I have a few old cobra/dynascan radios I would love to have gone through, restored. Is there any shops around that actually will do good work on the old stuff anymore?
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Classic/vintage cb repair shops?
- Thread starter AA1QD
- Start date
I have a buddy with a shop here in Okalhoma and would do a restore but no one wants to pay for his time to do it. they have the mentality that you can change all the caps in a radio and what ever other part that could be bad and do it for about 40.00. he does not do it because no one wants to pay for your 4 or 5 hours to actually change all the caps and what ever else it takes to align and get it out the door. I talked to one of his customers a few years ago and he said the radio is not worth but about 100.00 on ebay so 50.00 to fix it is not worth it. like I told him you buy one on ebay and it is so old it needs the restore done to it. so where are coming out buying another old radio that they say is in great shape and you get it and it needs all the 25 plus year old caps changed out.
just my 2 cents as to why the shops do not restore the old radios .
just my 2 cents as to why the shops do not restore the old radios .
Hear, hear. I've done the work you speak of to a couple of classic's, a 142 and a Madison. Recapped, aligned, tested, cleaned, LED's and I'm still not going to break even if I even get a buyer on eBay. Of course, you can get a 35 year old, dry cap, unaligned unit on eBay for as low as $75 and up to $200. Seems nobody wants to pay for a radio that will work for the next 35 years. I may just keep these radio's because I will appreciate them for what they are and sell them later when all the existing radio's soon crap out.
Uniden Madison V4 CB Radio w Speaker | eBay
Cobra 142GTL Base Station CB Radio | eBay
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Maybe I should just go ahead and do all the labor myself, then send it off for alignment. Problem I have run into is the shop asks what the radio is and then say no, too old.
after you change out what parts that seem to be bad, there is always one that is boarder line to go out and as soon as you start tuning the radio it will go out.there is so many items that will not show up as bad until you start to tune one, such as VR's that are bad.
last year I recapped all of my old radios which consist of 3 858 PLL president washington radios. 2 cobra 142gtl radios.they all were having something acting up on them.
did a recap of one radio at a time and the radio would start out good then as you would get to a vr to adjust or say to adjust the final bias some other part was bad.
on my washingtons there was a few VR's that were bad from age in them. it took time to find all the bad items in them.
finding someone to tune them is a problem due to age of parts and going bad even after you say you change all the parts out. a good tech would not want to look at it after you get through with all the soldering because so many people will mess something up by slopping solder on a trace or put a wrong part in a location by accident.
good luck on finding someone to do this type of work. I do this for friends once in a while but you think you have every thing done right and they take it home and use it for 1 or 2 weeks and then poof some thing else goes out due to age or a bad quality new part used.
last year I recapped all of my old radios which consist of 3 858 PLL president washington radios. 2 cobra 142gtl radios.they all were having something acting up on them.
did a recap of one radio at a time and the radio would start out good then as you would get to a vr to adjust or say to adjust the final bias some other part was bad.
on my washingtons there was a few VR's that were bad from age in them. it took time to find all the bad items in them.
finding someone to tune them is a problem due to age of parts and going bad even after you say you change all the parts out. a good tech would not want to look at it after you get through with all the soldering because so many people will mess something up by slopping solder on a trace or put a wrong part in a location by accident.
good luck on finding someone to do this type of work. I do this for friends once in a while but you think you have every thing done right and they take it home and use it for 1 or 2 weeks and then poof some thing else goes out due to age or a bad quality new part used.
cobra
best bet is to just get rid of them..
no reason to put money into them.
but if you have some sort of personal attachment to them
u can try snaekradio customs in Arizona..
I think he works on that old stuff.
but u are gonna have to mail them there and back
and than the parts and labor..
pretty much ur better off taking ur money and pouring gas on it
and let a match to it. sorry don't want to hurt ur feelings.
they are just old cobra radio's and I am willing to guess 23 channels
I know I would not put that money into them.. even if they were 40 channel
rigs I would not do it..
out of the cobra line If u were going to sink money into something
I guess the only 1 worth it would be the 2000. u can always
find somebody willing to over pay for 1 of those radios...
best bet is to just get rid of them..
no reason to put money into them.
but if you have some sort of personal attachment to them
u can try snaekradio customs in Arizona..
I think he works on that old stuff.
but u are gonna have to mail them there and back
and than the parts and labor..
pretty much ur better off taking ur money and pouring gas on it
and let a match to it. sorry don't want to hurt ur feelings.
they are just old cobra radio's and I am willing to guess 23 channels
I know I would not put that money into them.. even if they were 40 channel
rigs I would not do it..
out of the cobra line If u were going to sink money into something
I guess the only 1 worth it would be the 2000. u can always
find somebody willing to over pay for 1 of those radios...
The gentleman tells us that these old rigs are of little value. However, if you look at his posts in the swap section, it would seem he places a premium on HIS old shit.
