So, I went to the SA to drop off some unwanted LP's and they hit me up about repairing a couple TV's. The first one was a '90's 19" BPC Sanyo and the other one was this '79 RCA colortrak. Our arrangement is that I fix the TV's, they sell them, and we split the money. The Sanyo only needed the vertical IC and a few power resistors resoldered to the PC board.

The RCA is another story. Here are it's problems.
A. Main filter cap is bad
B. Wrong channel number displayed. Probably due to a dirty keypad.
C. CRT is not the best. It's not bad; but, it's not great, either.
D. Customer controls need cleaning
E. Although not evident, I'm sure there are loose connections in the tuner and control modules.

They probably can't get over $25 for such a set, leaving me with $12.50. I'm not too excited about doing all of that work for $12.50. I'll explain to them what all is wrong and see if they want to give me the set or sell it to me for maybe $5. They ought to give it to me since I went to the trouble of checking it. It is a clean looking set. Looks better than the '94 Sanyo.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0403ctc910002.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0403ctc910001.jpg

those are good sets! that crt will take a soft hit from a rejuvinator and the keypad will just need some cleaning.i have one of those in my garage.it is my outside watcher and it was in sad shape when i got it.the last rca 19" delta gun.

Well, the original CRT didn't last long in this one. The TV was made in October, '79 and I discovered that the CRT was replaced on 7/10/80 with an RCA "Hi-Lite" replacement. I'm not going to rejuvenate it until I see what the picture looks like once the other problems are fixed. It may just need "waking up". Of course, I'd better have a chat with the boss at the SA before I dig too deep into this one. They may have a new store policy something like "all broken merchandise must go in our dumpster, no one else's".

I like this set, save her!

Well, it's mine now.

And, I may end up getting screwed on the Sanyo I fixed for them. That place changes managers almost as often as the wind changes direction. Me and the old manager had an arrangement where I picked up the TV's, fixed them, carried them back, let them sell them, then they call me, and I go pick up half of what they sold the TV for. I told the new manager what our arrangement was and she acted shocked and said she'd have to discuss it with the major. We all know how these type places are. They expect goods and services to be given to them. If they had a grain of sense, they'd realize that they are still making money because if it wasn't for me, they'd be throwing the broken TV's in the dumpster and wouldn't be making a dime. Needless to say, I won't be fooling with them anymore if they screw over me! I could just see the TV shops around here letting them slide on a 50/50 deal after the SA sells the TV. It would actually be about $65 labor + parts; the same for any other customer.

Here it is. Had to change the filter cap. The old one was supposed to be an 800 uf but measured 900 uf on a cap meter. A new cap took care of the hum problem. I also rejuventaed the CRT, cleaned the controls, and adjusted everything. It looks pretty good now.

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0408rca790001.jpg

http://i538.photobucket.com/albums/ff341/radiotvnut/2009_0408rca790002.jpg

Oh, "The Major." "The Major" is usually some crotchety old grump who thinks you're shopping in a smelly thrift store because you have thousands of dollars hidden in your walls or something. No matter what you offer on an unmarked or overpriced item, they think you'll cart it home for twice as much. God forgive me, but sometimes I think "The Major" is the only person in the damn place who hasn't been through rehab yet.

That being said, once I got a deal at the SA. They had an '82 Granada wagon outside the fence marked $750. Usually cars outside the fence were either too dilapidated to sell so the bums slept in them, or they were waiting for the scrapyard to pick them up. The guy accepted my offer of $150, which was $100 more than the junk man gave for them back them. Amazing what a difference a battery, some Gumout and polishing compound made. Drove it for two years.

BTW, I forgot to mention a friend of mine's aunt just pitched out one of these sets - it was her only set for 25+ years and ran night & day.

Oh, "The Major." "The Major" is usually some crotchety old grump who thinks you're shopping in a smelly thrift store because you have thousands of dollars hidden in your walls or something. No matter what you offer on an unmarked or overpriced item, they think you'll cart it home for twice as much. God forgive me, but sometimes I think "The Major" is the only person in the damn place who hasn't been through rehab yet.

That being said, once I got a deal at the SA. They had an '82 Granada wagon outside the fence marked $750. Usually cars outside the fence were either too dilapidated to sell so the bums slept in them, or they were waiting for the scrapyard to pick them up. The guy accepted my offer of $150, which was $100 more than the junk man gave for them back them. Amazing what a difference a battery, some Gumout and polishing compound made. Drove it for two years.

I'm going by the SA Saturday and see if the Sanyo is still there. If it's gone, I may just let it drop rather than show my butt. But, if they ever ask me to fix another one, they are going to have to pay me the same price that anyone else would and they are going to have to pay before I release the set to them. I really hate to fall out with them because I have gotten some semi-vintage stuff there. Of course, that was when they had managers that I could deal with. This woman that's there now comes across with the "my way or the highway" attitude. Of course, they'll probably have a new manager again in a few weeks. Like I said, they go thru managers almost as often as the wind changes direction.

I guess the following does not register with them:

1. Before I came along, broken TV's went in the dumpster. They made no money off of them.
2. Then, I come along and the first manager agrees to sell me broken TV's for $5 each. OK, that makes $5 for the SA and maybe some money for me if the set can be fixed cheap enough.
3. Then, a new manager comes along and we work out a deal where we split the TV sales money 50/50 on the sets I fixed. I only fixed one, a 27" Panasonic TV/DVD/VCR combo. They sold it for $150. That equates to $75 for me and $75 for them. In other words, they made $75 on a TV that would have normally either gone to the dump or sold to me for $5.

