AM/FM Radio Repair...Who has had good luck with who?

[72skytop]

I have two AM/FM radios that are failing. Where should I send them?

Radio#1: This radio plays, but the volume is scratchy all the time. I have cleaned it with contact cleaner and followed up with a lubricant especially for potentiometers. I have sent it to a repair shop insisting they REPLACE the 'pot', but they say they can't find one.

Radio#2: This radio is an AM/FM supposedly out of van because it has a rear speaker fader control. I like this radio best and want to use it. It has a great volume control and never scratches like the other one no matter how long the truck sits. It on the other hand, likes to play for about 5 minutes and then goes silent. The dial light stays on, but no sound. If you take the AM/FM slide bar and slide it back and forth a bunch of times really fast it will play for about another 4 minutes and so on until you get so fed up you just turn it off. The pointer is also off and does not point to the frequency it is actually tuned into. It is also hard to read the numbers on the dial at night. The light is on and bright, you just can't see the white(pale green) numbers. I have seen where you can buy a new decal for the dial. I wonder if they are selling that to fix the faint numerals on the dial.

Any ideas on who could fix these would be greatly appreciated.

On another note, I have hidden some deck mount speakers that point out of the bottom of my seat. The only way you tell they are there is to bend over and look under the seat. Has anyone ever hooked up a booster or an amp to get more power of these stock radios? I would like to fire more power at these under the seat speakers and hide it also. I think it is neat when you can improve the sound and still have the stock appearance without cutting and butchering everything to kingdom come.

Thanks for taking the time to read this.