1947 Philips 371U AC/DC mains 5 valve MW/LW/SW table radio

[howard]

Hello again,

I won this set at the last BVWS Wootton Bassett auction and there was a lot of interest in it and it sold for over £20. On the the outside it looked good with a nice shiny mottled dark brown bakelite cabinet but when I got it home and took a look inside, it was a shambles, indeed this is probably the worst previously "restored" radio that I have ever encountered. All its original tubular capacitors had been replaced with what looked like reclaimed radial capacitors which had been soldered precariously onto the original wires, replacement electrolytics had been superglued onto the chassis, there were bits missing, there was superglue smeared all over the spire clips supporting the loudspeaker and glass dial cover, black paint dabbed all over the chassis, parts broken including three paxolin tagboards and I later found that the loudspeaker had been butchered . This set was a big disappointment and I very nearly binned its chassis in disgust but it's now back in excellent condition but it sure has cost me a lot of time and money, most of which was not spent restoring the set but repairing the damage done to it by its previous owner.

This case is shared with several continental Philips models, notably the Dutch built 4 valve BX373A and 5 valve BX370U, but the 371U has a British built chassis and a complement of 5 Mullard octal valves, CCH35, EF39, EBC33, CL33 and CY31 rectifier. Although built after WWII the cabinet and dial design is art-deco influenced and they are rather nice sets to behold. The Dutch BX370U is IMHO the nicest and the most sought after of them all and came in a white cabinet and has a complement of the then newly developed rimlock valves. I've already restored one of these, a 371A AC mains version which looks identical except it's in a lighter brown cabinet. This 371U was not working on arrival, not even its dial light lit up.

I discovered that there was power in the set but not to the valve filaments and that was due to an open circuit dial bulb holder so that was replaced with an exact replacement and the correct bulb fitted and the set started to work, just. The CCH35 was falling apart and when touched crackled loudly and as the EF39 and EBC33 weren't original Mullards, I replaced all three with NOS original Mullard valves as they were as cheap as chips and the gain improved significantly. All the replacement capacitors were removed and the tags all cleaned up and new axial capacitors fitted. The original two 32uF smoothing capacitors were still in place but disconnected and had been replaced underneath by an electrolytic superglued to the chassis and another one shoved horizontally into one of the vertically mounted tag strips (which had been broken). Those and the original capacitors were all removed. I keep continental 32uF 450v screw mount can capacitors made by F&T but they are just a touch too big to fit through the chassis holes in this UK set so using a conical cutter the holes were cut to 18mm in diameter and the new capacitors fitted and wired up. One other replacement electrolytic of the wrong value was found superglued to the chassis so that was replaced and a clip reinstated to hold it in place. I did a quick check through the critical resistors and found one that was way over spec and replaced it. The set was now working reasonably well but still not as well as it should so I took it over to Ron Bryan to take a look at.

Ron found five more resistors needed changing, two of them were wrong values. One odd feature of this set was that whenever an external aerial was plugged in, the set went quieter. There is a switch in the aerial socket (which I had cleaned) which when a suitably sized aerial plug is inserted disconnects the internal aerial (a piece of aluminium foil stuck onto the inside of the case) and brings into circuit an aerial coil. Close inspection of that coil revealed a fine wire hanging off so that was carefully soldered back in place and the external aerial then worked correctly, as did the set. The IF was checked and that was spot on. RF alignment was later performed.

The loudspeaker in the set rattled even on low volume and when it was inspected it was found that one of the three brackets supporting the spider had been ripped off so it was flapping about and a large hole in the cone under it had been glued up. There was no way that that could be repaired so I advertised on the forum for an original 140mm (6 inch) diameter replacement and Han (Gwarpy) offered me one and then sent it over from The Netherlands and it was a perfect fit and it works perfectly.

I cleaned the chassis with white spirit and scraped off all the back paint daubed all over it. A small bare patch was then painted over with grey paint. A paxolin trim fitted over the aerial and earth sockets was broken so I made up a new one from a piece of paxolin and fitted a couple of brass eyelets around the plug holes and fitted that. The broken tags were superglued back together. I removed the glass dial and loudspeaker baffle, removed all the superglue, and refitted them and replaced clips which were previously missing. Lastly I made up new paper straps which secure the mains lead.

