Ekco AD75 Cosmetic Repairs

  • 1. Introduction

    The set had received some rough treatment during its lifetime - two of the three decorative bakelite spars across the speaker were broken and lost, plus the grille cloth was marked and torn in a couple of places. The dial was badly warped, faded and split, with the tuning cursor missing completely. The cabinet itself was very dirty and dull.....

  • 2. Fabricating the broken spars

    I began by removing the chassis and speaker baffle in order to clean away the years of accumulated dirt. I stood the cabinet in a couple of inches of warm water which had had a drop of washing up liquid added - working quickly, to minimise the amount of time the bakelite was wet, I used a small washing-up brush to get rid of the grime. After a.....

  • 3. Replacing the dial

    Despite the poor condition of the dial I did manage to obtain a reasonably flat scan of it using my flat-bed scanner, enabling me to produce a reproduction version with my preferred graphics software. This reproduction dial was printed on to glossy photo paper using an inkjet printer, then carefully cut-out and laminated to protect and stiffen it.

  • 4. Grille cloth and speaker baffle

    Turning my attention to the grille cloth - I carefully prised up the edges using just my fingers, and was fortunate that the original glue allowed the cloth to come away from the baffle with little effort. The cloth was very dirty and I carefully soaked it in some warm water and few drops of washing-up liquid for a few minutes, then a rinse in cold water.....

  • 5. Conclusion

    After the speaker, baffle and dial were reassembled into the repaired bakelite cabinet the result shown below was achieved. The two replacement spars are not perfect, nor is the colour match spot-on, in actual fact the photographs tend to show up the discrepancies more than with the naked eye. But I feel I have successfully achieved what I set.....