When I finally had a place to put my old B-3 and took it out of storage, it was in very sad shape.
The wood veneer had separated at the edges in many areas. I removed all the parts from the cabinet and went to work with clamps and glue. I worked the glue in behind the veneer with some thin cardboard. C-clamps worked well here.
Alligator type clamps did the job in this area.
The front bottom panel was reattached with glue and small brads.
For the loose veneer on the curved corners I held the glue job in place with some blocks and ratchet straps.
Ready to install the parts into the repaired B-3 case.
After the transplant, I had some leftover parts in the A-102.
Now I have a killer B-3 for gigs and recording, and still have the classic spring reverb and tube sound system from the A-102 for home use. Additionally, I wired this rig up to play through my pair of vintage Leslie 122 cabinets, not pictured here.
The organ had numerous playing problems as well. Rather than troubleshoot and repair or replace all the faulty components, I decided to completely replace everything all at once with the innards from this great sounding, lightly used Hammond A-102.
I also used the pedal contacts and actual pedals from the A-102 since they were in such nice shape. I needed to drill out a few rivets and attach the pedal footrest from the old worn pedals.
I decided to make a speaker cab out of the three vintage woofers, the two internal tube amps, and spring reverb, since it was such a sweet sounding system.
These A-102 parts are identical to B-3 parts.
With a little woodwork I rearranged the A-102's parts into this. The swell pedal shroud was ventilated to prevent the reverb amp from overheating. I like having the tube amps prominently displayed.