I got this old tube radio off of Craigslist a little over a year ago. The case was pretty bad, the lady I got it from said it had been left out in a old school bus in the desert for some time. That story was a new one for me but I figured I could restore this old thing. Eventually I got time to mess with it and realised it didn't work, so I pulled the chasis from the case, it was squeeky clean and pretty cool looking, and I noticed that when plugged in, one of the tubes weren't lighting and with a little probing with a DMM, it was the culprit. Once replaced it lit up and worked awesome! However the case was pretty trashed and as it turned out, the exterior was just laminate and the carpet face was nasty as well. So I can up with this solution...

Step 1: Parts and Supplies

Tube radio - $5
Replacement tube - $5
Kite string - $0.99
New power cord - $3
Acrylic and glue - $75 (www.Tapplastics.com)
Knobs - $8
Power supply, fan, LED's, and many misc parts from around the house - FREE!

The main tools used were simply a Drill with a few various bits, and a soldering iron.

The acrylic came precut to the dimensions I submitted to the company and they did a great job at it. It came as the picture shows, wrapped in plastic for protection. Only thing required of me was to assemble it.