Ferguson 382U Firefly

[Mort1965]

When I bought this Ferguson 382U “Firefly” it was looking a bit rusty and sorry for itself, most of this model seem to rust on the middle gold bar which had spread to the speaker cloth. I only heard a light hum and nothing else when initially tested on the lamp limiter.

The original mains lead which had extra cable twisted on with black tape obviously to reach the socket, and its obligatory 13A fuse were replaced, I’ve yet to find one with the correct fuse in! I was also impressed by the sheer amount of dust inside it too!

I started internally by changing the usual wax, hunts, and a couple of electrolytic capacitors, changing from the manufacturers sheet C46, C49,C50,C51,C52,C53,C54,C70,C71,and C72 from the manufacturers service sheet. C47,C55, and C56, the smoothing and reservoir capacitors in the can also needed changing so were replaced with separate capacitors along with associated resistors R24 and R30.

I decided to try and save the speaker cloth, so removed it, cleaned it, then refitted stretching a little to hide the marks at the bottom. Once I had sanded the top of the gold bar, my partner Sue painted it gold and spruced up the Ferguson badge for me.

I was pleased I was able to disguise some light scratches on the top of the Bakelite case with a fine paint pen, and the case polished up well with Brasso and polish. I repainted the inner cream of the case that was dull and scratched.

Issues on start up were quickly resolved with a spare UL84 valve, and I was impressed how well the radio worked on all 3 wavebands, an external aerial really boosted its performance as well.

I still need one knob bright to complete, but I really enjoyed restoring this radio back to working condition, cheers, Phil

[Wellington]

Very nice

[newlite4]

Ideal kitchen set, well worth saving, nice one,
Neil

[JoshWard]

I do like the look of these Fergusons. I have a 382U in the dining room and a 384U in the kitchen. The 384U uses the main body of the 382U cabinet. I have a 382U in my scrap pile, so probably have a replacement knob. I'll take a look and let you know!

[Mort1965]

Thank you for the comments, and thank you Josh,

The 382U appears to be a radio that must of been popular as a lot of people seem to remember them, I also have a 384U, but its teetering between the to do pile and scrap pile as the front dial glass is broken

[Paul Stenning]

Nice job. The decent size speaker in these definitely helps.

There do seem to be a lot of these and the 384U still around as you say so they must have sold well and been reliable when in common use.

Originally Posted by Mort1965

I also have a 384U, but its teetering between the to do pile and scrap pile as the front dial glass is broken

It would be worth testing it, especially the state of the piano-key switches as these can be a problem, before hunting for a new dial glass.