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Old 5th Dec 2005, 1:26 pm   #1
GJR 11L
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Join Date: May 2004
Location: Ellington, Northumberland, UK.
Posts: 815
Default GEC Transistor Seven (BC505) tidied up a bit.

Well, here are the threatened pictures of my BC505, the set that came "untested due to not having correct (PP9) battery!"
As I have already stated in another forum area, the set actually works perfectly, but as all the best eBay finds, the thing was filthy when it arrived.
First of all the chassis had to be removed from the cabinet, a task made no easier by having three delicate, reluctant and already cracked perspex discs to remove from the spindles. Unlike the Bush TR82s and their ilk, this set's tuning pointers are painted onto the brass dial background, a perspex disc carries the station names and wavelength markings, that disc is geared down by a little epicyclic device, รก la TR82, from the outer perspex disc which is turned for tuning and attaches to the inner of the concentric spindles.
Needless to say that although the outer covers came off without problems, using a flat bootlace to lift them from beneath, the inner dial on the tuning mechanism already had a repaired crack running from its hub to outer edge, and the only way in which I could persuade it free was by drilling a 2mm hole down the hub section parallel to the spindle. The wretched thing cracked anyway, so was stuck back together with solvent-based glue, if a better one had appeared in the meanwhile I could abandon it, but this way the glue could at least set properly while I set to removing all the brass trim.

The handle was a swine to get off too! nuts inside the cabinet had to be removed, the screws then tapped upwards sufficiently far to allow the brass ends to be slid off the strap. Then the screw heads were accessible and off came the handle and its spring.

Next came the clean up, and I kid you not, had this set not sounded so good I would have given up when this stage came!
A scouring cream that contains bleach was poured into a saucer and allowed to stand until it became pasty, then this was applied to the rexine and the delicate flock front covering with a softish nailbrush.
The covering on these sets is a beige rexine with a pattern marked out in a darker colour, like the beige versions of the Hacker RP10 Herald.
I had to scrub the dirt away, most of the dark pattern came out with it. Oh bottom! Not daunted by the task ahead, well, not much, I tryed a technique that works well for me in these situations. I dipped a stiff shoebrush into some dark tan shoe polish, worked this into the rexine with the brush, then wiped it over with a soft, yellow cloth which my lady informs me is something called a "duster?" This took the polish off the high spots, leaving it behind in the places where originally was dark detail. Result!

There are some places where the rexine is worn away, so I will eventually attend to those when I have some light tan shoe cream.
The knob brights were originally concave on this model, but the Roberts-style ones I turned last year have a flat base, deliberately left rough from the parting-off tool to key the glue. I therefore had to fit a pair of my Roberts brights the right way round, meaning that they are actually convex now. Not original I know, but judge for yourselves whether the effect works.

I just bought another of these great little sets on eBay, that one has audio problems but I don't think I'll be robbing it for the parts needed to make the 1st one original, they deserve better and this one got it!

Roll the pics: (Including a couple of "before" pics that actually make the set look cleaner than it was!)
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Old 5th Dec 2005, 7:03 pm   #2
howard
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Location: Godalming, Surrey, UK.
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Default Re: GEC Transistor Seven (BC505) tidied up a bit.

Hello Phil,

Youre a brave man attempting the restoration of one of these, I was recently offered two, one the valve version and one like this ... both had woodworm so I didnt acquire them even though both worked well ......
It looks a great deal better than when you first got it and these GECs sound quite good too, well done !

Howard
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