Victor 1 Project - Finished!!!

[Jerry B.]

Here's project that I've really enjoyed. It's a Victor 1 that I bought in Kansas. I found it on craigslist and the buyer held it for a month or so until it could be picked up on our way to Union. The craigslist ad offered some sort of Victor project as well as an oak record cabinet. They were around $100 each. I called on the last day of the sale and both were available! And both were half price making it $100 for the pair. SOLD! Our original route didn't take us through Kansas so I immediately emailed Stan and Dan to inform them of our route change. That's when Dan started a search for exciting things to do in Kansas and discovered the world's largest ball of twine. That's the place were we tied Stan with rubber bungie straps to the ball of twine. The next day we picked up the items and gave them some Oregon wine because of their friendliness. As it turned out the record cabinet was actually a cut off Victrola XVI. It had no real value to me and took up valuable trailer space so I left it with Larry in Iowa. Space problem solved.

As you can see from the photos, the machine was a real project. The case was in pieces. Metal parts were rusty. It was missing the crank. The restoration took skills that I don't possess. I like to thank Matt Burke for his structural repair of the cabinet. Anyone that has the skills to repair a VV-XVI that was ripped in two the long way (yes, that's true) has the skills to fix the jigsaw puzzle of Victor 1 cabinet parts. The other Forum member that helped was Cliff Bolling. Cliff repaired and serviced the spring motor and returned a motor that runs perfectly. I refinished the case and polished the nickeled parts. It's hard to tell how far to go with a restoration. The nickel parts could be re-plated but I decided not to go that route. I remember Dan saying how nice the little horn looked. He was correct but you had to look past some light surface rust and a brass bell that was nearly black. I gave the horn a light sanding, painted it black, and polished the bell. There was no straightening done to the horn. I bought some Gregg Cline decals for the back bracket and applied them after sand blasting and painted the back bracket. Kline decals are the best but applying them to a back bracket was difficult.

Jerry Blais

[gramophone-georg]

Imagination is great but pictures are better... just sayin'.

[fran604g]

That looks great, Jerry!

[VanEpsFan1914]

That looks great! Lots of skill and art went into that. Thanks for saving it--now the world has one more cool Victor.
Newb question, though...is that felt the original, or a really aged reproduction? You really did a lot of cleaning if it's the original.

[gramophone-georg]

VERY nice!

[emerson]

Wow Jerry, You really were lucky on the finds and really worked some nice magic on that machine.---Herb

[Django]

Nice job. Rust bucket to heirloom.

[mattrx]

That looks really nice! It has come a long, long way.
Matt

[Jerry B.]

Newb question, though...is that felt the original, or a really aged reproduction? You really did a lot of cleaning if it's the original.

Nice spot and good question. Yes, that's original turntable felt... but it's off a donor turntable. I trimmed it with a wet stone and it looks great. Jerry

[clarphon]

This looks great................WOW.