Welcome to E. F. JOHNSON RADIO RESTORATIONS
chuck@scoreboardenterprises.com
508-965-7400
E.F. Johnson Radio Restorations
E.F. Johnson Radio Restorations by K1TLI, Chuck Hurley is all about preserving the past with a touch of modern materials.
Each unit is carefully evaluated for restoration with discrepancies noted. Special attention is given to undocumented changes/modifications that may have been made. Every effort is made to return the unit to its original condition/design so that someone else working on it in the future will have a solid baseline from which to work.
Each unit is disassembled and thoroughly cleaned to begin with. All units receive new electrolytic and paper capacitors. Dual capacitors are custom made to mimic the originals mostly for installation convenience. Tubes are tested, graded and cleaned. Resistors are checked to assure they are within tolerance.
The face and case of each unit are completely stripped of paint. The case is sanded, primed and re-primed with basecoat sealer. Then the basecoat color is applied and finally the clear coat is sprayed on. The face is filled where necessary, welding extra holes as needed, primed with a self-etching primer, re-primed and finish sanded, painted with the main color and taped off and painted with the second color. The face is then wet sanded with 2000 grit paper until absolutely smooth. Silk screening is done next and when completed the face is cleaned and then clear coated. Finally, the face is carefully wet sanded and buffed to a brilliant shine in a four step process. The Ranger II and Valiant II are done in a slightly different manner with the cabinets being powder coated gray. The results are both stunning and beautiful and you have a piece of equipment that will be a trophy for many years to come. New pointers are installed in each knob and each knob is thoroughly cleaned and buffed to a shine. VFO dials are cleaned with plastic polish and all indicator lamp housings are buffed. If the VFO dial cannot be cleaned up, it is replaced with a new one.
Once the face is done, each unit is carefully reassembled. In the case of the Valiant I, the VFO and vertical shield behind the VFO are are machine buffed to a brilliant shine. As an option the chassis and several components are also polished. On some units you can look down through the chassis and see the components that have been buffed to a shine. With the unit reassembled, capacitors replaced as aforementioned, resistors and tubes replaced as needed, its time to tune for maximum smoke.!
Each unit is thoroughly tested and aligned to the original specifications and then run on the bench. Finally, it is put through the "On The Air" test. If all is well the case goes on and a new instruction manual is provided.
My goal is to provide you with a working piece of Amateur Radio history that will perhaps last another 50 years if properly operated and maintained. Of course, I am here to repair anything that might happen to any unit.
73 for now
Chuck Hurley
K1TLI
chuck@scoreboardenterprises.com
508-965-7400