The 75S-3B Receiver as purchased (5 April 2008). It's a "transitional" unit, built as they changed from the winged emblem to the round one. This front panel was originally made for the winged emblem. The remnant mounting holes are filled in with little countersunk phillips screws painted to match the front panel. (To follow additional description of the restoration process, go to http://www.w2pa.com and click on "Articles".)
Inside the 75S-3B receiver. This rig has probably had cigarette smoke blown at it for about 35 years. There is a layer of brownish gunk coating everything. At the very top of the photo you can see a dark brown patch of convection-enhanced smoke staining which will wash away. The styrofoam "peanuts" are left over from it being shipped to the previous owner after repair - someone decided to fill the inside with these things. Ugh.
The 32S-3 Transmitter as purchased. Not to worry - that big blue '6' is only a sticker.
Inside the 32S-3 transmitter.
Front of the cabinet housing the 516F-2 power supply. It's not actually a 312B-3 speaker, but rather is a 5165F-2 cabinet to which a speaker has been added. The modification is professionally made and meant for this cabinet. I don't know its origin (Collins or otherwise) but they seem to be fairly common.
Rear of the Power supply inside the speaker cabinet.
Maxi-Tuner, encased to match the S-Line. These were made in the 1970s in either Collins or Heathkit colors. I've seen them with and without the meter circuit.
Interior of the Maxi-Tuner
Rear panel
Inside of the Maxi-Tuner
75S-3B underside chassis - except for some styrofoam pieces, it looks fairly clean, as undersides usually are. But it will get a cleaning anyway.
The receiver's top chassis with tubes, crystals and filter cover removed. Notice the clean shadows left by the crystals on the blue crystal board. The filters are, left to right, 200Hz, 500Hz, and 2.1kHz. The spare position can be wired into the circuit if an AM filter is installed. As-is from the factory it's unwired.
...and with filters removed
Detail showing part of the preselector slug rail, a portion of which, at right, has been test cleaned using a dry Q-tip. Looks promising!
After removing the tuning dial escutcheon (with drive shaft) and tuning dial. The complete procedure is described in Collins service bulletin ASAB 1007, 1011 or 1014 – they’re basically the same. They are downloadable from the CCA web site (http://www.collinsradio.org/Archives/Collins_Radio_Equipment_Manuals.aspx)
Rear view after removing dial and escutcheon. Note illumination bracket, also removed, is to the left near the meter opening
The fiducial dial marker after removal. Unfortunately I cracked it near the pivot hole while trying to remove it from the plastic pivot hub that is mounted on the front panel. It should be easy to repair and will be hidden from view anyway when reassembled. It will not affect the operation at all but I'm kicking myself nonetheless.
The removed, yucky looking main tuning dial
The back of the dial
Three screws hold the metal hub onto the dial assembly and hold the entire assembly together under compression, between the metal hub on the back, and the black ring in the front. The kHz dial is fixed to the hub while the numbers dial turns independently.
The dial disk with the numbers lifts off first
The stacking order, front (on bottom) to back (on top): black drive ring, kHz dial, metal ring
A test cleaning using Windex shows that these will probably clean up nicely. I will not use Windex to do the whole thing but will start with something milder.
Dial cleaning partially done. Just water with a little dish detergent and Q-tips works wonders. The kHz dial is half done. The 10's dial has been cleaned and appears a deeper ivory color than it does in sunlight and is probably its original color. Interestingly, the smoke gunk is mostly on the front side of the kHz dial and the back side of the numbered dial - the two most exposed surfaces (kHz in front of numbers when installed).
In sunlight the actual color of the combined dial is whiter. The lower half is the still dirty kHz dial in front of the fully cleaned numbers dial
The dual dial stack after complete cleaning. Ahh, that's better!
The fiducial window after cleaning. I didn't completely clean the left upper edge for a reason - to remind me which side mates with the drive washers connected to its adjustment knob/wheel.
Main tuning dial after cleaning and reassembly. The shadings you see are reflections off the shiny surface of the kHz dial, not color variations. The dial looks uniform and nearly new.
