Chuck the Writer debuts his new RCA mech boards

Okay everybody, here they are. These are the newly repainted RCA Victor mech boards (what the turntable and tonearm sit on) that will be used for my first two restoration / "Chuck-i-fi-cation" projects.

First off is the "Petty" board, so named because the serial number on this RCA Victor 45-EY-2 phonograph has a "43" in it.

The board at one point looked like this...



Remember the rust stains and those annoying white paint specs? After a shot of Rustoleum primer and a couple of layers of blue spray paint... it now looks like this -



Now ain't that swank? You'll notice that some portions of the mech board weren't painted, those were because parts have to move or pivot on those points, and they can't be gunked up with paint. Those parts will be covered with tonearms and turntables and the like, so there's nothing to worry about.

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Oh yeah, there's that other mech board, the one on my RCA Victor 45-J-2 non-amplifier player that I've called the "Sun" project...

When I first got the player, the board looked like this -



All together now ... EWWWWWWW

But, after some sanding, a shot of primer and some Rustoleum...



Now you know why it's called the "Sun" project!

And just to show you what it could look like as the project progresses, I "dry-fitted" the turntable, tonearm and brand badge back on this unit for a second, just to show a nice photograph of what this turntable might look like down the road...



Feel free to drool. :)

More to follow...

Chuck the Writer and Repainting RCA Mech Boards

It was a very snowy weekend in Albany, a perfect time for me to work on my RCA Victor 45 RPM phonographs. Right now I've got two dissected and disassembled players - a 45-J-2 phonograph which I'm currently referring to as the "Sun" player (for reasons I will explain later), and a 45-EY-2 phonograph with amplifier that I've nicknamed the "Petty" player (part of the serial number has a "43" in it, in honor of Richard Petty).

Yesteday I took several of the internal parts from both units downstairs, where I applied copious amounts of Gojo pumice on each part, then scrubbed them off. Later on I'll add some 3M rubbing compound to polish the parts up, because as I was taught by the Kieronspal DVD videos, clean parts make for solid, dependable parts.




You should have seen these parts beforehand. They were black and greasy and sticky and gunky. They don't look sticky and gunky now, do they?

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Now, I need to show you the two mechanical boards, the metal plates upon which the turntable and tonearm rest.



Here's the "Petty" board, complete with rust and pitting and those annoying white paint marks.



And the "Sun" board, with rust and pitting and gungus - and look, the "Sun" board still has the RCA Victor brand on the lower right corner.

Usually these RCA Victor brands are held on by three metal pin clips, which was the case with the Petty board. However, this one had the RCA Victor brand applied with what looked like a weld. After further discovery, I found out that the brand was being held with a backing of wax, which loosened up after I heated the bolt points with a small butane lighter. Then after that, it was a simple step to remove the RCA Victor brand from the Sun board.

Once both units were debranded and stripped of almost all necessary points (I couldn't successfully remove the reject pivot point), I sanded each mech board with 100 grit sandpaper, removing as much of the dried paint and rust and puckering and pitting on each mech board.

Then I taped up the reject pivot point and a couple of other parts on the mech boards, and gave each mech board a nice light coating of Rustoleum primer.

Results - here's the "Petty" mech board -



And the "Sun" mech board -



I'll be adding a second primer coat, then later will repaint each mech board with an enamel-based Rustoleum spray. More fun stuff to follow...

Chuck the Writer and the RCA Victor Restoration Project

Okay, this is the start of the restoration project.

As you might recall, this is the unit in its original "purchased from eBay" condition. Note the copious amount of white paint droplets and rust pittings on the baseplate.

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As you can see from the serial number and information here on the right, this is an RCA Victor 45 RPM player, model 45-EY-2 (turntable with built-in amplifier and speakers in the base), powered by 115 volts, 60 cycles and 50 watts of power. It takes three electron vacuum tubes, modesl 35W4, 50C5 and 12AV6, of which will get replaced later on. This unit was designated with a serial number X824347. For the moment, until I can come up with a better nickname, I'm going to call this one the "Petty Player" in honor of Richard Petty, one of the greatest race car drivers that ever lived. Besides, he drove that #43 STP car for so many years, and I see a #43 in the unit's serial number, so there you go.

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Here's a shot of the inside guts of this player. Looks okay, but there's a lot of dust and gunk in here, especially around the motor and chassis mounts and springs. This will definitely need a bit of a cleaning.

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This morning I went through the unit and began disassembling it, pulling parts and screws and washers and clips off left and right. This is what the baseplate looks like after it's been stripped of things like - oh, I don't know - the turntable, the tonearm, the reject knob...

One thing I forgot to strip from this bad boy - the nameplate. Out it comes, like removing an incisor from the gums of a meth addict.



More to follow...

Chuck the Writer and the RCA Victor Restoration Project

So I tore apart the first player I received through the mail, using it for spare parts.

What you see here is the first RCA Victor 45 RPM player I will attempt to restore. This is a 45-EY-2 player, with a built-in speaker and amplifier in its base. As you can see, the top plate is spotted with paint and rust, and I'm not even going to bother trying to plug it in - I was without power during the ice storm, I don't want to go back to that point.

On the positives, the bakelite chassis is in good shape, and that brown color won't be there for very long once I get finished "Chuck-i-fying" it. The volume knob is missing, but I'm going to poach a volume knob from another unit that's on its way to me. I have purchased replacement NOS vacuum tubes to replace the ones inside the unit now. I do not yet have a concrete idea as to what colors this bad boy will be painted or styled with, but I will come up with some ideas as the project evolves.

Chuck the Writer and the RCA Victor Restoration Project

You are looking at what has got to be - and I'm being generous on this comment - a wreck. And I don't blame you for saying that.

This is an RCA Victor 45 RPM record player, specifically a model 45-J-2.It was manufactured in the 1950's at a time when the RCA Victor record company wanted to create a new proprietary phonograph speed, one that would allow RCA Victor to sell records without having to license patents from their rival Columbia. It was a gaudy gamble, but surprisingly it worked. The popularity of these players helped RCA usher in the 45 RPM record, arguably the perfect format for pop songs - more durable than a 78, and easier to store than a rack fo LP's.

This 45-J-2, along with several dozen other models, employed a turntable/motor system known as RP-190. This model actually has a connecting plug that allows the phonograph to connect with a radio, so it didn't need an internal amplifier. The spindle could hold 12-15 records at a time, all ready to drop, one by one, so that the top songs of the day could be heard in rapid succession.

However, as you can see from the picture above left, this phonograph has had better days. The cabinet is cracked, the tonearm practically fell off its post, and the power cord and phono plug look as if they were chewed by badgers. Therefore, this unit is about to be stripped of all workable pieces, gears, grommets, washers, clips, clamps, and internal ephemera. Whatever can be salvaged for parts WILL be salvaged; the Bakelite case will be used to test various cleaning and restoring solutions. And in an effort to practice electronic repair, this unit will be my test subject, where I can practice such things as soldering, component replacement and the like.

As this progresses, I hope to show you the progress of my work. I also recommend that if you are so inclined to work on a project like this, I wholeheartedly recommend eBay seller kieronspal's DVD instruction series on RCA Victor RP-190 repair and restoration.

So for now, it's time to tear this bad boy to bits. And just in case I have to answer to anyone of authority... RCA Victor unit Model 45-J-2, serial number K 394512, as seen here and as above, is now being gutted.

More to follow...