Vidor CN439 'Vagabond' LW + MW valve radio 1957

Vidor CN439 'Vagabond' 4 valve LW & MW battery radio from 1957. Vidor were a battery company like EverReady that started to make their own radios, generally most are quite ugly, but this one appealed to me, it looks like a TNT firing box, lol The handle houses the aerial coil and pops up for better reception and to give access to the controls. It's also a two sided radio as sound will emanate from the rear as well as the front. In fact the only way to tell the back from the front is the back has a chrome centre removal screw for battery access. (shown above)
The repair
This possibly was the last portable valve radio Vidor made? Quite a rare model this one, first one I've ever come across, a large piece of the side trim had been snapped off and lost, this affected the sale price, so I didn't pay too much. First off I masked off the the damaged area and mixed some Milliput compound and moulded a new section of white trim.

When dry I sanded the finish smooth and painted over with water colour paint, this allows you to mix and get the right colour needed to match. Next I rubbed the red parts of the cabinet with plastic restorer. Then removed the top control knobs, held in place by spring clips, but be careful not the break the brittle plastic when removing, use a driver each side of knob to lift away without stressing the plastic. The domed brass areas of the knobs were very dull, so I removed them and needed to use wire wool to get shine back. When I glued them back I reversed the inserted dome (looked better)

I cleaned and reversed the brass centres and cleaned years of dust from inside all the knobs.

I've included as much service information as I could find for others to use if needed. My electrical repair was very simple, it worked? shock, horror, lol

The carry handle is spring loaded you may need to re grease the latch and spring, check valve pins are clean and heaters are good before you turn on. Just two hex 4BA bolts hold the chassis to the cabinet, use a box spanner if you have one. (useful for old radios and TV's are 6,4 & 2 BA box spanners, 6 being the smallest))

The inside of the rear shows battery types and valve positions and numbers (small label is BBC licence sticker to show that the manufacturer paid part of the licence fee.)
The radio is very sensitive picking up all the distant or weak signals, Ireland and France on LW as well as Droitwich (BBC Radio Four), and the Medium Wave band good too with very low background noise thanks to the use of valves.