Meter and filter cover before cleaning
Meter and filter cover after cleaning
Heterodyne osc. crystals after cleaning (left) and before. I used something called Krud Kutter, which worked well. Windex, Fantastik, and Simple Green did not (they worked fine on other parts). Maybe it has something to do with the kind of metal used for the casing.
Just starting out cleaning the chassis. Left of center are three clean patches where I tested out dish detergent, Krud Kutter, and plain water, left to right.
The chassis cleaning begins. There's a radio under that goop!
A clamp is used to keep the preselector rack together as it's removed. Doing so will greatly ease the cleaning job underneath.
Gently lifting it out - first the slugs out of the coils, then angle the shaft out of the front panel.
The preselector rack on its back - ready to be cleaned separately.
Hey! That's better. Now I can see what I'm doing. I used only water with dish detergent on the trimmers. Compare the row of clean trimmers with the row above. Note that even the screw tips coming from underneath are clean.
This stuff would have been partly inaccessible, or very hard to clean, with the preselector rack still in place.
This is how clean you can get it with only dry Q-tips
The area to the left of the square hole has been re-cleaned, this time using dish detergent in water.
And finally, the area is cleaned again using Krud Kutter followed by plain water. Nice and shiny. The chassis top deck is about half done. I haven't touched the sides or front yet. It's slow going but I couldn't bring myself to drench it as some restorers suggest doing. You have to be careful with the Krud Kutter around the stick-on labels as it will take the markings off completely. The chassis markings (except for the stamped-on ones) are impervious to it.
Top chassis deck - cleaning completed.
The clean preselector rack after the spray treatment and drying.
The rest of the chassis has been cleaned and the preselector rack reinstalled. Compare this to the before picture of the similar view a few photos back at the start of cleaning! (Open a new window with the following link to compare side by side: http://picasaweb.google.com/wa3lxk/SLineRestorationProject/photo#5190734680867452050 )
Front view after cleaning. If you look closely you might see a little bit of brown stuff under the AF/RF gain and elsewhere. It's not nicotine gunk - it's the glue Collins used to fasten the textured front panel to the aluminum.
The PTO is entirely encased, unlike some others. Its label is on the bottom, normally hidden from view. Other receivers made at different times have this marking on the top.
Escutcheon before cleaning
Restored escutcheon. I cleaned first with dish detergent and water, then polished it with Novus #2. Finally, I repainted the white model number using acrylic enamel, thinned with water, applied with a wooden toothpick. Any overpaint was easily removed with a clean toothpick.
The main tuning knob after polishing with Novus #2. The knob separated from the skirt while polishing because the original glue had become brittle after 40 years or so. You can see some of it still in the groove in the skirt. This is about as shiny as you can get these knobs as they have a texture to them. Only the inside of the finger hole is smooth.
The spun aluminum inserts were hard to remove. I drilled a hole from the top, then pried with a small screwdriver using the pointy edge to get under the metal. The knob on the lower left was a particularly difficult case.
Knobs before cleaning. They are arranged approximately according to their placement on the front panel. The two in the lower left mount on concentric shafts for AF/RF gain conrtols.
Knobs after cleaning, repainting the white lines (same process as escutcheon) and installing new spun aluminum inserts
Preselector area before...
...and after cleaning.
Cabinet after spraying with KK and rinsing with garden hose. No scrubbing (yet). I forgot to take a "before" picture the cabinet alone, but you can see what it looked like in the first couple of pictures in this album.
For comparison, here's what the cabinet top used to look like.
Closeup of the fiducial marker window reinstalled. The crack made no difference in operation or appearance. The red line goes on the rear (inner) side of the window
Main dial and PTO reinstalled. The idler gear (upper right), does the magic dual dial sequencing. The illumination bracket comes next - the #47 lamp holder is dangling behind the PTO.
The operator's side of things. The back lighting is coming from the table lights.
The illumination bracket has been remounted above the PTO (notice the black screws that hold it there are back in the escutcheon). The S-meter is back in its place too and the receiver is starting to take shape again!
Back together. Look at those shiny crystals.
