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Old 29th Jun 2019, 3:14 pm   #1
Beardyman
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Default Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

A very good (and hot!) afternoon to one & all.
I acquired this set via a well known auction site for about £20 inc postage. I just liked the look of it, the chap selling it admitted he had had it running but then there was a loud bang & it all went quiet! Not an auspicious start.
The bakelite case was dull but with a little polishing paste No. 5 it came up well. The paint work on the raised parts of the facia had seen better days with numerous chips/scratches & dinks. Some cellulose paint thinner got that off in short order. Hours spent masking it up, respraying & then finding the paint had 'bled' under the edge of the tape! A soft cloth, patience & a tiny amount of thinners got a nice line around the whole thing. The dial glass (once cleaned & polished) looks like new. The knobs, however, were a different story. Many years of twiddling & probably with wet paint on their fingers at some point had left them very grubby. I hit on an idea, common or garden liquid soap removes most contaminants from hands so why not plastic? I put the knobs in a tooth glass with 4 squirts of soap then topped up with water. Left them soaking overnight then, with an old toothbrush, they came up like new?! Who knew! A little metal polish to the metal rings & they were done. The clear plastic skirts around the knobs were originally glued but the soap had softened it sufficiently to allow the old glue to be easily removed & fresh glue to be applied. The chassis & inside of the case were covered in a thick layer of very fine dust & the secretions of wax capacitors, it makes a special kind of gunk. After checking all the valve filaments & finding them intact I then explored a little further. The original smoothing cap (dated 1959) showed no signs of distress/leakage, a quick check on the capacitance meter confirmed it was worth reforming. Most of the rubber covered wire had crumbled & was replaced. Both scale bulbs blown & a 30R WW in the return circuit had been blown to bits, this was caused by a 0.05uF cap across the mains that had gone short circuit, . ALL the waxy capacitors were way out as were the handful of Hunts moulded caps, most of those were split open. A few resistors (mostly the higher values over 100K) were as much as 50% out. The wavechange switch looked in pretty good condition so a pre-emptive squirt of Servisol switch cleaner was all it needed. Next was the tuning mechanism, more precisely the dried out grease. I've found that 3-in-1 will soften it sufficiently to remove easily. I then re-applied very sparingly a silicone based grease. This got everything moving much more easily. There was no signs that the phantom twiddler had been at large which is a good thing! Next was to apply power via a lamp limiter, nothing, not a sausage. Ammeter in line with set, no current drawn, hmmmm. You've probably already guessed that the mains switch had taken the brunt of the damage. Once taken apart & seeing the contacts were a bit worse for wear there ensued a fair bit of fettling! Successful fettling I might add. Back on the lamp limiter & for what seemed like an age nothing much happened. Then the scale lights began to glow, filaments coming up, finally a feint hint of life. No smoke, always good! On full mains all the wave bands work well on the internal aerials, I could even get Radio 4 on LW, none of my other radios can tune that in as well as this one. FM performance is good, audio clear with plenty of bass. It's on the bench now tuned to Angel Radio & sounding good. As a project it was one of the more straightforward ones but very pleasing nonetheless.
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Old 29th Jun 2019, 3:59 pm   #2
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Default Re: Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

Lovely example of sympathetic restoration and a really nice usable set too. One tip if you have a similar paint job in future is to use modellers' masking tape rather than the standard stuff which tends to allow the bleeding you experienced. It's a bit more expensive but well worth it for this kind of thing.

Alan
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Old 29th Jun 2019, 10:49 pm   #3
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Default Re: Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

Well done, another lovely old set rescued. Valve FM radios have an amazing sound.
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Old 30th Jun 2019, 11:19 am   #4
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Default Re: Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

Thanks for the tip regarding modellers masking tape Alan, much appreciated. I honestly didn't know there was such a thing. We have a couple of model shops here in Portsmouth so next time I'm down that way I'll enquire.

I have to agree with you martin.m, these sets do have a lovely tone to them although Radio 1 coming out of an old set seems a little odd at times! I have a VHF81 as well which sounds just as good if not better.
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Old 30th Jun 2019, 1:29 pm   #5
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Default Re: Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

You have made a brilliant job of that! Well worth saving. I like the Am- FM Bush sets built around this time they were well made for the price IMHO.

Rich.
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Old 30th Jun 2019, 5:02 pm   #6
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Default Re: Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

Wow that looks absolutely lovely- and a good story too.

Very well done indeed!

Steve
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Old 3rd Jul 2019, 10:01 am   #7
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Default Re: Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

Lovely job, it looks as if it's just arrived new from the factory, I have two of these but struggle to get decent FM on both of them.
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Old 3rd Jul 2019, 10:11 am   #8
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Default Re: Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

You have done a great job there. It probably looks as good as it did when it left the factory.
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Old 3rd Jul 2019, 4:15 pm   #9
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Default Re: Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

In my area we are quite lucky to have a number of strong FM stations but just for the experience I got hold of one of those indoor dipole jobs & hooked it up in place of the internal loop. Even though the aerial is nowhere near a good impedance match it made a significant difference. Not only was the radio able to pull in weaker stations but it also made a difference to the clarity of the stronger ones. It cost about a fiver I think, perhaps less?
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Old 3rd Jul 2019, 6:38 pm   #10
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Default Re: Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

We have strong FM stations here too, but I find even just my random sized curtain-rail dipole makes a marked improvement over any internal antenna. They were probably much more acceptable back in the days of less interference and less buildings to block/bounce signals around, but a half decent dipole should bring things up to standard unless there's a gremlin still hiding in there.
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Old 4th Jul 2019, 10:19 am   #11
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Default Re: Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

That's come up lovely, a set to be proud of

Always had a soft-spot for these. Just looking at it, I can imagine what it sounds like ...

We have a VHF61 in the kitchen (due it's annual inspection/clean) and that fills the downstairs of the house with ease, Christmas preparations wouldn't be the same without it!

Mark
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Old 9th Sep 2019, 10:14 am   #12
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Default Re: Bush VHF70 back from the dead........

One post moved to a new thread here:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...d.php?t=159618
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