Found a Zenith

[Penthode]

Today's front page of the university newspaper depicted a fellow strumming a banjo on the front porch of his lodgings. My eyes immediately went to the Zenith color TV sitting on the front lawn.

The house was just up the street from where I work. I knocked on the door. A girl answered and a guy upstairs said "does someone want the set? Tell 'em it doesn't work!" The girl said she was sick of it and just take it.

It is a 24MC32 and here is the newspaper clipping and my cell phone pictures of the set after I retrieved it. All the tubes are in place, the cabinet is faded but sound apart fro a broken leg and the only other thing I see broken is a minor convergence coil plastic breakage on the convergence panel. The front panel and a couple of knobs are missing. It appears otherwise quite clean inside and restorable.

I shall shortly test the CRT.

Terry

[miniman82]

Miracle it wasn't necked.

[mpatoray]

Cool acquisition story, congrats on the new set. Hope you can get it working in short order.

Matt

[Zenith26kc20]

sweet critter! Those can give a great picture!
And it has the complimentary melted focus wand.
Change the bumblebees, check the electrolytics and get the variac!

[DavGoodlin]

Good save! We should all be as on-it as you when these opportunities arise.

[Sandy G]

Were they playin' "Dueling Banjos ?" Gawd, that movie STILL gives me The Creeps, 40 years on...It was filmed right below Chattanooga, where I went to boarding school, & the locals were NOT Best Pleased w/their depiction, either...

[ggregg]

Kinda like us around here when Fargo came out, ya know.

[Penthode]

I do not know how long the set was on the lawn. It must have gone thru a rain storm or two. It is testimony to Zenith chassis plating as there is virtually no rust. And the cabinet survived without delaminating.

I have seen a number of sets like which always seem to get necked. This set is a real survivor.

I removed the chassis to clean and examine. And the tube was tested as depicted. The tube took about half an hour to wake up and the three guns are giving good emission.

[AUdubon5425]

Originally Posted by ggregg

Kinda like us around here when Fargo came out, ya know.

Was living in Fargo around that time - loved the people telling me that they didn't sound like that at all.

[bgadow]

A great way to find a roundie! You really do have to have your eyes open all the time...looks like a colorful character, sitting next to that colorful TV. No surprise that this set survived, 60s Zeniths almost always do, somehow.

[Charlie]

I think I have that same Zenith. Mine has a dead crt and toasted pwr tranny. If nothing else, you at least have a good CRT.

[Penthode]

Last weekend I spliced in the part of the missing leg with a piece of poplar. I do not know the original wood but the poplar should stain to match.

I am a sucker for these down and out sets. But this roundie deserved to be saved. The chassis fortunately survived in good state.

[miniman82]

Excellent work! I agree, sets this downtrodden absolutely deserve to return to the land of the living. A true diamond in the rough!

[hi_volt]

Looks a lot like one of the Zenith sets I acquired in January. Good score! I like the danish modern cabinet.

[Penthode]

I have been doing a bit of work on this set, as time permits, over the last month or so. I stripped the cabinet, restained it in Chesnut Brown and relaquered it with three coats of aerosol laquer.

It was a smoker set so there was tons of gunk to clean off from the interior. I removed the HV cage, removed the HO Transformer and cleaned it fully out. It is now pretty spotless.

I replaced a few cracked coils, the power connector and the curcuit breaker. I fashioned a couple of knobs to replace those missing. Still need the control door.

Fired it up on the weekend and did some trouble shooting. All appears to be in order EXCEPT for the HO Transformer. It appears to breakdown in operation so there is no HV. I called Moyers and await their reply.