I love big ol 60s combo consoles. This Ambasador may be restorable or not. With these few pix what do you guys think?

Candidate for restoration or candidate for later model color crt and chassis transplant?

I haven't powered it up and have no reliable history on it.

I like it, but it would be pretty sweet with a modern color chassis in it. What size is the screen?

From the front and from over the protective glass, it measures 21" diagonally.

It uses what was then designated as a 23" CRT. I hate to see any set gutted and this set is an excellent candidate for restoration if the CRT is good.

It's hard to tell just from pictures of the chassis. I don't see anything broken, but if the picture tube is good (I see no brightner, an aftermarket device used to squeeze a few more hours of service from a worn out tube), if the flyback transformer is good, all you should need to do is replace all the wax paper caps and the electrolytic caps. I don't see a power transformer, so this may be a "hot chassis" design. Safe enough in normal use, but be careful when troubleshooting it. Also such designs used selenium rectifiers, which are usually ready to fail today, as their lifetimes have run out by now. Likely, the tubes are okay, tubes not used in equipment or on teh shelf will last forever, but wax paper caps go bad used or not.

I bet it works as-is, it should still be recapped for reliability.

I bet it works as-is, it should still be recapped for reliability.

I like your optimism. Any rough idea what the parts cost would be for a complete recap. Just a general dollar amount. You know, like over $100 but probably not over $200. Something like that.

Based on the condition of the yoke plastic part, My guess is the set was inside a air conditions enviroment its whole life (as opposed to humid u store it shed). this is good, I would suspect you have a better than 50/50 chance that it will work as is. It would be a good idea to so a soft start if it has not been turned on in a long while. I always use a metered variac and disconnect the HOT (may not be an option with a string series set) and do a very slow startup while monitoring the B+ so as not to exceed the recommended B+ total. Going very slow while looking for excessive current and or smoke.

If if has any wax caps, they have got to go, but that era tended to not have any wax papers. you just need to get the chassis and look.

Caps aren't expensive. Maybe $20 worth? This set is new enough that many could be the mylar type (orange drops, or the maroon caps made by Mallory) and I wouldn't touch those proactively.

This is not a common brand at all-a store brand, maybe? I've only seen them when leafing through stacks of Sams Photofacts. Let us know if you need a copy (which you will, if you plan on doing the recap)

If you eventually decide to gut this set, best not to ever let any of us know about it! Preservation and orginality are the watchwords here.

...I don't see a power transformer, so this may be a "hot chassis" design. Safe enough in normal use, but be careful when troubleshooting it. Also such designs used selenium rectifiers, which are usually ready to fail...
Guessing by the vintage, they're probably top hat silicons. Also, lurking just behind (or in front of) the big black doubler cap is what might be a soft-start thermistor. If it is, there's a good chance that it's open. Bill(oc)

The Sams index shows 721-2 as the schematic, from 1964. Don't recall what stores sold that brand...

The Sams index shows 721-2 as the schematic, from 1964. Don't recall what stores sold that brand...

Hey Phil,

Think I should order one or just jump in with both feet and see what's what first.

Don't recall what stores sold that brand...

Montgomery Wards maybe? Whichever stores down that way were around at the time.

Curiosity, what's the tube lineup on the TV section? I suspect that this does indeed have a power transformer, but in a different location of the set.

Its cool, totally worth restoring. For some reason it makes me think of those 70s Cadillacs that had the massive 500 cubic inch 175 hp motor.

Monkey Wards' brand was Airline.

Associated Stores, as I recall. I looked it up the other day (maybe I posted it on ARF? I remember typing it!) I'm guessing they supplied smaller, regional department stores, or something like that?