Goldring G99 - A Resto too far 8-<>

[Wakefield Turntables]

Tonight's Update Pt XXVII - Manning up!

The 99 is very very slowly progressing. The aluminium has now arrived and I marked out a template last night. I also ordered some tin snips to help with the cutting, I don't have access to a laser and my Jigsaw ain't up to the task. I'll be taking the metal fascia production VERY slowly, I'm in no rush and can afford to take my time. I have enough metal to have another two goes if this screws up .

I also managed to find a 3rd matching mounting bolt which I've polished up so we now have 3 original bolts instead of the mish-mash of stuff supplied with the deck. I also managed to do a little research into the serial number of the deck and can confirm that mine dates from 1974. I managed to find two photographs from a G99 invoice for a unit which is a little earlier than my own. This is also very important because it means that the lettering on my deck is also of the correct vintage and I think that my deck must have been one of the last few hundred to be released.

G991.jpgG992a.jpg

The 99's plinth could do with a little work and I may veneer it at some point or add a little extra mass with some birch ply that I have sitting in the garage. I've always had an eye of the costings for this build and consequently have always tried to use stuff up that is otherwise cluttering up the garage, so the plinth construction is following this philosophy . My SME 3009 also needs a little work and I may also finish off my DECCA mk2 tonearm to mount on this deck, who knows!!! As ever, stay tuned.

[brian2957]

No stone left unturned eh Andy . Gotta admire your perseverance sir

[Wakefield Turntables]

No stone left unturned eh Andy . Gotta admire your perseverance sir

Thanks. I happened across these purely by chance. I was doing a little research to check the accuracy of the various gubbins on the underside of the deck. It looks like Goldring had several versions of this deck, as mentioned mine appears to be one of the older ones.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Tonight's Update Pt XXVIII - One man and his Russian tin snips.

Went in to work today after having three days off with the snow storms. I have been awaiting some tin-snips that I ordered from e-Bay, three pairs + some free work gloves £10 posted . The progress of the '99 has been Ferrari like over the last few days, what with 2 updates in less than 10 days. I've now cut the metal fascia for the '99 using the tin-snips was the cheap and easy way to produce something which looks pretty decent (pictures when camera working). I now have to drill some mounting holes and then produce cut out for the on/off switch, strobe, power light and of course the speed selection dial. I'm hoping to get the fascia finished over the next two weeks and this will mean the last of the big jobs for this '99 restoration. I've also finely polished the mounting nuts they now have a mirror finish which looks very smart.

Stay tuned...

[hifi_dave]

I really admire your skill and perseverance. I wouldn't have even taken on that wreck but you have made it like new.

[Wakefield Turntables]

Tonight's Update Pt XXIX - All tooled up!

Another update! Well why not, I've been ill, I'm bored and this is a great remedy for the Sunday blues. I've been tweaking the metal fascia a bit more today and slowly but surely nibbling and filing it to an almost perfect fit, it still needs a tiny amount of work but its probably 99% cut to size. I've ordered some jewellers files (£3.95) today so that I can produce a nice clean finish to the rectangular cut that will have to be produced later. The mounting bolt and the strobe window and the speed dial are all quite easy and should be done in an afternoon. The on/off switch is probably going to be the hard bit, but we shall see. I still need to check that the 3009 works and I'll probably add some more layers to the plinth which will ultimately properly squared off and then probably veneered in something weird and wonderful.



DSCN3561.jpg

I really admire your skill and perseverance. I wouldn't have even taken on that wreck but you have made it like new.

Thanks very much. It's been nearly a year since I started preserving this one, slow but steady!

As ever stay tuned!

[brian2957]

Nice work Andy . One of them little multi tools should make short work of the rest of the mods

[Wakefield Turntables]

Tonight's Update Pt XXX - Nit Pickin'.

The 99 continues to be slowly restored and I continue to find out more about these decks. You'll notice on the picture below that there are three red ovals highlighting various components on the G99 (this is not my deck). Firstly you'll see a spring at the top of the picture, this little bugger drove me nuts. It's turns out that it only appeared on later models and can be used to date your 99, the Lenco community think that it was probably used to smooth out the speed selection on the G99, we'll never really know. My deck is missing this spring so I'm on the look out for something to replace it. The spring research also solved another mystery to my own 99 in that I had a few hooks and washer sitting around which it now turns out are for this very spring. The birthday of all G99's appears to be have been stamped un the underside of the deck opposite left of the bearing. My deck unfortunately had no paperwork to verify it's purchase and there were no markings either so this little detail will have to be left out .

