This crusty beast has been waiting for over three years for its second chance on life. Finally!
The description mentioned that it was "totally rusted and beaten up... Buttons beaten up (consider them non-functional) ... Too much rusty and need heavy cleaning. Volume knob Need to be steady at some level to get output from both speakers."
I don't know about the busted up part, because it cleaned up really nice. I'll break down the problems by area.
Back panel:
Very dusty and dirty, and likely a smokers box with all the yellow nastiness on it. One of the aerials (and its retention tab) was broken, and the felt along the edges was starting to detach in places. Other than that, the back is free of any cracks or missing chunks, and no visible scratches, just some minor scuffs and paint marks.
Case:
The water damage was mainly limited to the lower front, but the main control panel trim is all pretty splotchy from corrosion too, and detaching in places. The bottom of the rims and crash bars have misssing/bubbling/flaking chrome and lots of blemishes and yellow gunk that took forever to remove. The LED meters are in better shape, but still have minor pitting. One of them had a chunk busted off.
The tape tray was missing the spring, the rear foam cushions, the guidepin was busted off, the trim was mangled and falling off, and there was a big crack on the left section of the bottom.
The tape door was missing the main spring, as well as the two springs for the door alignment piece, which was also broken into four pieces and missing the entire top edge and part of one side. The sticker behind the cassette window was destroyed.
Dial window cracked beyond repair.
The battery compartment and door were like new. Probably the cleanest part of the box. The paper sticker and coils were pristine, I don't think anyone ever used batteries on it.
The tweeters were completely dead, and the mids both had small holes punched in them, one of them with a badly dented dome. The full range drivers were intact but had been wet at one point, and very faded.
The lower deck trim, although corroded, was used on my other C100F restore, where I didn't even have a trim. So this box will get a new one I'm making.
The upper deck's direction arrow decals were scratched on the back side.
The tweeter chrome was all but gone.
All knobs and buttons needed a thorough scrubbing with a toothbrush to remove the yellow sheen on them, and although they do suffer from corrosion they don't look horrible.
Frame:
The dial bulb was burned out.
The upper deck was very misaligned, in need of a new belt, and had a very dirty head switch.
The lower deck's belts had turned to goo (but not the counter belt, they never do) and the switches were very dirty. The read head is extremely corroded/pitted, and sounds muddled even at good alignment.
The beat cancel switch was fine, but I swapped it with one from my other C100F resto, which had melt marks on the tip. So, I have that one on this box now.
Most pots, switches and jacks suffered from some amount of crackling or corrosion.
FM stereo did not work.
The description mentioned that it was "totally rusted and beaten up... Buttons beaten up (consider them non-functional) ... Too much rusty and need heavy cleaning. Volume knob Need to be steady at some level to get output from both speakers."
I don't know about the busted up part, because it cleaned up really nice. I'll break down the problems by area.
Back panel:
Very dusty and dirty, and likely a smokers box with all the yellow nastiness on it. One of the aerials (and its retention tab) was broken, and the felt along the edges was starting to detach in places. Other than that, the back is free of any cracks or missing chunks, and no visible scratches, just some minor scuffs and paint marks.
Case:
The water damage was mainly limited to the lower front, but the main control panel trim is all pretty splotchy from corrosion too, and detaching in places. The bottom of the rims and crash bars have misssing/bubbling/flaking chrome and lots of blemishes and yellow gunk that took forever to remove. The LED meters are in better shape, but still have minor pitting. One of them had a chunk busted off.
The tape tray was missing the spring, the rear foam cushions, the guidepin was busted off, the trim was mangled and falling off, and there was a big crack on the left section of the bottom.
The tape door was missing the main spring, as well as the two springs for the door alignment piece, which was also broken into four pieces and missing the entire top edge and part of one side. The sticker behind the cassette window was destroyed.
Dial window cracked beyond repair.
The battery compartment and door were like new. Probably the cleanest part of the box. The paper sticker and coils were pristine, I don't think anyone ever used batteries on it.
The tweeters were completely dead, and the mids both had small holes punched in them, one of them with a badly dented dome. The full range drivers were intact but had been wet at one point, and very faded.
The lower deck trim, although corroded, was used on my other C100F restore, where I didn't even have a trim. So this box will get a new one I'm making.
The upper deck's direction arrow decals were scratched on the back side.
The tweeter chrome was all but gone.
All knobs and buttons needed a thorough scrubbing with a toothbrush to remove the yellow sheen on them, and although they do suffer from corrosion they don't look horrible.
Frame:
The dial bulb was burned out.
The upper deck was very misaligned, in need of a new belt, and had a very dirty head switch.
The lower deck's belts had turned to goo (but not the counter belt, they never do) and the switches were very dirty. The read head is extremely corroded/pitted, and sounds muddled even at good alignment.
The beat cancel switch was fine, but I swapped it with one from my other C100F resto, which had melt marks on the tip. So, I have that one on this box now.
Most pots, switches and jacks suffered from some amount of crackling or corrosion.
FM stereo did not work.