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Westinghouse Radio Restorations

Posted on December 3, 2013 by Hepcats Haven

little jewelsI have always thought these little radios were cool. I was able to purchase two of these online but they were not in the best of shape. These streamlined powerhouse radios are also known as refrigerator radios because of the similar physical appearance as refrigerators of that era.

LJadHere are some images of the way they looked when I acquired them.

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As you can see this unit is well used.

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This little guy had a bad crack that needed to be glued, filled, sanded and painted.

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I decided to change the color from the boring cream color to a retro aqua color.

After a lot of sanding and effort here is how this one turned out!

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I am very pleased with how this turned out. With the new color and speaker fabric it really pops now. The flash of the camera makes it look light blue but it is actually aqua colored. This unit still works and sounds fantastic!

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Here you can see the great little Bakelite handle to carry it around. These units have such great sound. They actually sound like a larger unit.

Here is the next unit I picked up from Craigslist in Sacramento. This unit is non-functioning but I will fix that later.

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This unit had a lot of wear. The speaker fabric was dirty and loose. Also, you can see it is missing a knob and the handle for the back. (if any of our readers has a spare handle please let me know).

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After some light sanding time for paint.

I chose a classic maroon color that would compliment the gold color. I also had to order a new dial wheel from “Radio Daze”. I think this unit looks great!

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Though the knobs are not original they look great! (these knobs are from a Zenith Transoceanic).

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Like I mentioned above, if anyone has a spare handle let me know!

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These are great little units to put on an end table and just enjoy the experience of listening to music. I plan to drop the maroon one off at the radio repair guy to get up and running.

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Check Us Out At Our New Antique Booth

Posted on August 1, 2013 by Hepcats Haven
We are still adding items and things always change so check back often.

We are still adding items and things always change so check back often.

Mel and I re-entered the antique dealer market again after a short time away due to being too busy to keep up a booth. We are now at Midway Antique Mall at 5130 Madison Ave. Sacramento CA 95841. If you get a chance come check us out! We are excited about this new adventure and the great thing is we are only a booth away from our great friend Vic and the great items she is selling!

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We now have a fantastic wall to display the art we are selling

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We even have room for furniture so once these items are gone we will have more cool items to bring in.

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Lil Bit Country

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Hepcats Haven

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Mel and I were up in Sebastopol California having a look around when we came across these small lamps at FFT Antiques (All sales benefit Food For Thought, Sonoma County AIDS Food Bank). I love them! Mel….not soo much. I know they are going to need a big resto but I am up to it. It is sooo hard to find western things from the 40’s and 50’s. Most of it was destroyed from use. I love this square dancing duo. Unfortunately, I was unable to find a makers mark.

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As you can see the paint is chipping off in chunks. The first thing I will have to do is remove all the loose paint, then fill any areas that require fill, then sand and paint. Also, if he is a cowboy why is he wearing loafers??? These will be boots when I am done.

These lamps have been used and abused so the transformation should be pretty remarkable. These lamps even have their original finials.

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As you can see someone tried to touch up her dress but it doesn’t look like they were very successful with the attempt.

We were fortunate to get the original shades with the lamps. One is darker than the other so I plan to recover them and re-stencil the image on the new material. I just need to figure out where I can get replacement material from.

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While we were out we came across these really cool pillows. I love the fringe on the one and the imagery on both. I am going to have to reach out to Debbie over at “The Creative Needle” to install zippers on these and install fringe on the other pillow.

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Really cool ranch images….roping cattle, bustin’ bronks and taking it easy.

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Another Shirrell Graves

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Hepcats Haven

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You might remember a couple of months back we purchased a fantastic yellow Macaw painted by Shirrell Graves. It had a broken piece of glass and the mat was stained and ugly. I took it to Tim & Ann at Wholesale Art & Framing to replace the glass with UV preservation glass and to install a new mat. After a day or so it was done and here is how it looks:

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The mat is an olive color with a black core.

Then about a week ago I was cruising Craigslist and saw that Roseville Antique Trove had a dealer that was selling a Shirrell Graves red macaw! I jumped off the couch, grabbed Mel and we shot over to acquire this fantastic piece. Mel and I were afraid it could be a print but upon further examination it is an original. It was apparent that it had been hung in direct sunlight because the once vibrant red had faded to almost a tan/pink. If you look at the bottom where the tail is you can see how red this use to be.

