Working on a Rotel 602 receiver (first clean and lights)

[VintageDutch]

I know Rotel is not a very popular brand in the Netherlands but the do made pretty nice stuff... or had it had in made in Japan...and it survived the test of time... so they did it right...

Recently I found and bought a bit rundown ROTEL 602 in full working order, light burning and everything but in need of lots of TLC..
This week I needed some "me and my machine" time and started working on it...

First thing I tackled was the dirt on the scale and fascia window...
Before:

As you can see it is a pretty long receiver...What is not seen on this picture it the rough state of the wood cabinet (and I do not have a picture showing it...) and also the grime and dirt as barely visual..but believe me... it is there...

So took of the knobs (see my post about the volume knob) and removed the fascia or front and cleaned it with some warm soapy water...While that fascia was playing in it bathtub I removed the black/green scale and also gave the a nice soapy bath ...even removed the light reflector metal and cleaned it.
After it was cleaned some more signs of neglect got better visual... scratched Plexiglas in the fascia, so out came the polish cloth and commandant polish... that did the trick .

After putting it all back together again I replaced the fuse lights with new warm white led fuse lights...

Now look at her shine It is a hack of a lot nicer and more sharp..

Still a long way to go.... Next plan is recap the power amp and supply and attack the grime and dirt on the "wood" foil cabinet..see if and how it can be saved or should be re-foiled...

anyone tips ?

 

[swechsler]

I assume by "foil" you mean the vinyl wrap that was typical on receivers of this vintage (not a criticism; I know that English isn't your first language). This is no reflection on your skills, but if the current veneer can't be saved, I don't know that recovering with new vinyl it will work that well. These cabinets were almost always particle board with a laminate over it, which is done by a press or some other machinery, that you won't be able to replicate at home (it was part of the manufacturing of the particle board, before it was cut and made into cabinets). Better would be to use real wood veneer. It takes a little bit of skill, but nothing on the order of building a new cabinet, and of course it will look 10x better. If the vinyl isn't peeling then you can attach it directly; if it is peeling, then you'd probably be better off removing it first. Typical adhesive used is contact cement, but I'm sure that if you google working with wood veneer you'll find plenty of videos showing you more than you ever wanted to know.

 

[VintageDutch]

yes.... in my eyes it does not even deserve the "vinyl" name...

Yes you are right... The "foil" ;-) is damaged and "not worthy" of all efforts... I also working on a Turntable that need new veneer.... So.. I'll have to pick-up some more veneer for this classic amp... maybe a nice wood upgrade instead of "regular" veneer

It's gonna look fabulous

Thanks for the solid advice @swechsler