Who is the best person to repair a Wonderbar

[Stewart A.]

Just spent a month with a small antique radio repairer, he has just advised me to send the unit to the states for repairs, can anybody suggest a small business that could handle a rebiuld.
Has any one had a wonderbar fixed and had a positive experience. I would love to here about it and the firms name .

[Terry D.]

Re: Who is the best person to repair a Wonderbar

Stuart
My first choice would be Charles Siegfried, 707-823-7927 or check with Tony Mac Crutchfield at www.wonderbarman.com both are very good at what they do.
Terry

[Mark P.]

Re: Who is the best person to repair a Wonderbar

Stewart - if you search this site the name that comes up a lot with nothing but positive remarks is Charles Siegfried in Northern California (Sepastopol). He is doing the Wonderbar for my 1960 right now. He takes about 4 weeks and charges a flat rate $550 and guarantees his work for 3 years. He changes most of the capacitors and other parts that were not designed to perform very long even if they are still working. He is also very friendly. I spoke to 4 other repair companies and they charge $150 to $250 but don't do as much and one of them some even told me Charles was the best in the business. If you plan to keep the car I would use Charles, if you plan to sell it in the near future you may want to use one of the other guys like Ray's Auto Stereo also in Northern California (Sacramento) who is an NCRS advertiser.

Mark

[Christopher R.]

Re: Who is the best person to repair a Wonderbar

Siegfried did mine a few years ago. At that time, it was $550 plus $30 shipping. That didn't include the speaker. The speaker was $50 plus shipping. That also doesn't include cosmetic restoration. Radio works great now. It's cool to watch the mechanical signal seeking do its thing.

After all this money, what are you going to do with a correctly working AM radio? In the US on the AM band, there's nothing except right wing nut-job talk shows, religious talk shows, sports talk shows, and foreign language talk shows. You'll always get static, and can sometimes get traffic and weather reports. Will the US AM band get you any stations in Australia?

[Jack H.]

Re: Who is the best person to repair a Wonderbar

It depends on what you mean by 'fixed'... Some shops will make the radio electronics work but don't touch and/or guarantee the operability of the Wonderbar seek function (primarily mechanical). Then, there's a full restoration that addresses both the radio & seek function + the exterior cosmetics (chrome trim + dial pointer).

Siegfried probably does the BEST job of restoring electronics + seek function (including ALL of the Delco authorized circuitry updates AND replacing discrete components known to age/drift). But, you have to separately negotiate for cosmetic issues and his services will NOT be cheap! He does a bang up job that's VERY labor intensive--not just a 'quick fix'...

[Chuck L.]

Re: Who is the best person to repair a Wonderbar

Stewart,
You might want to contact Fred's Classic Auto Radios & Clocks in Lenexa, Kansas. He made a presentation to our KC Chapter and was very knowledgeable about all antique radios. He only deals with American cars 1947 through 1977. Don't have any idea about his prices, but he has done work for notable collectors in our area. His info is: (913) 599-2303, www.FredsClassicRadios.com

[Arland D.]

Re: Who is the best person to repair a Wonderbar

As a past customer and visitor to his shop when we lived in the S.F. Bay Area, I would have Charles Siegfried work on all my radios in the future.

[Pat H.]

Re: Who is the best person to repair a Wonderbar

Just a piece of advice. When you send your radio to be repaired, send the speaker with it. My speaker exterior coil was also bad. Its best to give the entire package to have it refurbished.

[Pat H.]

Re: Who is the best person to repair a Wonderbar

Just a piece of advice. Send/give the repair shop all the components, speaker included. This was everything will be calibrated properly. I sent my radio out and it was repaired, but the speaker also had a problem.