I recently got this GDR/DDR made Intimo 5430 tube radio. A particular special feature of this radio is the EM84 tuning indicator tube.
Fixing the Wood case
The case looked like as if someone had a flower pot or something standing on it, there was signs of water ingress. I decided to first sand off the wood with 160-180 sand paper and then apply two layers of wax finish to it. This turned out to work quite nicely.
Fixing the decor
As can be seen from the overview, the silver decor strip was partially broken off and had dents in it. Furthermore on the right side it had a nasty yellow look.
I removed it and pressed the dents out, afterwards I polished it and glued it back into place with epoxy glue.
(Not fixing) the Electronics
Surprisingly I couldn’t find anything wrong with the electronics. The electrolytic and paper capacitors checked out fine. I only brushed off some of the dust but otherwise left the electronics as is for now. I did an assessment of what could break if i.e. a capacitor suddenly shorts out and the worst thing would be the selenium bridge rectifier breaking. This thing is rock solidly built.
End Result
I still have to see what to do with the potentiometer knobs, two of them are missing the silver caps. Unfortunately I couldn’t find those anywhere, so I have to replace them with other 4mm knobs.
Bonus: Speaker Adapter
I got two speakers with the Radio, both 4Ω. The maximum output capacity of the radio however is 8Ω, so I have to put those two speakers into series. In order to do that I built a small adapter:
The laminate of one of the speakers had a spot where it broke off, I filled this pot in with hard wax.