Bush VTR103 restored
 

Some purists out there would take issue with me for painting this , but I like it and would now give it house room , It did need a cabinet repair the usual chips out of the back etc , all the hunts capacitors replaced all but one of the transistors replaced , most of the electrolytics replaced , The AF139 mixer /osc in the VHF tuner gave a strange fault it worked fine , but when tuning it sounded like a noisy tuning capacitor , the transistor was actually microphonic .Originally It was the brown and cream one yuck, I stained the brown sides with some dark blue shoe dye .

Re: Bush VTR103 restored
 

I like to keep things original if I can, but that seems to have come out very well. From here, the finish looks very nice indeed - any special treatment (undercoats/rub-downs) involved or did you just lunge at it with a spray can?

Re: Bush VTR103 restored
 

That's certainly a nice finish, though the mismatch between the case and the handle looks a bit odd to my eyes. Maybe you could spray the handle too?

I think it's fine to repaint cabinets which have deteriorated and can't be easily restored, such as where cream plastic has suffered UV yellowing. If you're going to paint them then you might as well choose a finish you like.

What transistor did you use to replace the AF139?

Re: Bush VTR103 restored
 

I used the faulty AF114 or was it 5 not sure but in the past someone had chopped the screen lead very short I did manage to solder a wire to the stub , cleared the short using the voltage method connect the b/e /c together apply 30volts short gone for how long ! don't know , a good tip here don't use high voltage ie 150v tried it twice now two totally duff transistors , they tested ok before apart from screen short .

To answer Paul query regarding the handle , The pic does not show the proper colour metallic grey I thought all most any colour goes with grey,I did paint the handle a nice contrasting cream also the knobs and the push buttons and trim .

The case was repaired with car body filler a good wash, rub down with wet and dry , plastic primed then two top coats , just need to buy a micro tip fibre pen for the lettering was it worth it hours and hours of work , to me yes it was . Mick.

Re: Bush VTR103 restored
 

You're right, it looks fine in the later photos.

I'm not sure I would have used a dewhiskered AF11x in these circumstances as I never trust them, but if the radio is for your own use then it will be easy enough to fix any future problems.

Nice job.