I'm about to refinish the faceplate of a Hallicrafters SX-111 I'm restoring. I was hoping to retain as much of the original petina as possible, but there's way too much rust to allow me to sleep at night :-) This radio sat in a damp place many years. The electrical restoration wasn't difficult, but I want it to look good as well. I was able to locate the last 3 packs of Datamark white lettering in the new company owner's warehouse, so I'm sanding it down and starting over. 

Along with white, 1/8" tall lettering, there's a 1/16" wide white pinstripe all the way around the faceplate. I have a custom pin striping person that used to do work on my custom motorcycles, I'm going to try and talk him into that for me :-) Here's pics of the horrible face condition, just before sanding, filling, and priming work starts...

Dave WB4IUY 

Wb4iuy.net

Repairing a Hallicrafters SX-111 Knob

 There was a piece broken out of the edge of the knob. Considering the age of this radio from the early 60's, I decided to try to repair it.

 

I made a little form to follow along the inner curve of the knob with tape. A small bit of 5-minute epoxy was built up in this area and allowed to harden over night.

 

I removed the tape, and sanded the outer curve and edge of the knob to match. Using a Dremel tool with a cut-off disc and a jewelers file, I replicated the grooves in the outer surface. After cleaning, it's now ready for a little touch up color to match, once I get that mixed.

 

  

Dave WB4IUY

http://www.WB4IUY.net