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Looking for tips and ideas to clean and detail a base radio or mobile
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inside and out. 
Qtips. Lots of Qtips. Toothpaste for meter lenses... works great as a polish for light scratches. Simple Green for general cleaning and getting rid of nicotine. Isopropyl Alcohol for tougher greasy stuff. DeOxit for scratchy controls. And lots of Qtips.
73,
Brett
73,
Brett
I use Q-Tips with Windex or Spray-9 which I find better as it does not leave a sticky feel after. An old toothbrush is great for cleaning the little ridges in knobs. Isopropyl alcohol is great too and will not generally harm plastics. Metal surfaces can be sprayed with a little WD-40 and wiped clean after.
all I can add is that a pressure washer won't work as well as you'd think it would...
Well, if you go on the boatanchor forums, there are guys that actually pull all the tubes and put the whole rig in the dishwasher. They claim it works great, but I'd sure be afraid to try that.
73,
Brett
Check out this site: http://www.wb4hfn.com/DRAKE/DrakeTechTips.htm and look under "restoration techniques". This fella is top shelf when it comes to restoring Drake, Kenwood, and Collins rigs. He has pics on the main site of before/after.
I forgot to mention that I have taken all my knobs off the rig and put it in the dishwasher. I've also soaked them in Simple Green and scrubbed them with a soft toothbrush. With some of them, the white line will come off the knob if you're not careful, but you can get a paint stick to redo it with (if it's that type of knob), or red model paint works for the CB type knobs like Cobra/Uniden. I forgot that I use Windex, but thanks Captain Kilowatt for the alternative less sticky product suggestion. I'll have to try some.
73,
Brett
I forgot to mention that I have taken all my knobs off the rig and put it in the dishwasher. I've also soaked them in Simple Green and scrubbed them with a soft toothbrush. With some of them, the white line will come off the knob if you're not careful, but you can get a paint stick to redo it with (if it's that type of knob), or red model paint works for the CB type knobs like Cobra/Uniden. I forgot that I use Windex, but thanks Captain Kilowatt for the alternative less sticky product suggestion. I'll have to try some.
73,
Brett
Some times Simple Green will discolor certain plastics. For general purpose cleaning, I use Wesley's Bleeche Wite. Available at Kmart, Wal-Mart, etc., in the auto section. For circuit boards and greasy areas, buy a can of Prep-Sol. Available at any automotive paint store. If you're really serious about restoration, buy some trichloro-ethane (not to be confused with trichloro-ethylene , which is a known carcinogen.) This stuff will make a circuit board squeaky clean in no time at all, evaporates quickly, and leaves no residue. You can completely immerse a board in it without doing any damage. Just remove the covers from any relays that aren't sealed. A chemical supply house is the only place you'll find this stuff, and if it's like my supplier down here 5 gallons is the smallest amount they will sell. Definitely worth the time to hunt down. I have an old table top Delta Sonics 200W Ultrasonic Cleaner that I use for cleaning carburetors and such. Works good for circuit boards too. Bought it on Ebay for 50 bucks. Just a thought.
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