It still works! The S-meter reacts to the calibrator signal.
These are the only two areas of the cabinet that need attention. The scuffs near the screw on the cabinet can be polished out. The scratches in the paint, like the one below on the trim ring, will need touching up.
The scuff in the cabinet paint is completely removed using automotive paint scratch remover with a Q-tip.
Old feet - new feet. The new risers are exact replicas of the original Collins risers - black anodized aluminum with slanted surface. The small feet also go on the back of each cabinet, without risers.
7 May 2008 - Finished! ... Well, not completely - I still have to align it.
The odd couple. The "new" 75S-3B (Felix) aside the next-to-restore 32S-3 (Oscar).
These dust covers came with the S/Line. Judging by the condition of the equipment when I got it, I'm not sure if they were keeping dirt out or in.
516F-2 power supply for the 32S-3, after cleaning. No "before" picture (other than the one earlier inside the cabinet), but trust me - it was at least as dirty as the receiver. I did remove the cage and cleaned the high wattage resistors too.
Underside of 516F-2. I plan to replace the AC power cord. After getting a look here, I think I'll also replace those aged filter capacitors. They look a little yeech to me. --- By the way, in case you didn't notice it on other pictures, you can see the red coloring on each solder joint. Collins used a red lacquer-like substance (I've read that it's called "glyptol") to mark each solder joint after final inspection.
Underside of the 32S-3. The jumper connecting the two "PA Disable" connectors is visible just above the top bandswitch shield under the chassis lip.
The 32S-3 transmitter looks as bad as the receiver did before cleaning.
Same view, tubes and crystals removed.
Final cage removed. Lots of complicated parts arrangements around which I'll have to clean. Also - I will not be able to remove the slug rack as I did in the receiver, because the clamp won't fit into the space in this case. I'm thinking I should try the drench method.
Dial removed - VFO aside reveals a clean "shadow". Notice that the idler gear is a much lighter color than the one in the receiver. I cracked the fiducial window near the hub - AGAIN. It's on very tight and I can not figure out a gentle way to get it off. Frustrating. But again, it will go back on fine, the crack will be hidden, and it will work without any functional impact due to the crack.
The dial is in better condition than the one in the receiver was - but will still need to be cleaned.
Beneath a layer of ancient grime from a past civilization lies ... a transmitter.
Ok - I gave up and drenched it. Wow! -- Actually, I modified the procedure, substituting Krud Kutter for Simple Green, and used a much more targeted spray than the garden-hose approach*. I manually cleaned the VFO and VOX control bracket. The underside was manually cleaned too. (*Ref: http://www.collinsra.com/cra_album/0008/cra_0008.html) You must be careful not to overdo the cleaner on those stick-on lables, like the one with the serial number. The markings will wash right off!
32S-3 dial after cleaning.
The driver tube had a special inner shield around it, inside the standard twist-on shield. I thought the outer shield was just stuck from dirt but this turned out to be the reason. I can't exactly tell what the corrugated material is. It seems to be metallic but very soft and retains its shape. I've learned from W1JA that this is meant to improve heat conduction - probably necessary since the driver is located inside the final cage.
32S-3 all finished and back together. Compare this to the picture 9 frames back - lighting and color balance should be the same. Better still, open the following link in a separate window and put them side-by-side: http://picasaweb.google.com/wa3lxk/SLineRestorationProject/photo#5198080223965251666 )
Looks pretty nice! Now it matches the receiver (again).
Another before/after sequence. The slug rack area before cleaning...
... and after
... and after - with tubes and crystals.
Installed a new AC cord for the power supply and put it back into the speaker cabinet. Tubes light!
Transmitter lights up too! No smoke is escaping. Let's transmit.
The old dummy-load-in-a-light-bulb trick shows that the 32S-3 is putting out a signal!
Back in the cabinet - 20 May 2008. There are just a couple of spots that I'll touch up.
