Airline model 62-418
At the AWA 2008 conference in Rochester, NY I bought my first Montgomery-Ward & Co. Airline brand 'Movie Dial' Over the years I've seen a fair number of these sets but they were just about always heavily rusted. It is one of the few American made radios of the 1930's that had a chrome plated chassis. In fact, the only other manufacturers to do this (that come to mind) are Scott and MacMurdo Silver.
Well the one I bought seemed to have the potential for clean-up. The chassis was covered with a white powder in addition to the usual crud of 70 years. I'm guessing that someone discharged a dry powder fire extinguisher near the set. Regardless, I thought it best to clean this junk off as soon as possible.
It's the Labor Day weekend and I had a few hours to pull the chassis and start with the vacuum cleaner and soft bristle brushes. Good news, the chassis did not appear to have gotten wet enough to set the crud.... After that I started in with the application of Go-Jo on the chrome chassis and all the black wrinkle paint on the cans and transformer.
Now it was time for me to bring out my secret weapon for dealing with rusted chrome..... Ta-Dah! the Popsickle Stick (craft stick) I found out long ago that application of Goop or Go-Jo waterless hand cleaner to rusted chrome with a dense wood stick will break off the iron oxide crystals without scratching the chrome. It worked like a charm. Here is a picture to illustrate the results.
Pretty good I think. When I finish, I'll wash down with solvent and then spray on a good clear lacquer. After all, the rust says that there is now bare steel and it will rust again if not sealed.
Go to the next page to see a few shots of the set a day later.
Need a sharp photo of the black on silver paper lable that is just to the left of the RMA decal.