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This is why you need to put any watercolor you love in preservation glass, it blocks 98% of UV rays.

On a side note, when I took the red Macaw out of the frame I noticed on the cardboard backing this fantastic little image:

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This really helps to date the piece.

I plan to hang these in our bathroom (away from any kind of steam). We seem to be going for a tropical fish and bird theme in there at this point.

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Here it is after a quick restore of the watercolor and Tim re-framing it.The red now pops and really helps bring this bird back to life.

These will look fantastic hanging next to each other and with the protective glass I will not have to worry about them fading anytime soon.

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Heywood Wakefield Revival

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Hepcats Haven

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This group of sad-looking Heywood Wakefield pieces are a part of my next series of projects. If you study the photos above you will see that these have been used and abused.

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Look at these two sad sorry end tables. The guy we bought them from proudly advised us he painted one of them blue and he went further to tell Mel and I he had planned to paint the other one red! AAARRRGGGHHHH! An intervention was required.

The first piece I took on was the coffee table model M905G produced for only one year during 1955.

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Gosh! Had the previous owner ever heard of a coaster!

As I have mentioned before the great thing about Heywood Wakefield is that it is SOLID wood. If a piece has any issue usually you can sand out most of the imperfections.

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Here it is sanded down and ready for stain. This will help get rid of all the water rings and will even out the finish.

Now that it has been sanded the next step is applying that famous stain that I get from Jeff off Ebay!

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Here it is after its first coat of stain. I applied 4 to 5 coats to get that nice buttery finish.

After a lot of staining and buffing between coats it is finally finished. I even had a piece of 1/4 inch glass cut from a local glass store ($30) for the top so another water ring never has a chance to appear. Without further delay…

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As usual Jeff’s finish always turns out great!

Before I had glass cut for this piece I was under the impression that getting glass cut for furniture was costly. But it really isn’t, and it is worth it. It only takes one careless placement of a glass with condensation to mess up your finish so spend a little and preserve what you worked so hard to restore.

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1961 Phil Brinkman Prints (Double Signature)

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Hepcats Haven
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Excuse the reflection, That darn glass makes it difficult to get a clean picture.

Mel and I came across these prints a few Second Sundays ago. I was soo excited to find them. At first I thought they were originals so I was about to jump out of my skin. Mel pointed out the copyright symbol on the art and that is how we knew they were prints. I still wanted them and we were able to pick them up for $25 for the pair.

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Once we got home we were able to look at them more closely and we noticed a pencil signature on each of them. I had never seen prints with an additional signature on them, but after some research I found info on “double signed” prints. It is basically where the original artist signs a print, thus leaving two signatures on the print. Next to an original it is about the best you can do. You might remember I blogged about “The Great Phil Brinkman” awhile back.

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He produced a lot of work in the Bahamas

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These will look great in our Tiki Room! I have a couple of spare Carlo frames lying around that I might try to put them in.

 

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Telefunken Sonata 5183 WK

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Hepcats Haven

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Hey all,

I was sitting around and remembered that I had not blogged about this great little 1960’s German unit. I found this on Craigslist sometime back for about $60. It was a part of a cluster of items a younger man was selling that were part of his late mothers estate. I was surprised to see everything worked when he turned it on. As usual it had that really rich and deep sound. I couldn’t get the $60 out of my pocket fast enough.

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The great thing about these units is that they are small but still give the rich sound like the larger units. Also, one person can move them. The sound of these units can get even better if you buy a pair of satellite speakers to play through. I have a pair sitting around that need to be restored so I guess I should get on that.

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Here are a couple of photos of my grandparents. The picture of my grandma Troxel is of her in England sometime around WWII. The picture of my grandpa Troxel is soo cool, he looks like a gangster or something. The frames are really cool. I plan to blog about Art Deco frames, there are soo many cool ones out there.

This unit can play all the variety of speeds (16, 33 & 45) including 78! I have a mess of 78’s including about 15 binders like the one below full of one of my favorite crooners Bing Crosby. I must have every song he sang or even hummed.

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Since I am on the subject of 78’s let me take just a moment to express to you what a lost piece of treasure these records are. I have seen people throw these records away because they are not in demand anymore. These records are also brittle and can break with very little effort. This is why they need to be appreciated and in some instances there are some really rare recordings on these records. I love sitting around listening to records that range from early Perry Como to country western. Do yourself a favor, get a player that can play 78’s and just kick back and let the music wash over you (stepping down from soap box).

