1956 Studebaker Commander Questions.

[Frank DuVal]

On 9/9/2023 at 12:53 AM, noacronym said:

They didn't have metallic in 1956, best I know.

Any car, or Studebaker? Well, wrong either way.  Look at several poly colors listed for 1956 Studies:

 

https://www.autocolorlibrary.com/pages/1956-Studebaker.html

 

Metallic paint has been available since ~1930 on cars.

 

 

On 9/9/2023 at 1:39 PM, noacronym said:

I doubt that a car radio would even have an RF amp.

Because everyone lived in the city?  Ha!  Car radios are some of the best performing AM radios out there due to the RF amplifier stage(es). I agree, you have to look for music on AM nowadays. Glad there is an RF amp to pull in 740 (CFZM) from Toronto for Zoomer (Boomer) music or 650 (WSM) out of Nashville for the old country and western and many smaller stations around still offer some music. 

 

Rider's manuals are available on line, and they include lots of car radios up to ~1953. See Nostalgia Air. After that is Sam's Photofacts and their Auto Radio series.

 

WA4CWM

I see no reason to get a shorter call sign. I'm nostalgic for these old WA series ones. Was WN for a while.... waaaay back.

Edited September 15, 2023 by Frank DuVal (see edit history)

[noacronym]

2 minutes ago, Frank DuVal said:

Any car, or Studebaker? Well, wrong either way.  Look at several poly colors listed for 1956 Studies:

 

https://www.autocolorlibrary.com/pages/1956-Studebaker.html

 

Metallic paint has been available since ~1930 on cars.

 

 

Because everyone lived in the city?  Ha!  Car radios are some of the best performing AM radios out there due to the RF amplifier stage(es). I agree, you have to look for music on AM nowadays. Glad there is an RF amp to pull in 740 (CFZM) from Toronto for Zoomer (Boomer) music or 650 (WSM) out of Nashville for the old country and western and many smaller stations around still offer some music. 

 

Rider's manuals are available on line, and they include lots of car radios up to ~1953. See Nostalgia Air. After that is Sam's Photofacts and their Auto Radio series.

Well at 66, I'm STILL not going to hang out a shingle on the internet and load myself up with radio repairs. Could I do it? Yes. And live the rest of my days in a cluttered house with million repair jobs on my plate. At 66, my days are numbered. It would only be a disservice to MANY when I die, and they can't get back their radio. My working life was spent in a filthy dungeon fighting printing equipment, with radio repair on my mind a good bit of the time. I was a good printer who could get beautiful work off worn out machinery that should have been scrapped before I was born. But now, to fill my house up with radios beloging to you good people at this age, with a heart attack under my belt, would be a disservice to the craft and unfair to the owners. Too many people would never see their radio again, and not even have a number to call or write to to get it back.

[noacronym]

This thread drifted from my original question. It happens on these sorts of sites. Staying "on topic" is not always easy. On the subject of radio repair: 1) get the paperwork. 2) cut out all capacitors 1 at the time and replace, 3)Test after every 3 replaced parts. 4) check resistors with cheap multimeter, in circuit. Oddly enough against conventional wisdom,  a lot of resistors can be measured in circuit. You will find about a 60% replacement rate on them. Tubes are last. Very few are so terribly bad that they must be replaced. I find tubes to be the least of my problems. I could write a book on parts replacement, but the moral would be to cut out parts and leave pigtails still factory soldered to their lugs. Use J hooks or coils wound on a 1.2mm screwdriver shaft to splice in new caps and resistors. Cloth covered wiring  left undisturbed may be brittle, but still quite effective and reliable. Many times this work alone will yield a workable radio. For better work, radio study and a good RF generator or cheap Chinese function generator set on sine wave output can yield a nice job. Never attempt to wash the silk screened side of the dial glass. The numbers wipe  right off. You can do this. I restored my first radio in about 1982. I can still count my defeats on one hand. Pay attention, think it though,  and think of damage due to your own mistakes BEFOREhand. You'll surprise yourself when you power it up and it actually works, and you didn't even need people like me to send it off to. Regards, KN4SMF

[8E45E]

6 hours ago, Frank DuVal said:

Any car, or Studebaker? Well, wrong either way.  Look at several poly colors listed for 1956 Studies:

 

https://www.autocolorlibrary.com/pages/1956-Studebaker.html

 

Metallic paint has been available since ~1930 on cars.

I recall we discussed Graham as one of the first manufacturers that used metallic paint.  

 

 

Studebaker first used metallic paint starting in the 1935 model year.   Studebaker also referred to metallic finishes as 'Oplaescent' before the war.

 

Craig

[Frank DuVal]

Noa, I was never suggesting you go into the radio repair business. I was agreeing that on post 1953 models one would need to have the Sam's publications (or the factory manuals) to do service work.

 

I was saying they have RF stages and metallic paint.

 

66 better be young! I'm past that point!🤣

[noacronym]

15 minutes ago, Frank DuVal said:

Noa, I was never suggesting you go into the radio repair business. I was agreeing that on post 1953 models one would need to have the Sam's publications (or the factory manuals) to do service work.

 

I was saying they have RF stages and metallic paint.

 

66 better be young! I'm past that point!🤣

You know what I've found over the years? Sams is a great thing to have, but BEWARE. The typos lurk everywhere and they can kill you. Since I've never actually worked on a car radio, I only surmised that cost cutting measures on the part of those maufacturers were much the same as all-America 5 manufacturers. No power Xformer, and straight to converter on the front end, and cut one tube. Factory manuals are a good thing in their own right, but they can be quite a headbang. Sams took the radio apart and made them a paint-by-numbers set for dummies. But those typos and omissions are a real head scratcher. Somebody suggested I hang a radio shingle. But no. That's 2 stents talking. I could kick the bucket any day. Can you just imagine the fellows out there running into a brick wall like THAT, wanting their radio back? It wouldn't be right. I've already helped widows of radio and camera guys sort out rat poop from saleble gear. A man's got to know his limitations. Don't take on a job if you don't have a reasonable expectation of living long enough to hear the customer was happy.

[Frank DuVal]

The big guys, like Delco and Philco that were OEM probably did cost cut to an extent, but they charged a LOT  for their product because it had designs to work in a car environment. From next to the 500 KW WLW transmitter towers to the middle of nowhere out west, very few ever produced with a local /distance switch (those came a lot on cheap aftermarket radios starting in the mid 70s). With a 4 to 16 cylinder spark transmitter a few feet away. And enough volume with the top down at 60 MPH. 

 

Examples of list price on sticker: 

1959 Chevrolet Manual (not pushbutton)  $53.80

1956 Chevrolet signal seeking radio    $137.75

1962 Nova Push Button radio   $56.50

1964 Chevrolet AM/FM radio  $176.50

 

More than the cheap AA5!