Tony L
Administrator
As some may have noticed from other threads I currently have two 1963 Lenco L70s as well as a Spacedeck / Hadcock. I’m starting a thread just to document where I’m up to – it may be a long, long while until this project is finished as I’m still not entirely sure where I’m going, but there has been some progress so it’s worth putting my thoughts in order / documenting progress.
L70 #1, from August 63, is entirely stock other than the fact I’ve stripped and polished the platter and replaced a few wires here and there:
I use it as is in the TV room / office system (Marantz PM7200 / Quad 11L), the cart is a Pickering XV-15/625E. It is really useful for quickly assessing vinyl without going in the other room and firing up the tube amp and it sounds great. This one is done, I’m not doing anything else here.
L70 #2, from June 63, has recently been off to a pfm member for a blast and re-spray (Dave W, thanks again for doing this, much appreciated):
The original eBay ad. The platter paint was flaked all the way round the top edge and there were a few pretty bad areas on the top plate. It just looked a bit tired and knackered all round. I stripped it right down, thankfully the name plate, serial number sticker and transit screw instruction sticker all came off intact with a heat gun. One advantage of being a record dealer is I have built up great sticker removal skills! I put the stickers onto a backing strip from some 'Airmail' stickers and kept them pressed flat in an encyclopaedia for a week or so it took for the re-spray. I spent the time really cleaning and polishing all the control linkage and stripping, cleaning and rebuilding the motor & main bearing etc and getting it all as close to factory fresh as possible.
The top plate after bead blasting. Note Dave masked the area where the date stamp / SN sticker goes. A really nice touch as I didn’t want to loose that date as it’s my own month / year of birth – this deck is exactly my age!
The platter after bead blasting.
The deck re-sprayed and reassembled showing, amongst other things, both stickers back in their original position.
With it’s beautiful white platter. Restoration phase done.
I’m not putting the arm back at this stage as I still haven’t reached a conclusion as to how I’m going to plinth it / what arm(s) it is going to get. I have several conflicting ideas floating around at this stage and may take months for me to really decide. Given that commissioning a plinth is the most expensive step in the project I really want to get the design right…
Tony.
PS better resolution pics here.
L70 #1, from August 63, is entirely stock other than the fact I’ve stripped and polished the platter and replaced a few wires here and there:
I use it as is in the TV room / office system (Marantz PM7200 / Quad 11L), the cart is a Pickering XV-15/625E. It is really useful for quickly assessing vinyl without going in the other room and firing up the tube amp and it sounds great. This one is done, I’m not doing anything else here.
L70 #2, from June 63, has recently been off to a pfm member for a blast and re-spray (Dave W, thanks again for doing this, much appreciated):
The original eBay ad. The platter paint was flaked all the way round the top edge and there were a few pretty bad areas on the top plate. It just looked a bit tired and knackered all round. I stripped it right down, thankfully the name plate, serial number sticker and transit screw instruction sticker all came off intact with a heat gun. One advantage of being a record dealer is I have built up great sticker removal skills! I put the stickers onto a backing strip from some 'Airmail' stickers and kept them pressed flat in an encyclopaedia for a week or so it took for the re-spray. I spent the time really cleaning and polishing all the control linkage and stripping, cleaning and rebuilding the motor & main bearing etc and getting it all as close to factory fresh as possible.
The top plate after bead blasting. Note Dave masked the area where the date stamp / SN sticker goes. A really nice touch as I didn’t want to loose that date as it’s my own month / year of birth – this deck is exactly my age!
The platter after bead blasting.
The deck re-sprayed and reassembled showing, amongst other things, both stickers back in their original position.
With it’s beautiful white platter. Restoration phase done.
I’m not putting the arm back at this stage as I still haven’t reached a conclusion as to how I’m going to plinth it / what arm(s) it is going to get. I have several conflicting ideas floating around at this stage and may take months for me to really decide. Given that commissioning a plinth is the most expensive step in the project I really want to get the design right…
Tony.
PS better resolution pics here.