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Check out all these cats listening to 78’s! How can all these guys be wrong!? On a side note, this would be a cool way to sample your music, why don’t they do this anymore?

So, if you get a chance to pick one of these units up I would say go for it, especially if space is an issue.

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Chalkware Lamp Repairs

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Hepcats Haven

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I have been busy lately fixing a few lamps that our friend Stephen brought to us that he purchased online and received broken. He always manages to find really great lamps.

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This lamp had 8+ breaks in it. The only frame to this lamp are the white poles that go through it so it was gonna need some crazy gorilla glue to hold it together.

The first lamp I want to talk about is the really cool green Plasto Mfg. Co. lamp that he purchased. As you can see, this would have ended up in the garbage by most folks but Stephen thought I could fix it. After a lot of gluing, spackeling and sanding and a good amount of paint here is how it turned out!

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I am amazed at how things turned out. Stephen also had me paint the lamp shade frames white and I relaced the shades. I also had to install a new push switch. Once Stephen gets the lamp back in place I will have him send me a pic to show it off.

The Next Lamp Stephen asked us to repair was a really cool Capri lamp. The damage wasn’t as bad as the one above but it did have a few good breaks. Here are a few pics of the damage it suffered during shipping:

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I marked the areas that had damage with those really cool pink ovals…..I love pink! Anyways, here are closer images of the damage:

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That looks like a pretty good crack!

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This is towards the base, it seems to go all the way through.

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Here is another crack up underneath one of the brass poles.

The one thing that always makes Stephen’s lamps a challenge to repair is the finish on each lamp. I have to really try hard to duplicate it with toothbrushes or stiff metal brushes. It would be interesting to see how they originally did it. I imagine they maybe used an airbrush to get that unique finish. Here is the lamp repaired and ready to go!

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Look great!

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Ok, that is a really cool lamp!

The next lamp may seem like deja vu but Stephan managed to find another very rare Frederick Weinberg horse lamp. Unfortunately like the other one he acquired this one was damaged too. This lamp had damage to the top of the front legs and it also had many small cracks. We were able to repair it in the same way we repaired the other one and it looks great in his home!

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As you can see from the photo the crack goes all the way to the metal frame.

As usual, after glue, spackle, sanding and paint it was back to like new condition. These lamps are soo Mad Men! I could see these sitting in the background while Don Draper is trying to sell a pitch to some company at his advertising agency. These are very cool.

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Here it is like new!

Here are both of the Weinberg horse lamps repaired and in Stephen’s home, they look soo nice together.

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I know as long as chalkware lamps are shipped I have job security. I love being able to save these from the scrap heap and make them new again. The alternative is to just throw them away and I couldn’t do that. This is why I try to share my techniques so others can save these fascinating relics from a time gone by.

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Large Egyptian Carlo of Hollywood

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Hepcats Haven

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Our friend Stephen had this Carlo and we traded some work for it. I really like the image of the Sphinx in the background. This is our first Egyptian Carlo and hope to acquire the others as well. Stephen has many great items for sale on Ebay so if you are looking for some great items check out his store! The great thing about this Carlo is I didn’t have to do anything to it! Yay for me!

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Heywood Wakefield Vanity Stool and Queen Bed Resto

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Hepcats Haven

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It is all done, that’s right the bedroom set is finally complete. I refinished the stool base and dropped it off to Bill at B&T Upholstery with some really cool retro frieze fabric Mel and I picked up on Ebay.

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Here it is before its transformation

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B&T Upholstery did another great job!

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It looks great!

As I mentioned in the title above I managed to refinish the Queen size headboard and foot board for our bed in the Heywood Wakefield champagne finish. I am trying to sell our other bed so I can put this bed up. Here are some pics of its resto:

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The finish on this bed frame was not in the best shape so that I why I refinished it. This is a dog bone bed frame by Heywood Wakefield. I prefer it more than the Rio style bed frame.

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Here is the frame all sanded down. I have refinished a lot of HW pieces but the old finish on this bed frame was on there like glue!

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Here is the foot board after the first staining. It is amazing to watch the transformation between the coats. I put a total of 4 coats to achieve the final finish. Remember to check out Jeff on Ebay to pick up your stain, it is an easy process to refinish any piece.

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As usual the finish is buttery and sooo rich looking. I can not wait for our current bed to sell so I can throw this one up!

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