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Old 25th Jun 2008, 12:53 pm   #1
howard
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Default 1955 Grundig 965WE 5 valve + metal rectifier MW/SWx3 table radio (£2 Harpenden BVWS)

Hello again,

I bought two 1950s Grundig AC mains valve sets at the last Harpenden auction, the Hastings 2035 set, and then this 965WE. The 965WE is a compact MW/SWx3 set, a touch larger than a Bush VHF61, built in W Germany around 1955 for export only. It is similar in design to the larger Hastings but it has a bakelite case with painted gold trim rather than a wooden case with brass trim. This one looked very poorly and I was the only one at the auction who took any interest in it and I won it for £2 - I daresay if it hadn't sold it would have been scrapped. Cosmetically as can been seen in the rightmost pic below, it was in a poor state, it was dirty with marks all over the top, much of the gold paint around the front had worn away, all the brass was badly tarnished, the cloth in the two side grilles had holes in it and the front loudspeaker cloth was dirty and marked. Apart from a 'Grundig' badge missing from the front the set was complete and inside the chassis likewise was complete, just covered in dust and as it wasn't rusty so I decided to have a go at restoring this unloved old Grundig. On Google, only two examples of this model exists, this one and another in a Spanish collection on RMOrg where I also found a circuit diagram for it but that was not easy to read.

There is no inspection cover under this set like the last two Grundigs I've worked on so the chassis had to be taken out for repair - remove the back cover (which interestingly has a flat aluminium aerial stuck to its inner surface, no ferrite rod aerial in this set) and the two deflectors from the inner sides of the case, unclip the EM80 magic eye and the dial bulb from the front of the case, unsolder two short wires to the loudspeaker, unscrew four chassis retaining screws underneath and the chassis comes out the back complete with its dial. I brushed away all the dust from the chassis and then cleaned it with a little white spirit. Someone had obviously had a go at this set before as many wires had been cut and then soldered back together again (without any sleeving over the joints) and there was an old replacement RS capacitor on the gram input and a blue radial on the EL84. Apart from those replacements all the others were original WIMA lozenge capacitors in a poor state. I found the wires to the dial bulb/holder tangled up in the tuning capacitor (the bulb was too big to fit in its hole so its holder hadn't been securely fitted and had fallen off) and that had badly bent the outer vein, indeed I found one segment had been pushed right behind another, and one wire had come away from the tag on the holder. Lastly, the mains cable had been damaged by a soldering iron (as had other wires inside).

Briefly then, the cabinet restoration ...

- The side grilles and speaker baffle were removed, the remains of the gold paint around the front stripped off with Nitromors, the bakelite case cleaned with white spirit and upholstery cleaner.
- the front was masked off and resprayed with Plasticote Antique Gold aerosol paint and the coachlines repainted with gold acrylic paint
- two corners of one grille was broken so all the tiny pieces were stuck back together with Superglue
- the fabric behind the grilles had holes in it so that was replaced with near identical material obtained from Sid Chaplin which was lightly sprayed with gold paint and stuck in place with Pritt Stick adhesive
- the brass badges/trim on the speaker baffle were removed, repolished and revanished
- the fabric on the speaker baffle was gently cleaned by hand with upholstery cleaner
- the cabinet was then reassembled and polished with Brasso and Mr Sheen
- the knobs and dial glass were removed, cleaned with upholstery cleaner and the brass trim on the knobs repolished/revarnished
- three of the four rubber mounting washers which fit between the chassis and the bottom of the case were missing and these I replaced with identical rubber washers found at Roberts Dyas

And briefly, repairs to the chassis ....

- The volume and tone pots, and the earth springs on the tuning capacitors were all cleaned with Servisol 10. No solvent cleaner was used on the waveband switches as it can damage the plastic Grundig used in them, so all the switches were just operated a few times to clean up the contacts.
- the vein on the tuning capacitor was straightened, the wire to the bulb holder resoldered and a smaller bulb fitted
- all the WIMA and the old replacement capacitors were replaced - all were tested and apart from the replacement radial cap all were found to be leaky
- a new 3 core mains lead was fitted complete with a nice old black bakelite plug and 3A fuse
- The set was then switched on and an external aerial fitted and it was working quite well on SW bands but was weak on MW. Its EM80 magic eye was very dim (and wasn't opening on MW) so that was replaced with an excellent secondhand one. I also replaced the ECH81 and EF89 with good tested secondhand valves which improved performance slightly, the original EBC41 and EL84 valves were fine.

