Otto

Jim, I have 30 of these 1/25 Ford Promo Thunderbirds in my collection, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1967 & 1968. Had a couple of Mustangs and one Buick, I think, maybe it was Olds, mainly for parts. Most of these models saw its old age of fifty plus years and almost all had non working radios. The P-22 radios seem to be of a better quality, yet, there's not that many of those around and if one comes on eBay, the asking price is most often unreasonable. Of all the models I have in my collection about 80% of the radios didn't work. Surprisingly, the non working radios are not the worst problem here. The often missing On-OFF & volume knob is. Go figure. I found a radio technician here in Houston who fixed all but one radio for me, not exactly an inexpensive task, on average about $60 a pop, yet all my radios works now, granted, there's not that many AM stations in Houston now as there were back in the sixties, but that's not the reason I collect these. The second most common problem with these radios is a damaged volume switch, the internal switch soldered in that chassis. This, and sometime the tuner, can't be had any more as a new part and be replaced, not even from a donor radio due to the transistor soldering construction. When the volume switch is defective I let my guy set the volume manually half way and I install a miniature toggle switch next to the radio inside in the front of the chassis in line of the battery power supply wire. Not the best solution, but there's not really that many choices here. Of a note, many of my models needed some minor and also serious restoration, paint, chrome parts refurbishing, missing parts replacements acquired from AMT model kits, still available on eBay, windshields,, chrome parts like the small front fender markers, the rear red stop light lenses, small screws with slotted heads, not Phillips heads, these don't seem to exist anymore. You may ask why do I collect these? Had two of the Thunderbirds in real 1:1 scale, as a twenty two year old, back in 1969 a 1966 Thunderbird Town Landau, 390Cid, kept it for seven years, and a second one in 1998, another 1966 Town Hardtop 390Cid, again kept it for seven years, completely restored it, these cars were beautiful Ford models, there could be lot to say about these cars from a T-Bird guy, a car nut like myself, still, to bad this marque is not produced any more. Should you be interested in contacting my radio guy, call him, Tom, Save On Sound, 713 957 9600. Best of luck, Otto