Project Rehab

I have been itching to grab some ratty old piece of furniture that had been well loved and abused from some thrift store. My intentions once I got this piece of furniture were to rehab/repurpose it into something awesome and uniquely me. This weekend we did just that... well we at least started the process.
This hunk of wood is my new baby. We picked it up at Goodwill for 30 bucks. It is a 1950/1951 radio and record player by Capehart. It's a really neat piece. None of it is operable though. Glenn decided to test that and plugged it in. He consequently started a mini fire (according to him... I was somewhere else at the time this happened) and blew an outlet. Fun stuff.
You can see that the condition of all the wiring back here is questionable to say the least!
The bottom right panel houses this speaker, which I promptly took out. It definitely wasn't going to be of any use to me.
This is the panel covering the speaker. If you look carefully you can see the round outline. Don't you just love the cool diamond detailing? I know I do.
As you can see, this is the radio panel. It has an AM/FM tuner. It's really cool and I was hoping to be able to make it useful again, but considering I know absolutely nothing about wiring and the age of everything, it just isn't going to happen. Now I have to figure out a way to bang this panel out of there so I can make it a functional shelf.
Here we have the bottom left door of the piece. This is the only functional storage space at the moment. It has a shelf built in and an operational door. Thankfully I don't have too much to do to this part.
I thought it was so cool when I found the manufacturer's tag on the back. I was really glad it was still intact. I'm going to have to find a way to incorporate it into my design. It was especially cool to me because I was able to look up the model number online and find out the age of the piece. In case you are wondering if I managed to pick up some valuable antique at a steal, the answer is no. It's worth about what I paid for it. Oh well. When I am done with it, I will have a one of a kind piece that I love.
This is the fabric that covers the panels on the bottom. I thought they were some kind of mesh, but after poking around a bit I discovered that it is glued on fabric. You can see where the diamond shaped hardware was before I took it off. The fabric was apparently a dark red at one point before its age and light faded it to a tan color. I'll update it with some cool graphic fabric when the project is closer to being finished.
I absolutely adore the hardware. I may just polish it to restore some shine, but I'll most likely end up spray painting it glossy white or black.
You can see this piece is not in such great shape. It's going to take a lot of sanding and wood filler to get it into workable condition. You may be wondering what my master plan in terms of color is. Well my friends... wait for it... HOT PINK! Obviously.
I promise I will keep you all updated on my shenanigans. Today I begin prepping by lots and lots of sanding. FUN!

Love to all!!!