Removing Leatherette Surface

[Clive Arthur]

I sometimes repair and refurbish Roberts DAB radios as a sort of hobby. I do a few minutes a day while waiting for simulations to finish, or just thinking. There are a few fairly common faults and I have the gear.

These are covered in a sort of leatherette, I suppose. This is of appalling quality and is usually very badly worn and torn, even after a couple of years of just sitting on a shelf. This is good, it makes them inexpensive.

It usually scrapes off easily, there's some sort of nasty sticky thin foam underneath which rubs and scrapes off too and then a fabric backing which is pretty robust. The fabric takes paint very well and makes an attractive textured finish.

However one I've just repaired has some areas where the covering is very difficult to remove, and I don't want to damage the fabric.

If it's sunny tomorrow, I'll see if a bit of UV exposure helps, but any other suggestions?

[newshound]

My "real" analogue Roberts from the 60's still looked good after 30 years.

[alan_m]

Rexine?

Around £15 per square metre.

[Clive Arthur]

Yes, I have a pre-DAB FM one and an old MW/LW RT1 from Harrods both of which are good. The problem was with the RD-50 and RD-60 models. This one is typical...

...some are much worse. I had one which was an expensive gift, and after a couple or three years it looked like that, though it had hardly been touched. Roberts deny it's a manufacturing fault, but they're clearly lying. Even some of the circuitry looks like it's been designed by someone on work experience.

They lost their way, I don't know if they're any good nowadays.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

One assumes that is the one in the wooden box? Most of the later ones seem to be akind of plastic wood, well you know what I mean, with that stuff glued on top. So if its a plastic one, using solvent to remove the cracked and scuffed pretend leather might be dangerous.

I think its made of a form of pvc, so if one knew what adhesive was used it still might be possible to get it off. Old Hacker radios were much the same. I have to say that although the latest Roberts are undoubtedly made in foreign parts they do seem to be very robustly built. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

The dab fm one I bought a year back has kind of removable rubber bumpers all round that can be replaced. I think the build quality is very good, but as I say, its not made in the uk. It does have a dry and rechargeable battery switch and comes with a pretty good charger/mains unit that does not create huge amounts of interference unlike some of the others I've tried. Brian

[The Natural Philosopher]

Years ago my mum was throwing out an old AM tranny radio whose case was getting like that - i seem to remember it featured red velvet that had all worn off. I built a wooden case for it and veneered it and bought a strap to complete it. She loved it and used it another ten years or so.

Ah. This was it.