Although I thoroughly enjoy the tube Trans-Oceanics, and the large components and hard-wired chassis are much easier for old eyes and clumsy fingers to deal with, they are large and heavy to lug about. I had been tempted to try one of the transistorized Trans-Oceanics for a deck radio, and finally bid on and won a very nice model R3000. This model does not have provisions for an AC adaptor as did the R3000-1.

Unfortunately, the seller did not pack the radio well, and it suffered extensive damage in shipping. Fortunately, the radio was insured and I recovered the costs of replacement parts to restore the radio. The photos at right and below left show the restored radio.

Repair and Restoration of the Zenith Trans-Oceanic R3000

In addition to the visible damage in the photos above, and at right, the trauma torqued the chassis within the case, causing all the knobs and dial to become misaligned, and the top of the case was bent, the tip of the antenna (concealed in the carry handle) broken, and a door stop broken. The dial bezel was also broken loose from its mounting studs

In spite of the damage, the radio played very well, with excellent audio quality. I used to WWV to check dial alignment at various frequencies, and the stations were dead on except for one band, which was slightly off. I left the alignment alone.

Disassembly of the Radio

Meanwhile, I disassembled the radio completely and serviced the chassis as recommended by Bryant and Cones in their excellent book, "The Zenith Trans-Oceanic, the Royalty of Radios." One of the recommendations in this book is to strengthen the handle, which also contains the whip antenna, by packing it with epoxy putty, which I did.











Servicing the Chassis

Service consisted of cleaning all the contacts with contact cleaner (volume, tone control, and band selector), lubricating friction points in the dial tuning mechanism, and installing fresh bulbs in the dial light circuit.

Note the bent chassis lug (red arrow) in the photo above, which was causing a lot of the chassis misalignment.

Repairing the Case Framework

As I assessed the damage, I doubted I could repair the top and side frames as they appeared to be die-cast metal, and I was sure the metal would break if I tried to straighten the parts. I found a used top, and right and left side frames, at John Kendall's Vintage Electronics.

When the parts arrived, I found the top was excellent, but the left and right side frames were not quite as nice as my damaged originals, as they showed some pitting and heavy scratching. I decided to try and repair the damaged side frames, and only use the replacement parts if I was unsuccessful. I experimented with wood blocks and screw clamps, and eventually succeeded in restoring the bent side frames to their original shapes (below, left).



Recovering the Front and Side Pieces

Although the black vinyl covering was in good condition, it had shrunk over the years, especially on the front cover, so much so that the edges of the side trim screws were showing, which seems to be a very common condition seen in these radios. So I ordered some Black Buffalo Mojotone Tolex from Mojo, a vintage guitar parts seller. I removed the original vinyl covering, cleaned the metal, and glued on the Tolex using Weldwood water-based contact cement (photo at left, and above, right). I had tried using the solvent contact cement, but it bled through, causing dimpling of the material.


















Restoring the Wavemagnet Antenna and Top Piece

I removed the Wavemagnet antenna from the damaged top (photos, above and right)and re-installed it in the new top piece. I also restored the lettering and logo on the bottom of the handle/whip antenna assembly using a water-based acrylic paint (photo, right).

As I disassembled and reassembled this radio, I was very impressed with the quality of the materials. It's been a long time since I've seen any product as well engineered and constructed as this radio. Everything went together very nicely, and the intelligent design made tear-down and rebuild quite simple. I'm especially impressed with the audio quality of this radio. Zenith gets a lot of quality out of a small speaker, and while I'm not a radio techie, apparently the use of matching transistors and a push-pull amplifier section have a lot to do with the great sound.