I thought I posted this earlier today but I must have forgotten to send it.

Here's an odd RCA, the knob layout looks like a 630 chassis but with a 16" or larger CRT.

http://cgi.ebay.com/RCA-VICTOR-TV-NO-RESERVE-WILL-SELL-WITH-BID_W0QQitemZ300311445259QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVintag e_Electronics_R2?hash=item300311445259&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A10|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1 |293%3A1|294%3A50

I have one that is similar to this but it is a 12" without doors and has blonde finish. The striking similarity between the two is that the entire front is covered with grill cloth.

My grill cloth is badly ripped, and will have to be replaced, however it is going to be hard to find something similar because the cloth has lots of glitzy metalic threads woven into the patern, and the color is off white to match the blonde cabinet.

This may sound crude, but I replicated a sparkly radio grille cloth by dyeing a cloth of the right texture to the desired color, applying spray glitter from a craft store, than spraying on a very light coat of a matte finish clear acrylic.

Now, the original cloth was sparkly, not with shiny woven threads. It might be a last resort for you. But for me it produced a cloth that looked just fine to the casual eye.

Before doing this, I had pawed through countless remnants at fabric & costume shops, and searched every online source that I could think of, to no avail.

Good luck.

Phil Nelson

Price has been cut in half.
Surely someone can save this one?!

http://cgi.ebay.com/RCA-VICTOR-TV-NO-RESERVE-WILL-SELL-WITH-BID_W0QQitemZ300314077388QQcmdZViewItemQQptZVintag e_Electronics_R2?hash=item45ec1d28cc&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A10|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A1 |293%3A1|294%3A50

It's a KCS 47A in "moderne" case. That is the style.
It rotates 130 degrees. 1950 model.
I once had one that was a basket case. Too far gone to save, and, it had been electrically on fire.
Burned wiring, chassis, and, finnish was ratty.
Bill Cahill

I'm gonna give it my best shot! I just put in a bid on this old fellow.
I'm knee deep in other unfinished projects, but whats one more! I design switch mode power supply's for a living, so non-solid-state analog is not my forte. But I'm excited to take my first crack at a vintage TV. Hopefully a few of you guys here can give me some tips if I get stuck along the way.

Alex...

Whew, glad someone finally bid on it, I was worried it would hit the curb! :thmbsp:

It's a scarce styoe. My tv is now in the cabinet, and, playing. I have some adjustment problems yet, but, it's playing well. When I find my thread, I'll show recent finnished pictures of it playing.
Bill Cahill

My tv is now in the cabinet, and, playing. I have some adjustment problems yet, but, it's playing well. When I find my thread, I'll show recent finnished pictures of it playing.
Bill Cahill


Bill, you have a TV like this, I hadn't heard about that, do you have a thread started about it somewhere? :D:D

Just pulling your leg a little, I've heard about it, and congrats about getting it working!!

Ouch! My leg!!!! :nono::D
Bill Cahill

Welp, I made an epic 728 mile round trip to pick up the Set on Friday. It's now in the basement and up on the workbench. All of the cloth and rubber insulation has rotted, but other than that, its in as good a shape as you could hope for 59 years old. http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/images/smilies/thumbsup.gif

I got as far as heat-shrinking new insulation on the main transformer leads, and checking for isolation between the output windings -- all looked good. I fired up the transformer with some dummy loads, and the output voltages are reasonable.

I need to get the old electrolytics out, but this is my first experience with the 'twist lock' multi section kind. anybody have any tips on getting them out? Naturally they're about 4 layers deep under a bed of R's and Cs.

Now, lets just hope the ol' 16GP4 is still good. The seller had told me that the set didn't work, but showed some lines on the screen when on -- I now seriously doubt that was ever the case, since the hot lead on the flyback had rotted off!

Is there a better place for me to post updates/ questions? And more importantly, is anybody actually interested?

Alex

Hi Alex, glad to hear it's in good hands.
This is the place to post about it however you might want to start a fresh thread in this forum to document the restoration.

The 16GP4 is a metal tube which can be bad but there's a reasonable chance it's good if it hasn't gone to air, haven't seen that problem much with the 16" tubes.
My avatar is a shot of a 16AP4.

The twist loks are a bit of a pain, some people just disconnect them and add new caps under the chassis. I like to remove them and restuff them where possible for appearances sake. sometimes you can cut the can off without removing it and restuff it right on the chassis.

The cardboard covered ones are the easiest since you don't have to worry about gluing the can back together.

I'll take your advice and and attempt to restuff right on the chasis. We'll see how it goes.

New thread started: RCA 6T75 Restoration (16GP4)

Incidentally, does anybody know if the 16GP4's were manufactured at the Lancaster, PA RCA Plant? If so, the set now sits about 4 blocks from where the tube first rolled off the assembly line.

Speaking of, I have some neat articles from the local Lancaster paper dated 1954 that cover both the local broadcast of the Jan 1. 1954 Rose Bowl Color-cast, as well as a neat photo of brand-new 15GP22's rolling off the assembly line. I'll scan them in if there is any interest (and maybe even if there isn't!)
Alex

I'm interested..... Sounds interesting to me.
Bill Cahill

Heres a couple of interesting articles I scanned from the public library...

WGAL doesn't make Ed Reitan's list of the '22 stations' to carry color on Jan 1, 1954. But here it is in black and white! The broadcast was watched at the RCA plant, where production was changing over to all color tubes.

The 2nd article is just about the RCA plant, showing a nice photo of a shadowmask for a 15GP22