Now, boys and girls, you tell me what situation (1, 2, or 3) would be most beneficial to them. I think you know the answer. I'm starting to think that they want to "have their cake and eat it, too".

A Granada wagon! Talk about rare today! Ranks up there with a Lincoln Versailles, an Oldsmobile Omega & a Plymouth Champ. Unloved & forgotten....

Only a couple SA stores around here, and neither one is close by. I'll stop in when I get the chance, and sometimes they have a treasure. I picked up a hybrid Airline color portable maybe 2 years ago; last time in they had a bunch of late 70s/early 80s 19" Zenith sets but nothing worth me grabbing. I always hold out hope of walking in the back room (where they have recently been putting the old furniture and TV sets) and seeing a CTC-7 or some such. Hey, it could happen!

That's what keeps us going to the Goodwill I guess, Bryan. It COULD happen! But not likely going to happen around here. The owner of one place I check told me that an electronics collector comes at opening (7AM) every Saturday and buys what he thinks is 'good'. Also, another comes by and grabs all the good LPs he told me :thumbsdn: Interestingly, I still find a bunch of nice records there, almost every time I go. Guess our tastes just differ a lot.

Radiotvnut...The new management would be foolish to pass up on your original agreement. More money for the two of you, and less waste. But some people are just greedy, as we all know. :no:

Speaking of Oldsmobile Omegas, how about the Dodge Omni?! There's another one that's unloved and forgotten. Only ones I see are obviously someone's "last-ditch", get-from-A-to-B daily driver. Usually ran into the ground then junked. But search on YouTube, tons of classic commercials on these cars, very nostalgic to watch nowadays. And there are even a bunch of collectors who have a cult following to the Omega! Cool...

EDIT: almost forgot to discuss the CTC91... Lookin' good there. I see it has the photocell which varies brightness in accordance to room lighting. Good idea, but I usually turn this off if it can be turned off. I like setting everything myself. But that's certainly a nice ColorTrak. Probably in the minority here, but I have a soft spot for 70s and 80s RCA's since there were literally tons of these when I was growing up...more than Zenith from this time period (late 80s early 90s)...Just from memory, I had two aunts with RCA consoles, my grandma had a tabletop colortrak, the Deli where I used to live had a big XL-100 which is probably still going all day everyday....

They were quality TVs and weren't such a bitch to work on. I like the modular ones best of course, but the singleboards weren't crap either! I usually set the CRT towards the 'cool' side (bluer white balance) to compensate for red-push or an aging crt.

Had a neighbor who ran a Chevette forever; at one point it was relegated to "second-car" status and they bought a new Omni...and ran it forever, too. Funny how all those cars disappeared. I only recall one Omega, a very clean example owned by an older gentleman who I believe was Scottish. I haven't seen him in years.

When I first started dragging home TV sets in the early 90s sets like this one (but usually with click-stop tuners) were quite common, and I liked finding them. Seems like those 70s RCA sets always worked. Good thing because at the time I was helpless as far as repairing anything. As much as I liked these, it was the Magnavox sets from that time frame that I disliked-most of them were DOA and I could never get them to run.

I really never cared for those 19" Magnavox sets with the upright modular chassis, either. They pushed those power supplies to the limit and, as a result, the power supply section was the most common failure. Another common failure in those was the 4 lead safety cap. That cap is just a high voltage paper cap. You would think that they would have used an orange drop by the late '70's; but, I guess not. I used regular orange drop caps at the correct rating to replace the shorted safety cap in the last one of those sets that I fixed. And yet another common failure was poor solder connections on the module sockets.

SA update: I went in to see if the Sanyo set that I fixed was still there. It was not and I asked to speak to the manager. She said that she talked to the "major" and he said in no way did he make any sort of 50/50 deal with the old manager and she added that he was very furious about it. She said they sold the TV for $30; but, could not give me any money because the "major" wouldn't let her. She said the best she could do was give me $15 store credit. OK, that's fine, so I start looking. The only two things of remote interest was a '60's corner speaker of unknown make and a '60's-early '70's TV cart. So, I asked the manager about broken TV's and she told me to go in the back (employees only area) and ask the workers. I didn't see anything and this guy that acted like he was "on something" came out and informed me that "this area is for employees only". I told him that the boss lady sent me back here to see if you had any older broken TV's. He said "oh, I just threw one away". So, I go back and ask the manager to save the broken TV's for me and that I would come in every Saturday to see what she had and that I would pay $5 each for anything I could use. She said that the only problem was that they didn't have room to keep the stuff until I showed up. In other words, I've got to be there right when they determine that a TV don't work so I can catch them before they trash it. Then, I looked at the old TV cart again and the manager informed me that she couldn't sell it because that was what they used to sit TV's on. I told her that it was priced and she finally agreed to let me have it. I may continue to go back in there on the slim chance they have something I want; but, I won't be repairing any more TVs for them. That's fine if they'd rather mess up an opportunity to make money; but, you can bet your butt that come Thanksgiving and Christmas and various times in between, they'll be all over the TV, radio, newspaper, etc. begging for donations. So, let them throw their junk TVs in the dumpster if they're not willing to pay to have them fixed or save them for me. I've got enough projects of my own to keep my busy for a long time.