I picked up a RCA Victor 66X2 Radio from 1946-47. It's a very unusual
radio. It is AM broadcast band and one Shortwave band. Amazingly this
radio worked right away, except for the broken dial string and a power
cord that needs to be replaced soon. All the tubes appear to be
original, and all capacitors appear to be original too. Even the filter
cap appears original, and there is no hum.

Other than replace the cord and dial string, I dont plan to do anything
with the components for now, except add a fuse.

The bakelite case is solid, but badly scratched. The bakelite under the
Ivory paint is black. This radio sold in black (unpainted - model 66X1),
Painted Ivory - Model 66X2, and two additional woodgrain models.

My plan is to remove the case from the chassis, remove or tape up the
grill cloth and trim. Then spray paint it with an Ivory colored spray
paint. (after sanding it with some very fine sandpaper to clean up all
scratches).

My question is whether I can use a common spray paint on bakelite, such
as Rustoleum? I may not get the exact color as original, but I dont see
any way to get the original paint.

Have any of you painted bakelite? Will common spray paint work on it?

One other thing, the dial bulbs are burned out. Bayonette base, wired in
series, two 3.2 volt bulbs. A schematic shows them as Mazda 1490. ( I
never heard of Mazda bulbs). Anyhow, where can I get such bulbs?
The bayonette base is the same as a #47 bulb.

BTW: The 6 volt feeding them comes from the filament center tap in the
35Z5 rectifier tube. How they get 6volts from that center tap evades me,
but that's how it is.....



Thanks