1958 Magnavox Stereorama (rebuild)

[Hydrolastic]

Hello Guys, i just am posting this to let you know the progress on the Stereorama. I decided to bring the components in to Sam at sound audio. I had put the tuner pre amp in a cardboard box and when Sam lifted it off the counter the bottom fell out. A lot of the tubes and the dial glass broke as i think it landed upside down. He was understandably upset. I apologized for the crappy box. It was a very awkward moment. Needless to say i have a "wanted" post for a 1958 tuner chassis or at the very least a dial glass for it. On a positive note i am so glad this happened before the recapping and alignment. As we had just discussed the removal of the glass for a good cleaning! Hydro

[electra225]

Sorry for your faux pas, Hydro. The dial glass shouldn't be that hard to find. I'll bet all the Magnavox horizontal tuners used that glass. The bezel would be a different kettle of fish.

[Motorola minion]

I have a spare tuner from my 1960 symphony (1ST208F) that has that glass intact. Chassis 57-01

This tuner is otherwise a parts tuner, since it was (m)aligned by someone who also thought the tuner needed some circuit changes

[Hydrolastic]

Motorola, I have a 1959 1st208 F also.... mine is the concert hall you see in the 1960 catalog. Were there different models with the same numbers? I also have a 1960 2st208 F in a different cabinet style but virtually identical electronics. Hydro

[Hydrolastic]

Hello Guys, Don't mean to bore you with just ordinary restoration stuff, Today is the day the Stereorama is getting worked on!
Last week i picked it up from Sound audio repair in Olympia. If i haven't complained yet, Olympia is 60 miles from Seattle and to drive there and back on a weekday afternoon is a chore. Two rush hours both ways. I left work early (at 1:00) and was back home at 6:30. 5.5 hours in the car! Anyways i have the Stereorama components. Started cleaning them up last night. This one doesn't have the nicotine coating it seems all the other ones have but it does smell damp and old. I found on the Continental that getting all of the dust out of the inside and using a brush with a vacuum in all of the seams did a lot to get the funk out of it. So today i think i will get the amp and preamp in. Hydro

[Hydrolastic]

More photo's . Starting the cleaning process.

[electra225]

We use industrial glass cleaner called Glance. It's made by the industrial division of Johnson Wax, Johnson/Diversey. It has alcohol in it, you can't make it streak and works well on grunge commonly found on old electronics. They recommend you don't use it on finished wood surfaces, but I have wiped finished wood with no issue. I wouldn't spray it on finished wood. It makes Windex look like mother's milk in comparison. Put some PB Blaster on a rag and wipe it on Magnavox cad-plated chassis. It will keep the white bloom down to a minimum and will make the chassis look sparkly for a long time. Good luck with your re-assembly.

[Hydrolastic]

Hello Guys. Spent the whole day on the stereorama! was super disappointed when it fired up just a little bit of crackling from the speakers at first then started to get the volume and some full range after a bunch of minutes i ran it for about 3 hours while i cleaned the record changer. after a few hrs it was sounding really nice. Just from what i know about where it came from. I am guessing its been 30 years since it was last running.
Once i got it running in the stereo position it really began to rock! I tried to clean everything and even did the record changer. Using the 3m finess polishing compound even the plastic was shiny ! The new inline fuse blew and it quit i had to pull one out of another chassis. The sound is odd on this one when i unplug the base speaker with a mid range and a single tweeter on one side and two tweeters on the other. Also the odd bass speaker arrangement with fwd facing on the left and side firing on the right.

[William]

Nice job, Hydro!

Bill