I would like to repair this damaged Bakelite, advice please.

[MurphyNut]

When known for collecting old radios I’ve found I occasionally get a call at the front door and someone standing there offering me a sad old set.
These are mostly found in lofts or the clearing out elderly relative’s belongings. Much of the time items are not very interesting but this pretty little radio came my way yesterday (see pictures.)
It’s a Ferguson 203, I’ve always wanted one of these and was delighted, but alas the front is badly damaged and the broken off bits are long gone. Otherwise it’s not in bad condition.
I’m quite experienced with Bakelite but I have never tackled anything that need prefabrication on this level.
I would imagine a mould could be made from one of the good speaker louvers and somehow new parts made and set into the missing areas.
Has anyone done anything as involved as this or is it too difficult and not worth the bother?

[Ti Pwun]

I haven't done it myself but I have seen videos of people making a mould to do exactly that so I thought the same thing before I read your post. I think that would be the way to go.

Here's a link to John's video - he made a pretty good job of it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPJmqhaq7To

Not sure exactly which video he starts with the mould but it's in that series somewhere - you can see the damage in the above first video. There are many others but can't remember who made them.

[PJL]

Epoxy repair kit. It looks like a stick of rock. Cut the length you need and blend the inner/outer layers of the rock and you have a workable putty that sticks well to Bakelite and can be sanded easily. I used it for worse than that on my Philips 2514.

[Refugee]

I used that stick of rock stuff to make a mould that could be made to slip along the good bit of Bakelite by adding a little bit of oil to the good bit before wrapping the putty around it. You get a mould that slides along the good bit of Bakelite.
I did this to fix a Bakelite hinge. A bit of wire the right thickness also dipped in oil had to be added to create the hole for the hinge pin.

[PJL]

This Philips 2514 had been dropped some time ago by the looks of it and the side panel was in about 6 parts with about 25% missing which I recreated from epoxy repair putty. I put a blob of putty on card, applied a bit of oil, and took a mould of the surface finish so I could reproduce it on the new material. I did use various metal strips and clamps to provide support and it took more than one application to complete the job.

The main problem is that it starts hardening quite quickly and then needs to be left or you will end up in a mess as I did with my first attempt. The good news is it can be worked with a knife and sanding is quick so it's better to leave too much material than fuss over accuracy when you first apply it.

I could have spent more time on finishing as it still has a couple of indentations but the radio is far from perfect so I am happy the way it is (most importantly it works!).

[Phil G4SPZ]

Thin Bakelite strips can be replicated using tinplate sheet bent around a suitably-shaped former, then painted to match. I've seen the end results of others' work, but never done it myself!