Here's some more geeky stuff for you. If you look at the bottom left of the picture you'll see a blue capacitor on the on/off switch. The colour of the capacitor can be used to roughly date your G99, mine very own 99 has a completely different colour to the one in the picture. The G99 in the picture was born in 1970 and you can see it has a blue capacitor. My 99 was born in 1974 and has a completely different component altogether. So, it's possible with a little examination to put a rough age to these 99's.

Now my final problem. I've been very very slowly chipping away at the metal fascia for the top plate and have hit a little snag. The speed selector switch is proving to be a real pain in the backside and I'm not sure how to progress. I've asked the Lenco community for some help and await any ideas that they may have. I do have a fix and I think it should be ok but it's always worth while checking. Now, if you look at the bottom left of the picture you will see three small lugs need the speed selector switch. I'm not quite sure what they are, I think they are just attachment legs from the fascia but I'm not sure, and herein lies the problem, what happens if it's a component I'm missing? The last 10% of this restoration seems to be taking up 90% of my attention, how does that work?


g99topplatelugs4.jpg

Anyway, stay tuned...

[brian2957]

Tidy work Andy . It seems the minutiae always takes the most time . I'm pretty sure you'll get there Andy .

[Wakefield Turntables]

Tonight's Update Pt XXXI - Sweating more of the small stuff....

It surprises me just how great the Lenco community is. I asked a few questions about a pretty obscure Idler turntable that
stopped production in the mid 70's and I get an avalanche of replies and offers from help from all over the world. I've
had helped for many of our esteemed Lenco buddies in the UK, thanks Jolly, bluetomgold and then Steve M in Canada,
Vanakaru in Estonia, Wout in the Netherlands, Chris is New Zealand. All this help over one spring!!! I need to say a
massive thanks for Vanakaru in Estonia for sending the actual spring that I needed. I also asked a question with regards
the metal fascia and then I get a message from Mattias in Sweden with full colour photographs from the underside of his
G99. Priceless. These photographs did actually help me to recognise the type of mounting screw that I need for the plastic
top fascia to the chasis of the G99 (rounded flatbed), yes I'm a geek but this restoration has to be as accurate as possible
wherever possible, I even went to the trouble of finding the correct diameter screw head!!!

It turns out the I'd also been incorrectly screwing the speed selector to the chasis and I'd been connecting it upside down
which makes feel a little stupid. I also managed to finish the speed selector today in that I finally modified the metal
top part from an old L75 speed selector and glued it into place. This took a whole side of Miles Davis before I was happy
with the fit!! The correct stabilising spring is now attached to the G99's speed selector mechanism which is another small
job off my list. The metal fascia has now hit a brick wall in that the buttons that I had made are fractionally too big and
I can't see a way of modification to make them work. They are very delicate so I can't grind them so I think the only way
forward is to have some new smaller version made which now means the metal fascia is buggered as I have cut out a button
hole which is now too big!! This is not a problem as the fascia can still be used as a template for when I make a new one.
I still have a little work to do with the metal fascia and that's the strobe light window. This work has meant that I had to modify
the plastic G88 chasis and drill and a rectangular window and then the same had to be done with the metal fascia. This part
of the fasica wasn't as hard as I originally thought it just needed a little time and consideration. The final and last part
to the fascia is the speed selection switch. I need to perform some pretty accurate drilling on both the plastic chasis first
and then this needs to be repeated on the metal fascia then this should complete the hard work.

The home straight is within site with the plastic and metal fascia. I probably need to prime the plastic chasis again and then
finally paint it. I'll stick the metal fascia onto the plastic fascia with super strong double sided sticky as I don't really
fancy using glue due to its uneven nature when spreading and curing. The decals need putting onto the metal fascia alongside
some clear varnish and then the G99 is 99.9% finished! I'll add some photo's at a later date.