Just so everybody knows, I normally hate people who do this!

But since I purchased this cabinet on Ebay without any guts already, I figured that I could live with myself. I hope I don't sound too full of myself, but I think it turned out pretty good...:dunno:

And yes, this was a Zenith Porthole at one time.

Bet you've never seen anybody use a sawzall for TV work?

Another interesting fact... The Monitor-style TV is a 1990 Zenith that my parents bought new in 1990. This was our "main" TV for years, and has never been serviced until recently (Captain Moody replace some power supply caps). I think this may have been one of the LAST, GOOD Zenith sets, so it's fitting that it get morphed into one of their first!

This wasn't just a "make a shelf and put the new TV on it" project. This TV is now PART of the old cabinet, although I did use the old speaker area as a DVD/VCR shelf.

Back re-installed for safety. New TV was just a 1/4" wider than the old opening, but the sawzall took care of that. :)

As you can see, the room has changed quite a bit too. I'm slowy restoring my 1927 house from cheap-paneling-&-shag back to some of its original character. As such, I didn't want some ugly modern plastic cube in my 1930s-looking living room.

The big stereo next to it is a 1967 Maganvox Astro-Sonic with 12" woofers and a huge two channel amp. (I redid the high-quality cabinet to match the TV and furniture) The sound is INCREDIBLE, and the whole deal is wired into the 5-disc DVD/CD changer under the TV. It really gives a surround-effect during movies.

Camine...

No photo showing the front? And operating? Trying to tease us? The photo from the rear looks like a nice job.

What you did isn't bad. I would do the same if I had a nice cabinet that had a hopeless case chassis & tube. Or, like in your case, just an empty cabinet.

Just don't make a habit of it! ;)

Ahh... there it is! Looks good!

Here's a better close-up...

Hey, nothing wrong with that! Looks totally cool! :cool: :thmbsp:

Wow! The close up is much better! That's impressive work! At least you didn't install a fishtank. :D

Here's a pic of that Maganvox during re-finishing. This really gave me new respect for Magnavox quality. I think I'd like to get one of their old TVs too.

I got this stereo at a Sun City AZ estate sale for $15, mostly cause nobody wanted to move this monster. I liked it so much that I shipped it with me when I moved back to Detroit.

Good job, Carmine !! Very well done & in keeping w/the character of the old set. I think you've got very good taste. -Sandy G.

Best use of a vintage TV yet!!! ;)

I don't think putting a new TV in an old cabinet is sacrilegious, as long as the set that was originally in it was beyond repair. However, your Zenith fits in that older cabinet just fine after the slight modifications you made. It's amazing what a little woodworking can do for an old cabinet like that.

I like how it looks in your living room with the Magnavox stereo console. Those Astro-Sonic consoles can often outperform today's shelf systems many times over, even though the later Astro-Sonics were solid state. I have pretty much the same setup in my apartment, with my 19" RCA TV, 240-watt Aiwa shelf stereo and cable box (in fact, I run the audio output from the cable box through the stereo and listen to the cable music channels; the system sounds great, much better than when I simply listen through the tiny speaker [only one, not stereo] in the TV itself).

My stereo also has surround sound, but I've never used it while watching a TV program. I don't much care for today's movies ('80s-90s, although I do like the ones from about 1950 through 1989 or thereabouts, especially those great musicals in the mid-60s--before they got crazy, if you know what I mean; I have a lot of them on VHS), and the old ones on AMC, TCM and IFC (the three free movie channels I get on Comcast digital cable) often don't have much music in them, so I just listen to their audio through my set's own speaker. My hearing is not the best in the world anyway (I am practically deaf in one ear), so it really doesn't make much sense for me to listen to movies or anything else in stereo as most of the effect is lost to me.

Carmine

I like the new TV in the cabinet. Nice job.

I had the idea of a big old cabinet, and installing a vintage stereo sytem, with some vintage speakers. Might be a fun project.

Carmine,

Those older Magnavox systems were great. I'm glad you decided to keep yours when you moved, as these systems aren't as common (even used) as they once were--even on ebay. Back in the '80s I saw a few of these sets and even one three-way stereo theater console with, IIRC, quad sound--I remember seeing a speaker switch near the phonograph (but the TV wasn't working; someone had either smashed the CRT :eek: or taken it out--don't know to this day, over twenty years later, whether that system was ever restored to its proper condition). One other such unit was a Magnavox AM/FM console unit with phonograph (Magnavox's signature Micromatic with very low tracking force, which was probably the best changer the company ever used in its combo units) from the '50s. I was reminded of it when I saw the pics of your console being refinished; the tweeter horns as well as the woofers were sitting on two chairs in, I think, your basement at the time.

BTW, those Magnavox consoles were probably the only such systems I ever saw with exponential tweeter horns; I have never seen anything like that since in 3-way or RP consoles of other manufacturers, including RCA.

BTW (2): I'm glad you said that the TV you installed in the older Porthole cabinet was "one of the last good sets" made by Zenith. I'll tell you why I said that. I have a Zenith SMS1917SG 19" table model set in my bedroom which I received as a birthday present in 1995. Today, almost ten years later, it still works as well as it did when it was new--no CRT problems or chassis troubles to date (knock on wood). The only problem, if you can call it that, I ever had with that set was one time when I couldn't get a clear picture on one of the cable channels. The cable technician told me it was caused by my set, not the cable.

Well, Comcast has completely rewired its system since then; my Zenith, as well as my RCA 19" in the living room of my apartment, now work extremely well. The Zenith set makes excellent pictures on most channels, whereas when I first moved here in late 1999 I had problems with certain channels (broadcast as well as cable), but I am sure that was due to problems with the cable system (I eventually started getting white sparkles on my TV picture on both sets on channel 3, the NBC station in Cleveland, as well as on channel 4, which is the channel the UPN station in Cleveland is downconverted to on this system). As I said, when the cable company finally got around to rewiring the system, the problem cleared up.