Lafayette KT-135

Lafayette KT-135 EXPLOR-AIR radio kit

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More KT-135 stuff and what-not

The KT-135 made the front cover of the 1964 Lafayette Christmas catalog!

From a 1970 Lafayette catalog. The price, adjusted for inflation for the year 2025, is equal to $187.90.

Above is an older version of the KT-135 with the original style knobs. During the 12 years it was produced there were two different styles of knobs, three different front panels, two different chassis types, and at least nine styles of "Leatherette covered Wooden Cabinets."

This radio sold for $100 on ebay in June of 2015. The seller stated it didn't work. No worries there, on page 18 of the assembly manual it says you can bring it to Lafayette and they'll fix it for you for four dollars!

Cabinet Styles

More "Leatherette" designs.

Under the "leatherette" is a fabric that resembles linen. Photo is of the reverse side of the covering.

This type of covering is on some very early models. No attempt was made to make it look like leather.

The original style knobs on the left were included with the kit from 1958 to the mid 1960s. The newer style knobs on the right date back to at least 1965. They were not sold in the catalog and a replacement is very hard to find today. These particular knobs are not found on any Lafayette equipment other than the KT-135. The KT-200 and KT-320 used similar knobs, but they aren't the same. In the 1970s Lafayette sold a pack of five matched knobs that were almost duplicates, but they were gray instead of black. (Catalog Number 99 E 61160).

With age, the glue holding the metal ring to the knob dries out and the ring gets loose. If the ring is lost a replacement is impossible to find. Almost just as impossible to find is an intact knob with the ring still in it. You can search through thousands of knobs on ebay and at hamfests and never encounter one.

The very early models had a cylindrical speaker magnet mount.

Occasionally you will see a speaker on an early model with a "utah" label.

There were three types of speaker grills. Oldest to newest shown left to right.

There were two chassis types. The older models have the lettering printed on the chassis and are 8.75 inches wide.
The newer ones are stamped and are 9 inches wide.

Early and later style capacitors and shaft extensions. The capacitor shaft is slightly longer on the newer style, so the extension is shorter.

There were at least four different manuals. Three of them are shown here.
Photo above thanks to Dave Nance WB4SSE. Click for on it for full size.

Here's an interesting variation on the front panel. The KT-135 on the right has a single stripe. The single stripe makes it somewhat unique. It was sold on ebay in May of 2022 for $218.49.

A Third Version?

The advertisement on the left appeared in the May, 1959 issue of Electronics World.
The size of the radio in the ad is one inch wide. It's not possible to get much detail.

This picture is from the 1959 Lafayette catalog.

This picture is from the November 1959 issue of Electronics Illustrated, page 80. It is the most detailed picture found to date. The original is 2.5 inches wide, and this is the maximum amount of detail possible, even though scanned at high resolution. Notice the nice lower knobs and the fact that the word "Explor-Air" is missing. All the pictures in the various ads and articles are the same picture.

Were any made that actually looked like this? If not, how did they get the picture? The front panel seems to be shifted to the right, so they may have used some photographic editing to put the radio into the cabinet.

Since we'll probably never see what one of these looked like in real life, if they actually existed at all, I made one. This is printed on 90 weight paper and glued to a piece of poster board, but the knobs, screws and cabinet are real. To see a larger photo click here.

You will OF COURSE want to make your own, so here ya go.

Dating your KT-135 (sort of)

To get the approximate year your KT-135 kit was packaged, look for a number on the speaker. If you see a "20-84" and a "24," the date the speaker (probably) was manufactured are the two digits next to "24." Put the number nineteen in front of it. So "67" becomes 1967. Not all of the speakers had this numbering scheme.

CAUTION: I've found three speakers with the number 20-84 24 70 33 (far right, above). Someone wrote in and said he has that number on his speaker, but there is no way the speaker was from 1970. He was out of the Air Force in 1970 and had built the radio around 1965 while in high school. So take this dating method with a grain of salt, especially if your speaker has that number.

Dating the knob style change

1965

1966

1967

1968

Using Lafayette catalogs to determine when the knob style was changed, we see it happened sometime in 1967. After 1967, Lafayette used the same photo for every advertisement. I guess they ran out of film. Click any picture to see versions of the catalog ads.

In 1967, Davies Molding, maker of the "Daka-Ware" knobs found on the KT-135, had a fire which destroyed their main plant in Chicago, Illinois. This coincides with the year the knob style was changed in the catalog pictures. On the next page you can see that the that the newer style knobs were in use as early as 1965, but after the fire at Davies Molding the old style knobs were never used again.

Lafayette Logo

This Lafayette trademark was filed on 10/30/1960. It's "first use" was reported on 05/12/1959. On the left is the trademark, on the right is the KT-135 front panel. Interestingly, Lafayette had been using this logo since at least 1947! By 1963 it had been phased out in favor of a LAFAYETTE logo in block letters, then later with a drawing of Marquis de Lafayette to the left of it. This new logo has a filing date of 10/28/1966. The older logo continued to be used alongside the new one in the catalogs, and of course, it was also found on the KT-135 till 1971.

1966 Lafayette trademark.

Dimensions

The dimensions, in inches.

The cabinet is made of 3/8" plywood. The side joints are dovetailed. The approximate outside dimensions are 10 1/2" wide, 7 1/2" high and 5 3/4" deep. 1/4" strips of wood around the inside front hold the front panel of the radio in place.

Because the cabinet was sold separately, not every KT-135 has one. It shouldn't be hard to make one, it's a wooden box that has a 10 x 7 opening in the front. When the radio is inside there is 1/2" of clearance on the sides, so you don't have to dovetail the joints. Just use the same strips of 1/4" wood that are around the inside front to hold the sides together. (See Page 8.)

Grab a cool looking roll of pre-pasted vinyl wallpaper to cover the cabinet. Don't worry about the wallpaper coming off the cabinet when the radio falls into the bathtub while you're in there listening to it. Let the new owner worry about that.

For a proper appearance, use #4 finishing washers and #4 slotted head wood screws to hold the radio into the cabinet. The finishing washers (called cup washers in the manual) came with the radio but the screws came with the cabinet. The #4 hardware is hard to find. If you need the finishing washers, email me your address. I happen to have 96 92 88 84 spares.

Box with part number.

This box is from 1965.

Solder that came with the kit. (Thanks to Jeff Hutchinson)

Band "C" is referenced twice on the BANDSPREAD dial.

LOOK! I cleaned up the mess I made on the card table! For once.

It stayed clean for a whole day. I got Art Auch's radio the next day, and started work on it. A week later I was swapping speakers. Art Auch's speaker was DOA. I ordered a 4" replacement for my modified radio (what did it matter?) and put the "stock" speaker into Art's radio. What you don't see is all the crap on the floor. Hey, I only have so much room on the table.

On September 12, 2015 I found my old desk in a bedroom at my mom's house. I hadn't seen it in 41 years. It has a new finish on it thanks to my brother, but my initials can still be seen carved into it at the far right. Today I would never carve something into a piece of furniture.