1942 SPR
Owner:
Posted:
November 10th 2009
Updated:
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10,164 times
Rating:
49 votes total
Superb (7.7)
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Key Features:
System Specs:
Performed Mods:
Stripped and sanded the original radio. Re-stained with MINWAX red mahogany stain (4 coats), polyurethane (2 coats), Mounted power switch on right side back panel, mounted cold cathode switch left side back panel, disassembled old PC chassis and re-painted with Black Enamel paint, mounted a power strip surge protector on the bottom of the chassis for plug in for the PS, Speakers and monitor which also allowed for extra cable management and allowed me to hide the bulk of extra wires, modded the threshold for the monitor to fit the 9" hole on the front of the radio, cut apart a CD drive bay and modded it to fit the PSU and was able to mount that at the top on the left, Cut apart and modded the HD Bay so that it too could be mounted at the top on the right side, Drilled holes in a piece of plywood in order to mount the speakers to the backside of the front of the radio, modded old 80mm fan grills as speaker covers, cut apart the mobo tray in order for some CM and to make it smaller to show less tray and more mobo/wood base.
This 1942 philco 42-380X radio was the first thing that my grandparents bought when they got married. This radio was sitting my parents garage for the last 40 years. I wanted to do a computer project but do something eco friendly. So i decided to take my old desktop PC and create this computer with that. I did not want to buy new parts or build a crazy gaming rig, due to the economy, my wallet and the fact that my wife and I are having our first child =D. The only thing that i had to buy was the screen. the guys over at shortcircuit.com were great in helping me out(thanks carl).
This is more of a file server and backup system than a gaming rig or main desktop PC. In the future i will add 2x WD 1.5TB drives and increase the ram to 4GB. I also an in the process of getting my family crest engraved into brushed nickel so that i can mount it on the front of the radio, in memory of my grandparents.
The total time for this project was about 50 hours total. most of that time was spent stripping and sanding the old radio. I wanted to make sure that it was perfect before finishing the exterior. I will attach 2 pix of what the radio looked like before and after stripping it down.
I hope you all enjoy :)
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29 Comments on 1942 SPR
wow! very nice job man. its nice to see you had a family reason to do this case, besides the fun factor :)
9/10
P.S. amazing idea ;)
I love it when people think outside the box.
Clean, neat and stylish. 10/10.
thanks for all of the great comments and suggestions :)
Old school is always something that i like to see. A Very nice job 10/10
Thanks again for the all of the kind words, feels good to be appreciated :)
@ erocker, thanks, the leg lamp is a figure of xmas in my house, a christmas story is my favorite movie :)
Update: Added a few more pictures of the internals. Some close ups of the machine running from a better angle. I also added a picture of when the basics were mounted before finishing the wiring, monitor, switches and other stuff.
enjoy :)
I do have one question, what did you do with the original radio parts? did you include any of them into this?
I did keep a few of the round metal washers and used them for mounting the mobo to the wood. I also kept the sticker from 1942 inside the case, i just put a light cover of stain over it, but its still there :)
other than that, not much is original working parts. All of the radio parts were badly damaged and i offered them to a local electronics store for parts and he told me to trash them as they were to badly damaged to have refinished.
This has got to be the original winner if not top of the list for all.
if there are any catagories.2 thumbs AND two big toes up to this rig!!
Please post here and lend me your thoughts. I would like to know why a 5 was your opinion. I am curious to know what you would have done different. I am always open for suggestions :)
I love those Philcos from the 1940s. I have a that 1941 I used to build a CD jukebox and a 1942 I converted into a (cell phone, etc.) charging station.
Thats stunning!
Where is the radio? That unit was probably worth more than what's in it right now.
The radio parts that were inside were too badly damaged to be salvaged by a professional. That is why i got rid of them. the outside of the radio was in bad shape as well, so having refinished it and converted it into an updated radio/computer was the best choice i could have done with this.
If the outside was in better shape i would have restored it to OEM and used it just as a radio, but the fact remains that it was badly damaged. besides, most people do not use console radios anymore. And lets not forget that it was a computer based project to dedicate towards my family, so restoring it into something that could have been valued more, was not my intention.
this is a computer mod site too, not a radio restoring site..... :P
Thanks guys, i appreciate it :)
not amazing...