I found an RCA Victor 6T87 yesterday at a local thrift store.

They had it priced at $225, then marked it down several times over many weeks eventually to $65. I could not walk away from it, I was captivated. It's a piece of history and I had to restore it, or find someone who could. I was afraid they might toss it if they couldn't sell it. They had a dozen other consoles too. They even had another vintage radio console with all the Bakelite knobs (priced at $200+) that I couldn't negotiate with them on.

So, the 6T87 has a small record player combo with radio (AM/FM), then another record player, and then a TV. The woodwork is solid, and the finish is very pretty. The TV had no broken glass and all the knobs were present and labels visible. The record players had their problems, broken arm on one and no needles on either. But, they had all of their knobs too and nothing else appeared to be missing upon visual inspection.

We are moving to an apartment so this had to go to storage (climate controlled!). I plan to do research and see if I can restore it to working condition. I will not turn it on until I replace the caps and do any other necessary repairs. I will not risk burning up components like I have on other pieces.

Here is something I found from other forums/google searches:

"Checking the SAMS index, the television chassis of model 6T87 is covered in SAMS 113-7, and the radio chassis is covered in SAMS 122-8.

I also checked RCA Service Data 1950 No. T15, and there is no doubt about this one (it covers models 6T84, 6T86, 6T87 with chassis KCS48 or KCS48T)."

This gives me a starting point to look at what components I will need. I have been rattling my brain to figure out if I should even try to restore this. I think if I found someone who collected these things I might pass it on, because this project could take me years. We shall see.

I will be posting pics soon; I have to go back to the storage unit with my camera.

Any comments are greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,
Matthew

A few years ago I picked up a RCA 6T71/KCS47A and after going thought it I found it to be a real good proformer. Pulls in local stations with just a short lenght of wire. A bit of a pain to work on as the crt is mounted to the cabinet. I made extention cables for the yoke,crt,& anode leads so I could run the set on top of the cabinet while making adjustments. For the most part recaping and replacing the resistors in the sweep circuits took care of it.Just "Won" one on ebay tonite. The finish and veener on the older one is pretty rough so I bid on this one mostly for the cabinet and spare crt if good is nice to have.
Terry

Well, here are the pics... I'm still on the fence about keeping/restoring it. My wife did think it was pretty cool once she saw it. Thats a real good thing! :thmbsp:

Very nice! And distaff approval (or at least acceptance) is 9/10ths the battle. :thmbsp:

Glad it was you that moved that set than me. That baby's gotta weigh some. :D

Hi Matt. I have the same set. It belonged to my wife's Grandmother. I found the guts to the set in her basement. My wife said her cousin had taken the cabinet for a bar. I called the cousin and he still had it in his garage gathering dust. When I picked it up it had a few interior wood peices missing. I was abe to fab the missing peices and reassembled the set. The electronics have not been restored yet. The 16Ap4 picture tub is on the weak side. Anyway, my wife was excited to see the set back together the way she remembered it as a child.

Hi Matt,

I have an RCA 6T87 just like yours, and while searching for information about it online I found your posting. It was the top link on Google when I searched for "RCA 6T87".

I'll attach some pictures, and you will see that it is in working condition. The previous owner restores tv's, and he rescued this one from the curb where it was awaiting trash pickup. To get it working he replaced capacitors, resistors, a few tubes, both record player cartridges, and the picture tube.

The sound quality from the radio and record players is very good with the 12" speaker providing a good amount of bass. I have a DVD player hooked up to the tv now, and while the volume is lower as compared to radio and records the picture is great. I'm wondering if some kind of pre-amp could be installed inline between the DVD player and the rf modulator. We'll see...

Thank you for posting pictures of your set, and I hope you decide to restore it.


Happy Holidays,
Dan

I too hope that you decide to restore it. I've never seen one in person but it looks great in the photos.

John Y.