Replaced 5 of the 8 capacitors - the electrolytics in the HV and LV supplies. The assembly is nearly unchanged since I just clipped out the big old ones and soldered in the new ones - even the "mid-air" connections are as before. I reused the holding clamps too, adding cable ties since they were too big for the new, smaller capacitors. The one main difference is the dual capacitor C5 was replaced by two separate ones - the extra one, C5B, needed a new place so I mounted it near the top of the photo.
The temporary set up while waiting for the new shelf to dry completely. When installed, it'll go all the way across, making room for everything. I made my first QSO with it tonight (6/2/08) on 7144 with K4SO and W1JA. That's just 3 days short of two months elapsed from first purchase to on-the-air. It pays to take your time.
Shelf installed. Not too bad! Still room for a 312B-4.
Position relative to main operating desk.
Covers on. Somebody mislabeled the transmitter cover as a 32S-3A. The emblem styles match, though.
I just (Sept 2008) acquired this early 60's (I think) SM-1 in very good shape with original cord.
Just a little bit of scuffs at the base edge, and on the far side top, might just polish out.
The microphone mounts to the base in a flexible rubber shock absorber to isolate sounds coming from the desk. Nice. It's still very flexible after all these years.
Winged emblem name plate needs a bit of sprucing up too.
A slight ding in the screen is the only defect that I won't be able to deal with. Based on what I've read, I don't plan to attempt to remove the screen. This ding isn't really noticeable unless you catch the light, as I did for this photo.
Commemorating the 50th anniversary of the S/Line, all the Rockwell/Collins club stations were on the air this summer. You could get a certificate by working four of the six stations and collecting their special QSLs. Each one is different. This one shows a 62S-1 VHF transverter. W0CXX was Arthur Collins' own callsign.
A 32S-1 transmitter.
A 30L-1 amplifier.
A 75S-2 receiver.
An SM-3 microphone and a 312B-4 console.
312B-4 console as purchased on 11/28/08 (black Friday!). RE with metal trim ring. Switches work fine.
Bright spots on upper right side are just reflections.
The only significant blemish is on top left. It's some sort of filled-in hole.
Closeup. It looks like someone might have drilled a hole - partially or fully - maybe by accident - then tried to fill it with solder - then gave up. This will require some smoothing. Then I'll try a touch-up paint job before attempting to paint the whole cabinet.
Insides look great. A little KK will clean it up nicely.
12/4 - Scraped the metal (which appears to be solder and can be picked out easily) below the surface and dabbed on a first layer of auto filler/primer.
30 minutes later, a second dabbing
close up with flash
Third dabbing - it's just above the surface, ready to be sanded flat.
After sanding lightly with a small piece 220 sandpaper (seen at right).
Polishing with scratch remover and Q-tip
First painting. I gave it three light coats separated by about a minute or so, using Collins C-180 paint from Surplus Sales of Nebraska.
Wider view
Close color match - taken with flash. I will feather out the discolored surrounding halo later. Maybe that halo was caused by whatever made the hole in the first place.
Without flash the edges and texture can be seen. I'll have to polish this. The bits and pieces outside the painted area are just pieces of glue from the paper mask. I will first remove the edge using automotive scratch remover.
After polishing (scratch remover, then Meguire's Mirror Glaze #7), I rigged up this feathering mask. The cardboard hole is lifted up from the surface by about 1/8 inch. This should enable the next spray to diffuse at the edges for better blending with the existing paint. (I say "should" because I've never tried this before.)
Not too shabby. This is after feathering spray, polishing again, and a second feathering spray. The first polishing exposed some of the discolored paint underneath requiring the second spray. Meguiar's #7 works very well but you need to go gently as it works aggressively on the new paint. This photo is taken without the flash...
Same angle as previous picture - this is taken with flash.
Front view. Compare this with the first picture. I'm happy.
Angled to top.
Slightly tilted toward desk lamp.
Closeup with flash shows a different texture to the painted area.
Catching it in the reflection (no flash) emphasizes the surface difference. One more polishing should make this better. I'm reluctant, though, because last time it required yet another spray.
Console in place. Next step - move the entire S/Line to the desk top.
Moved to the desk top
Lit up and ready to operate. - Back to main site: http://www.w2pa.com
