Westinghouse 17TV7C
 

This was a restoration project I started to run into troubles with. I was recommended here from another corner of the web. :D

The set was picked up from the side of the road with a FREE sign on it.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0708.jpg

Never seen that much hardwood on a TV before. It's a combo unit too. TV, AM radio and record player. A stamp on the chassis says it was built April 28 1953. Both the cabinet and the chassis were built in Canada so it's no doubt this puts the set right when my grandfather used to service Westinghouse appliances.
The cabinet looks really bad but for the most part it was just the sun that did most of the damage. The stain on any exposed part rubs off your hand, that gasket hanging down is solid as a rock. the speaker grille fabric has been essentially bleached white and the tuning knob is clouding up.
Picture tube visually looks okay but we'll have ti find out later what all those years int he sun might of done to the phosphors.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0709.jpg
The record player was seized up and very dirty when I received it. There was also oddly a lack of bolts and screws. Everything was either missing or mismatched.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0724.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0715.jpg

The chassis looks okay. There wasn't a whole lot of dirt on it. The anode cable was hanging out of the H/V cage so the solder joint on the 8016's socket went bad. I'll have to run all the tubes through the checker though. The capacitors on the other hand are definitely in need of attention. I'll put it aside until the cabinet is repaired.

Anyways, so the cabinet needed a recoat. I sanded it down to bare wood and restained with several coats with the closest tint I could find. I think I settled on red Mahogany. I spent several days trying to source a new and identical replacement to the fabric but eventually I had to admit defeat and bought half a meter of the closest thing that they would of put on a TV in the 50's.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0714.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0728.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0733.jpg
(I sure hope I have not made any mistakes yet. I've heard stories about botched restorations and people screaming sacrilege over it. I'm trying the best I can.)

The cabinet is almost restored however I'm having trouble with one of the extra pieces of detail. There used to be horizontal gold stripes and lettering and I'm not entirely sure how to reapply either. It wasn't the kind of thing I could sand around either. so I need ideas on how to paint it back on. Any of the old folks here have any secrets?

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0713.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0723.jpg

I also spent a bit of time cleaning up the record player. It all freed up with 3-in-1 and grease but the friction wheel was totally dead. I was able to replace it with a rubber O-ring but there's a problem with traction. None of the speeds are correct and the automatic arm loading/unloading is enough to completely bog down the turntable. Any ideas there for better traction?

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0717.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0719.jpg
http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0720.jpg

There's also other random bits and pieces that need attention. I'm missing several knobs and have no idea where to find replacements.
Another thing I'm concerned about is the decal inside the glass. IS there anything I should brush on it to prevent it from flaking off?

Glad you joined. :) Hopefully someone here can help you.

For the lines, as I recommended the other day, maybe a straight ruler and some gold paint on a fine pointed brush may help, but hopefully someone else will chip in with ideas. The woodworking has come along real nicely so far!

nice work on the cabinet ,i like the replacement speaker cloth better than the orginal.

or a straightedge with a gold paint pen from a craft store.

RE: Gold Lines

Cover the area entirely with the best "no bleed" masking tape available. Then take a straight edge and an exacto knife and cut through the masking tape and peal off the tape to create lines and expose the wood underneath. Then mask off the rest of the set with paper and masking tape to prevent overspray and use gold spray paint in a can to paint the gold lines. This is pretty much the same method that is used to paint graphic designs like racing stripes on a car.

Any tips on making the thickness the same for each line or is that just a good ruler?

On the turntable. I think the O-ring will work but it is just to slick. Use sand paper 300g or an emery board to rough it up and I bet it works just fine.

Great job so far. Old westy's should be saved whenever possible. that cabinet looks great! Add a coat of lacquer and it would look like original, but new.

Im sure have the schematic diagram for that TV. I will need the model number and if its a different number for Canadian Westinghouse,
I might need to see a photo of the tube chart from inside the cabinet to match up.

Also helpful: the chassis number, is a V followed by four numbers.

There's two stickers marked CHASSIS No: 99423 and 69436 plus a bunch of ink stamped stuff that looks like QA steps but otherwise there's nothing close to what you speak of. Neither is there any mention on the tube chart.

http://i11.photobucket.com/albums/a1...y/CGS_0726.jpg

I like how the 1N60, which is a solid state diode, is listed in the tube chart such that the average Joe would not know that it is not a tube...

That photo is very helpful but the numbers are strictly Canadian Westinghouse.
I will look at the tube chart and likely find a matching set with an H-prefix model number

Very nice restoration on the cabinet. love this tv.. Lucky man !...

Sorry for the lack of real updates. Work keeps me on my toes a lot (as does photography, videography, vintage computers and oh god I have way too many hobbies) so I can't regularly keep my hands on a project. Don't worry though, I'll give a nice update when I get the time in the next few days. ;)
I did however start looking up a place to source new capacitors. Should I keep with more traditional looking caps or upgrade to more modern lytic and plastic film? Also, any ideas for the lettering yet? I tried making a stencil with a laser printer and xacto knife but wasn't happy with the result.

So far so good on the restoration.
Addressing the gold stripes. If you are not comfortable doing this yourself, I would suggest an auto customizing shop and find the guy that does the pin stripping. I believe you can find the appropriate decals for the lettering on line i.e.: http://www.radiodaze.com/product/6078.aspx

-Steve D.

I don't know what you mean by traditional looking, but nobody has made old-fashioned paper or "bumblebee" caps in years (and that's a good thing, since those caps were junk). This article has a lot of information about recapping:

http://antiqueradio.org/recap.htm

Two good sources for caps are http://www.mouser.com/ and http://www.justradios.com/ .

Regards,

Phil Nelson
Phil's Old Radios
http://antiqueradio.org/index.html