I just fixed up an HQ-145 of about the same vintage as the HQ-180 and
my canned electrolytics, a triple section capacitor containing the two
power supply filters and an audio capacitor failed the "smoke" test.
I recapped those three caps. I did save the can in case I ever want
to reinstall modern caps inside the can, but that seemed like an awful
lot of work when even the most ardent collectors acknowledge that
capacitor substitution should be done anyway in the interest of
safety. Since small radio parts failed even when new and parts
replacement was a normal activity (that's why there were so many
radio/TV repairment around...where have they gone?) I guess this sort
of restoration isn't quite as anal retensive as restoring Corvettes.

Jon Teske, W3JT

Jon Teske ) writes:
I just fixed up an HQ-145 of about the same vintage as the HQ-180 and
my canned electrolytics, a triple section capacitor containing the two
power supply filters and an audio capacitor failed the "smoke" test.
I recapped those three caps. I did save the can in case I ever want
to reinstall modern caps inside the can, but that seemed like an awful
lot of work when even the most ardent collectors acknowledge that
capacitor substitution should be done anyway in the interest of
safety.

I thought a lot of "recap everything" was based on the assumption
that some would fail, and once you're at it, you might as well do
them all.

This is especially significant in things that would actually classify
as boatanchors, since getting them open can often require quite a bit
of work. Once you've done that to fix that one capacitor embedded way
down in layers of shielding, changing the other capacitors at the time
hardly adds much time to the effort. But if you don't simply change
all the capacitors at that time, you're doomed to going through the
disassembly process at some later point.

It actually seems to be the real collectors that drive the notion
of keeping things intact. They want that original look, so they
will stuff new capacitors in old cases, and print up new paper wrappers
to put on new capacitors when that fits the situation. SOme will even
decide that "keeping it original" is more important than using the thing,
so they don't do anything to it, letting it sit on the shelf unused
rather than do anything to it. But they are collecting, which is different
from someone who wants an old radio to actually use.

Michael VE2BVW