The case thankfully was in good condition, although all its beige paint coachlines had been cleaned off so they were repainted and the case polished up with Brasso. A small piece had broken off the back cover so a new piece was spliced in. Two of the chassis screws were missing but I managed to replace them with a couple of new 2BA cheesehead screws. Grubscrews securing the knobs were missing too so those were replaced with 6 BAs with allen key heads.

This Philips 371U works quite well now, but not quite as well as some of my late 1940s sets. It works well enough on MW with its internal aerial but really comes to life on all bands with a long wire aerial attached. It sounds good though but what is nice about this set is its appearance, it is an attractive looking bakelite cased radio.

My thanks to Ron Bryan and Han for their help.

Howard

[vinrads]

Hi Howard it's a labour of love but what a radio it looks superb I don't think you would have really scraped it , look how clean the chassis is and the case perfect , well done with the restoration , Mick.

[howard]

Originally Posted by vinrads

Hi Howard it's a labour of love but what a radio it looks superb I don't think you would have really scraped it , look how clean the chassis is and the case perfect , well done with the restoration , Mick.

Hello Mick,

I used my thumbnail to scrape the black paint off the chassis The set did come up well, eventually.

Philips must have been a bit short of components when they built this set, apart from two wrong value resistors we found that that three 500pf mica capacitors joined together had been fitted in place of a 1500pf tubular specified (C13 in the Philips service manual) and one capacitor (C112) was completely missing.

Howard

[johnn]

I really like this one & the work done on it. Well done!
Ronnie Barker had one in his bedroom in "Open all Hours" ..... so that's OK
John

[JoshWard]

Very nice Howard

I have always loved the styling of these sets and currently have the AC version on my workbench which I bought last summer. The chassis is now done and I'm onto respraying the coachlines.
Did you spray or handpaint yours?

Josh.

[howard]

Originally Posted by JoshWard

............... I'm onto respraying the coachlines.
Did you spray or handpaint yours? Josh.

Hello Josh,

No need to spray in the coachlines. I use Polyvine Ivory acrylic enamel paint which is only around £1 from Homebase or B&Q etc. Clean out all the old paint (use Nitromors if necessary with a toothbrush), then apply the paint thickly with a brush into the groove, run your finger along the groove pushing the paint down into it. Wipe off the excess, leave to dry for an hour or so and then repeat. When it's dry carefully dampen any excess paint either side of the groove and scrape it off with your thumbnail. Finally polish around the groove with Brasso. It's a messy job but it isn't difficult to obtain a perfect result.

Howard

[JoshWard]

That's a nice job! I've already started spraying mine so I'll see how it comes out.

[Sideband]

Excellent job Howard. It really annoys me when classic radio's like this are butchered by people who shouldn't be let loose on them. Good result though and another rescued.



SB

[Rejectostat]

Originally Posted by howard

..... replacement electrolytics had been superglued onto the chassis, there were bits missing, there was superglue smeared all over the spire clips supporting the loudspeaker and glass dial cover....

I don't know about anyone else, but this is the first time I have heard of superglue being used to secure components to a chassis. One hopes that this is a one-off, and more sets with this kind of "restoration" won't start appearing at swapmeets.

Fine restoration, in contrast to the previous work.

[howard]

Originally Posted by Rejectostat

I don't know about anyone else, but this is the first time I have heard of superglue being used to secure components to a chassis. One hopes that this is a one-off, and more sets with this kind of "restoration" won't start appearing at swapmeets.

I hope not either.

Two other Philips sets won at the auction are the same, both with radial capacitors glued onto their chassis, as in the pics below. Same restorer I suspect .... I can't be bothered to do the top chassis but I have an untouched chassis in a damaged case to go in its case. All three sets had nice cases though.

This 371U worked out expensive largely due to the state it was in, two weeks work and over £60 spent in total and it's probably not worth that much.

Howard

[Andy - G8MNM]

Howard,

When is the radio restoration manual written by yourself being published?
Another fantastic restoration and a fine radio rescued from oblivion.

Andy

[Aerodyne]

Great restoration, Howard. A lovely looking Bakelite cabinet model, well worth the effort. I've got an incomplete one on my shelves awaiting restoration, but with brackets and other bits of metalwork, knobs and back missing it is a long way down the line.
-Tony