You might be surprised - It may work right away. Or it may work but hum loudly. The capacitors in those old radios tend to be bad after so long in storage but you can replace them pretty cheaply.

Sometimes the electrical cord is frayed or insulation brittle and cracked. If that's the case, replace the cord before plugging it in. Again, that's an inexpensive repair.

Often times the tubes still work. If one is weak or not working at all, you can still get replacements. I have a ton of tubes, so I may have what you need, if you need any at all.

Write back and let me know the condition. If it isn't working, you can probably get it running again pretty easily.

My suggestion besides replacing the caps would be to replace the selenium rectifier to individual diodes (if it has one).

Also, I'm sure it has "live" chassis, so an isolation transformer and grounded 3-prong power cord would be a wise option.

I would suggest going to this website and to their radio forum. I've had lots of help with some old radios and there are some very knowledgable people there.

• Radio Forum

The case is actually in wonderful condition. It's nitrocellulose lacquer finish is crazed a bit but the veneer seems mostly intact. Don't even wax it and especially, not with Pledge.

Replace the buttons, get it working and let those 45 tubes work their magic. Lucky guy.

Been around longer too.

• ART Vintage Radio Forum

Was just giving him some other places to find info if he wanted it. I found someone over at the other site that had specific knowledge and 1st hand experience with one of my Zenith radios which was very helpful.

Restoration will lower any possible antique value. A thorough cleaning would be fine, tho. Just a few drops of Dawn in 2 cups of warm water applied with a damp, not wet, white cloth. Keep wiping until the cloth comes way clean, then rinse with damp, not wet cloth and wipe dry.

Ordinarily, this would be followed by paste wax, Johnsons or Antiquax, but the crazing of the lacquer means some wax would remain in the cracks and be unsightly. If the lacquer is on tight, the wax can be brushed with a soft brush like you'd use to buff shoes and that will fix whatever wax remains.

An intermediate way to restore the finish if antique value isn't important would be to use Behlen's Qualarenu to dissolve and re-form the old lacquer.

Full re-finishing would involve stripping the lacquer with lacquer thinner and then professional re-spraying. You'd want to carefully choose a refinish shop for that, veneer damage is a real possibility.

I'd have a reputable antique refinisher recommended by a good antique dealer in to look at the piece. Hard to tell from a photo but the veneer looks so good and so lovely I'd just clean and wax.