[Nickthedentist]

I'm currently working on a Bakelite Pilot Major Maestro, which was given to me as a birthday present by my brother, bought from an antiques centre kind of place.

It was gleaming on the outside, but rusty as anything inside.

My thoughts were that it was probably a shed find, and that the stallholder had painstakingly cleaned and polished the case, selling it merely as a decorative piece. If it had been the version with a wooden cabinet, I suspect it would have been just a pile of delaminated plywood.

It's amazing how quickly some chassis etc. will rust if left undercover but in an unheated space. I left a couple of NOS transformers in our wooden car port for a few weeks in the autumn, and they went from as-new to rather rusty. Not surprising really, as the car regularly had condensation on it.