Crosley 10-135 (circa 1950)

This cool little bakelite radio came from a yard sale near my home, and needed a bit of cleaning up and alignment.  Crosley sold this model in several colors in 1950, and the photos i’ve seen of museum-quality pieces show this particular color was a bright, appliance white.  This one was in great condition with 66 years worth of grime but no cracks or chips.

  1. Removed knobs (this was a challenge; they pull off but had gotten stuck until i put some cloth around the back of the knobs and lifted them away from the case)
  2. After removing the chassis and the tubes, used a stiff bristle brush to remove dust, and alcohol dissoved and helped remove grime.  After detailing, I oiled the chassis to prevent corrosion.  It ended up looking like new.
  3. There were  tubes:  50C5, 35W4, 12AT6, 12BE6, and 6BJ6. All were Crosley-branded and all tested good!
  4. Replaced all 7 electrolytic caps.  There was a multi-section cap under the chassis, a filter cap rated 10/30/100 uF at 150V.  This tested bad and was replaced with a new “firecracker” style with similar values.
  5. Chassis and design are very conventional.  Volume control was inside a box to prevent dust, and sure enough it was not scratchy.  Since this was stapled in place, I left it alone.  The dial assembly was just a simple dial cord to a brass pulley that the pointer rides on.  This is very sturdy.  The knobs are nicely made, cast metal and chrome plated.
  6. The cabinet is a molded plastic or bakelite, with spray painted finish.  This cleaned up nicely inside and out, using Windex.  I did a little polishing on the top surface to remove a bit of abrasion.  The original had 4 white rubber feet on the bottom that had dissolved into a mess.  These were removed and replaced with 4 black rubber ½” feet.  This worked out just right.  Cleaned the knobs with windex.  The original white line cord was in decent condition, so I left it intact, but cleaned it.
  7. Chassis was plugged into variac and slowly brought up to voltage over an hour or so.  It powered up fine.  Only a bit of alignment was needed.  It’s not very sensitive, but works well enough.  The loop antenna on the back seemed a bit too complicated.
  8. Re-assembled everything, and enjoy.

Tim McVey 2/27/2016

Chassis and antenna before restoration
Note the tuning mechanism.
A peek under the chassis, before restoration
Cabinet was in great condition even before cleaning and waxing.
Inside view of cabinet
Factory label on bottom of cabinet
Restored chassis back inside cabinet
Back panel in place
All finished!

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