Underneath the cloth covering, the front and back sections of the case are made from bakelite with the middle section being wood.

Most noticeable was a large split in the bakelite above the tuning dial that had torn the covering. This area revealed the cloth to be paper thin and extremely brittle with age, repairing the split without tearing the cloth further was going to be virtually impossible.

Further scrutiny revealed many smaller tears, especially underneath and on the rounded corners of the case and the metal grille on the front was coming away - most obvious in the top-left corner.

Several of its fixing points were broken and there was no obvious way of securing it due to the tension in the metal pushing the grille away from the surface of the case.

The bakelite around the tuning dial and the recessed areas of the grille were covered in a dark-reddish paint that had become quite dry in places and was readily flaking off.

Internally, the DEAC ni-cad together with all the battery holders and straps were missing. Worse still, in best "Heath Robinson" style, a LT voltage regulator on a block of wood had been fitted in place of the original ni-cad - in so doing just about every wire going to the main chassis from the power supply board had been disturbed.

As expected, my initial repair attempts to the bakelite with epoxy glue only made the torn covering worse and I quickly decided that if the set was ever to look presentable again then a complete recover of the cloth was going to be necessary.