Here are two items I picked up at the flea market today, a Sears two-speed child’s record player from 1979 and a beat up late ’60′s Truetone AM/FM solid state radio. The record player only had a dirty (noisy) volume control and a bad needle. Should have been a quick five minute fix, right? WRONG! Well, it might have been a quick fix had I had the special tool required to remove the safety screws from the case (the same kind of screws that Fisher-Price used on their record players). I was able to get them out with a pair of vise-grip’s; but, it wasn’t easy and I ended up messing up the cabinet, which I will try to fix with touch-up paint, where one of the screws was located. The reason they used these types of screws was to keep a child from easily opening the case and possibly electrocuting themselves; but, there are no children around here. So, I will replace those screws with something standard.
Years ago, I had a similar Sears Silvertone red & white record player it used a case of similar construction to this one and it also used basically the same amplifier; but, it was a four speed model, used a traditional metal case latch, and used a metal turntable platter.
The radio is a late ’60′s Truetone solid state AM/FM in a wooden case. As you can see, the finish is very rough and it’s very dirty. I was able to get it to somewhat work; but, it may eventually get used for parts. Even though this is a Japanese built radio, I suspect that this was supplied to Western-Auto by Arvin Industries. Arvin made a lot of radios for Western-Auto and, by the late ’60′s, they had shifted production to Japan.
Post time: Jul-11-2017