1959 Continental (Restoration)

[Hydrolastic]

Hello, Its time for the 1959 Continental to get restored I would like to have it up and running by Christmas 2021. This one is going to be my most comprehensive one to date and its a mess.  Couple of things to note it seems to be complete and original only missing the badge in the record compartment.  Its kind of beat up with a fair amount of flea bites but too many to touch up so it will require refinishing that i will try to do. Stay tuned for that debacle!
  I am sending the amp and tuner to Sam at Soundaudio repair in Olympia WA. He has done the two other consoles the amp175 and the amp185  in both st208's i have. He added a fuse and isolated the chassis grounds for safety also a 10' 3 prong cord to it so it can reach the outlets.   The same for this chassis which is a AMP 182 AA. I understand this is a very early stereo chassis  being 232 823   first week of June 1958. I have decided that this is going to get a balance control since it has a external speaker. I have researched this and found its best to use a custom circuit to do this as the balance used on the chassis achieves its function in not the best way. I hope Sam will do this. Then i will need to find a discreet place to put it. 
  Removing the amp i noticed there was a couple speaker selecter switches added to this. Why? Probably for speakers in extra rooms. One in the original place and one on the other side of the record compartment and one wire tied in the harness. This is going to be my first wiring exercise and i plan on getting a original diagram and tracing it out removing all the extra wires. By the way i think this may have been a custom wiring job by the dealer. Why? Well the selector switch had the same knob and bezel as the original one on the other side.  here is a photo of the selector switch in the harness if you look closely   https://flic.kr/p/2kHur1u 
   The other thing about this is its from a home with a heavy smoker and its covered in nicotine. Sam is not going to like this one for that.  Thats it for now.  Aaron

[TJ]

The extra speaker switch could be from the original going bad? Hard to tell without seeing the full shot of the wiring with both selector switches and where they are running to on the amp.

My '58 Continental had the AMP-182, which sounds good, but was lacking in the bass department.  I ended up bypassing the "balance" potentiometers (they are bass and treble compensation) on mine.  On the bass channel, there is a 100K resistors going to the grid of the 12AT7, for channel 1 and a potentiometer on channel 2. I dropped the 100k down to a 1k, and bypassed the potentiometer on channel 2 with a 1k resistor.  The balance was spot on, and I got quite a bit more bass out of it.

Good luck on your build!

[electra225]

Aaron, my Stereo Theater was almost green from nicotine.  When I refinished the cabinet, I applied two good coats of shellac to the interior of the cabinet, followed by a heavy coat of satin polyurethane to seal it and keep the smoke smell down.  PB Blaster works nicely to get rid of nicotine on the chassis and metal parts.  Don't get that stuff on tubes.  It smells horrible when it gets hot.  Good luck with your project.

[electra225]

Aaron, what type of finish are you planning?  I have done two now with a polyurethane over shellac finish.  It's the closest I have come to the durable, milky finish originally on Magnavox cabinets.  I put 18 coats of polyurethane on the Stereo Theater cabinet.  It took a year to cure so I could work it.  Well worth the wait.  It gets prettier as it ages.  My STereo Theater had lacquer on it originally.  It was in pretty tough shape, and "the treatment" took the lacquer off.  Nicotine didn't help it any, either.  If the flea bites are not too bad, Home Depot sells a stain pen that works pretty well in healing flea bites.  If nicotine has softened the finish, a refinish is about your only option.

[Hydrolastic]

Hello, I plan on lacquer I am researching it now.  So not sure exactly what sheen to do. Rudd paint is local, Mohawk if i mail order it. I like the idea of shellac to the interior.  i also want to repaint the light peach colored paint around the record player. Want to try and clean the speaker cloth with a upholstery /carpet type vacuum cleaner. (I know a guy)
   Right now i am disassembling it bagging and tagging the screws. Getting the amp and tuner out. I noticed a couple of the paper labels were missing on the amp i plan on glueing them on again. I want this to be a safer unit but like original. Hopefully it could be around another 60 years.    Aaron