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Old 19th Oct 2006, 6:49 pm   #1
howard
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Default 1970 RP37A Hacker Herald VHF in blue

Hello,

At last I've finished this Herald VHF which I bought at the last Wootton Bassett meet a few months back. I've restored one of these before but this one in blue is much nicer than the black one

This one didn't work at all well, it sounded very distorted, and that was fixed first by Ron Bryan, who quickly found and replaced a dead capacitor in the amp board and after that it sounded wonderful again

Cosmetically this one was quite good, it was a bit dirty with bits of black paint on it, one of the black battery stops on the rear door was missing, the hinge door was rusty (as usual and one can't do much with those), one push button had been repaired, the rexine was missing off the handle, the rear grille was falling off and the front grille was dull and a lot of its black paint had flaked off. A typical 1970 Hacker methinks In its favour, the edges around the blue tuning scale were almost free from loss of paint and there were no tears or nicks in any part of the blue leathercloth. Good

I took the perspex dial off, and then cleaned that, the knobs and the rest of the case in upholstery cleaner and toothbrush, the small specks of black paint needed a gentle scrub with a brillo pad to shift. I replaced the dial and knobs.

I cleaned up the handle and replaced the leathercloth on the handle with a new strip of blue leathercloth of almost the same shade of blue, just a hint darker but the pattern was spot on. I did try and mix up some paint to match the handle with the case but I gave up. The leathercloth I mounted on very thick double sided tape, so it has a slightly spongy feel.

The rear grille fell off, so I carefully removed the black cotton sheet from behind it, gave the grille a good scrub, trimmed a little leathercloth from around each of the holes in the back, carefully stuck the black sheet back onto the grille with Pritt Stick and then stuck the grille back onto the rear cover with fast drying araldite, which I worked into the holes with a braddle.
I replaced the black rubber stop on the inside of the door with one from a scrap Sovereign II.

The grille I first polished up in duraglit and it came up shiny again. However a lot of paint had flaked off of it so I decided to repaint it. To do that I first stuck on Tamiya masking tape along the edges of the existing paint - this is much thinner (and considerably more expensive) than normal masking tape but is perfect for this application. I then loaded a brush of suitable size with Tamiya matt black acrylic paint and painted along each of the black areas. As soon as it was all on, off came the tape and the grille was restored

I like these Herald VHFs (I have three) and especially this blue version. This one is very smart now, it works as it should and it has a nice warm sound quality and will play quite loud I will keep my eye open for a better matching rexine for the handle (unlikely) and maybe a rust free hinge (unlikely !), also a replacement push button (unlikely), but when I find some suitable sponge I will sort out the saggy front cover, but none these minor faults really affect the appearance of this nice old Hacker

Howard
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Last edited by howard; 19th Oct 2006 at 7:03 pm.
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Old 20th Oct 2006, 5:02 pm   #2
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Default Re: 1970 RP37A Hacker Herald VHF in blue

Hello again,

The rear grille fell off The araldite didn't adhere to the rear grille at all well so I dabbed some superglue onto the five pins with a screwdriver and put it back and that did the trick

Howard
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Old 20th Oct 2006, 5:28 pm   #3
Mike Phelan
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Default Re: 1970 RP37A Hacker Herald VHF in blue

Nice job, as usual, Howard.
The colour scheme is very attractive, as well.
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Old 21st Oct 2006, 7:45 am   #4
howard
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Default Re: 1970 RP37A Hacker Herald VHF in blue

Thanks Mike,

It is a nice one and sounds particularly good too .... Ron liked this one so I gave it to him for all the work he's done on my radios

Howard
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Old 21st Oct 2006, 12:04 pm   #5
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Default Re: 1970 RP37A Hacker Herald VHF in blue

Hello again,

And another blue Hacker Herald VHF (an earlier RP37) arrived this morning in a poor state, dented grille, black and white paint specks all over it, two dead PP9s in it dated 1994, rexine peeling off its handle, chrome trim missing off its handle, aerial seems to have lost all its chrome (or were RP37 aerials brass ?) and it's very dirty. Amazingly its rear grille is still firmly attached and there's no rust on its chrome hinge

It will reappear here soon in this column and it will be beautiful again

Howard
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Old 21st Oct 2006, 7:07 pm   #6
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Default Re: 1969 RP37 Hacker Herald VHF in blue

Hello again,

Eight hours work and my VHF Herald RP37 is done. The worst problem with this one was getting it clean, it really was filthy and I struggled removing the specks of paint off for about 3 hours. I took the grille off and pushed out the dent in it and put it back upside down (makes no difference) so theres no evidence of that repair when viewed from front or top, and is only just detectable when viewed from below. I cleaned and stuck the original leathercloth back down onto the handle with Evo Stik Timebond. The aerial polished up perfectly with some Brasso, despite being brass coloured on arrival. I replaced the missing chrome handle trim from a scrap set. Internally, all I did was clean the three pots and it works perfectly.

This one is totally original and in better condition than the blue RP37A and surprisingly, it was cheaper. So good in fact its near mint, its hardly been used, just neglected

Howard
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