I then took the set over to Ron Bryan who investigated its poor MW performance

- firstly all the cut/soldered wires were all undone, resoldered and sleeves placed over the joins and the two wires to the loudspeaker replaced.
- Ron found a broken wire from one of the MW coils. This was first re-attached to an adjacent tag but that didn't improve things so working from a virtually unreadable circuit diagram and no service manual Ron worked out where it should go and reattached it, and then realigned MW which was now working well and the magic eye was opening properly. Valve voltages and a few resistors were checked and all were OK.

This was another marathon restoration project, I spent two weeks working on it and Ron spent many hours on it too. It was worth it though as this little Grundig bakelite AM set looks gorgeous now, it works well picking up loads of stations on SW and MW and thanks to a decent sized loudspeaker sounds very good too. I guess an old SW valve set is of little interest to most collectors and I daresay many have been scrapped, so I now have a very rare and rather nice 1955 Grundig 965WE.

Howard

Stop Press ! I have managed to find a "Grundig" badge, donated by a German collector, which is on its way from Frankfurt.
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Last edited by howard; 25th Jun 2008 at 12:59 pm.
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Old 25th Jun 2008, 1:27 pm   #2
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Default Re: 1955 Grundig 965WE 5 valve + metal rectifier MW/SWx3 table radio (£2 Harpenden BV

What a superb restoration . Looks like it's just come out of the factory.

Well done as usual.



Rich.
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Old 25th Jun 2008, 1:30 pm   #3
Robert Darwent
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Default Re: 1955 Grundig 965WE 5 valve + metal rectifier MW/SWx3 table radio (£2 Harpenden BV

Hello Howard,

Well what can I say? Just superb!

You and Ron have done an excellent job of bringing this set back from the edge. Well worth all the hard work required to achieve the result you have. A really excellent effort!
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Old 25th Jun 2008, 1:42 pm   #4
Tazman1966
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Default Re: 1955 Grundig 965WE 5 valve + metal rectifier MW/SWx3 table radio (£2 Harpenden BV

Excellent work from you both. That certainly was a labour of love. Well done once again.

Cheers,
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Old 25th Jun 2008, 1:50 pm   #5
batterymaker1
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Default Re: 1955 Grundig 965WE 5 valve + metal rectifier MW/SWx3 table radio (£2 Harpenden BV

Ooooo-weee! Love that polished bakelite. Almost like a piano finish.

I had a similar Grundig some years ago, and in about the same shape. A little paint and elbow grease go a long way....
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Old 25th Jun 2008, 1:57 pm   #6
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Default Re: 1955 Grundig 965WE 5 valve + metal rectifier MW/SWx3 table radio (£2 Harpenden BV

Thanks all,

I bought it cos it's a nice looking little set which I thought would clean up nice, and it did !

Here are pics of the damaged coil, the unusual aerial on the back of the rear cover, the materials used and a close-up of the finish achievable with them.

Ron spent some time working on that coil, working out which wires from it went where cos it wasn't wired up in accordance with the schematic

Howard
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Old 26th Jun 2008, 11:06 am   #7
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Default Re: 1955 Grundig 965WE 5 valve + metal rectifier MW/SWx3 table radio (£2 Harpenden BV

Hello again,

I had this set on for about 12 hours yesterday, playing 1950-1960s hits on County Sound radio 1560 khz MW and it sounded great and worked perfectly.

The "Grundig" badge arrived from Germany this morning and it pushed straight into place. Many thanks to Bernhard in Frankfurt.

Howard
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Old 26th Jun 2008, 4:50 pm   #8
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Post Re: 1955 Grundig 965WE 5 valve + metal rectifier MW/SWx3 table radio (£2 Harpenden BV

Amazing work, don't let the seller see it or he will want more for any others that turn.

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Old 27th Jun 2008, 9:40 pm   #9
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Default Re: 1955 Grundig 965WE 5 valve + metal rectifier MW/SWx3 table radio (£2 Harpenden BV

Yet another first class restoration howard do you keep a count of how many you have done?

Mark
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Old 27th Jun 2008, 11:55 pm   #10
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Default Re: 1955 Grundig 965WE 5 valve + metal rectifier MW/SWx3 table radio (£2 Harpenden BV

Quote:
Originally Posted by mark pirate View Post
........... do you keep a count of how many you have done? Mark
Hello Mark,

I have lost count of the transistor sets I have but I know exactly what valve sets I have as I list them on my website below. This one and a Bush DAC90A were added today, a Murphy A362 and a Hacker Mayflower are currently in theatre and will appear there soon making a total of 44.

Howard

http://vintagevalveradios.ukgeeks.co.uk/
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