I won this at a local auction.

As far as I can tell it's a 1959 "Sportable" model, the one John Davidson's lugging in the Ad.

CRT tested about dead at first, after about a minute at 8 volts however it shot up to nearly 100%, it stayed there at 6.3 volts and even at 5.0 volts!

Brought it up on the Variac, on/off switch is open so I jumped it, sound at 80 volts, oscillator at about 90 followed by a raster, turned the Variac up to about 110v, the raster collapsed to a single line nearly immediately so a Cap must have shorted or gone open when it got hit with full voltage.

Someone decided it needed some color and painted the mask around the CRT Pink, not sure how I'm going to remove that, Citristrip wrecks plastic.

Most of the small knobs are missing too and the one that's left isn't too nice, the rest of the set is in good condition but very dirty.

Hey Eric congrats on your find. I had 2 of those now I have one it works all the way unrestored maybe 1 day I will have it recapped I won it off the Bay 12 years ago.. Timothy

Someone decided it needed some color and painted the mask around the CRT Pink, not sure how I'm going to remove that, Citristrip wrecks plastic.I've had some luck softening latex paint by soaking in water. Might be some other kind of paint, of course, but it couldn't hurt to try.

If all else fails, repaint it a color that you like better.

Phil Nelson

This is a nice find! I'm impressed how RCA used a power transformer.

Nice score :) I've used oven cleaner to remove enamel paint from plastic with good results.

This is a nice find! I'm impressed how RCA used a power transformer.

First thing I did when I got home was weigh it, 43 lbs, John Davidson must have had arms of Steel, especially if the Photoshoot took any time at all.

I'll test the Oven Cleaner method on an inside spot and see if it'll work.

The pink wouldn't be bad but they just globbed it on with a brush in a haphazard fashion.
There are some small nicks around the very center ring around the CRT, I figure I can fill them with Bondo and paint the ring Gold.

To me these sets always looked like they needed their Thyroid checked.

I tried the Easy Off method and it works, not only works but leaves the plastic sparkly clean, I have the mask off the set and sitting in the tub with Easy Off on it, I'll give it 30 minutes then rinse it.

Fair to say this may be the first time the front has been off and the CRT cleaned, yuk. This alone will double the brightness.Ultimately this set will get a complete teardown and a good washing but for now this is enough.

Bob, good tip about the Oven Cleaner, worked like a charm without touching the Plastic!

Awesome :thmbsp: I learned about that trick from the vintage plastic army soldier collector crowd.

Are those circuit boards mounted over cutouts in the chassis, so that you can access their underside from the "bottom" side of the chassis, without actually removing the boards themselves or are they mounted on stand-offs?

With all those wires flying everywhere, I sure hope the former!

Are those circuit boards mounted over cutouts in the chassis, so that you can access their underside from the "bottom" side of the chassis
With all those wires flying everywhere, I sure hope the former!

I hope so too or recapping it will suck! :eek:

Nice score :) I've used oven cleaner to remove enamel paint from plastic with good results.

I agree, that will be a nice set to restore.

Bob, thanks for that tip about the oven cleaner. I had not heard of it before and it only makes sense! Different chemicals do different things as we all know. I had a painted chassis (Allied Radio Knight-Kit) KM-15 amplifier on which the owner had placed white medical tape and had written the tube numbers. Too harsh of a chemical would lift the paint. What didn't work was naphtha; lighter fluid, the universal label remover!!! I didn't try acetone or lacquer thinner because for sure it would buckle the paint. Rubbing alcohol did the trick! So, we have to have lots of tricks in out bag don't we?

BTW, don't try to clean the backside of audio tuner dial glass unless you REALLY know what you are doing. You will be rewarded with the magic disappearing letters...

Kewl Scroe, Eric, can't wait to see 'er done !

Nice work Eric!
Speaking of cleaning crud and latex paint removal, I had great luck putting plastic radio cabinets, 1920's metal light fixtures and similar stuff in the dishwasher, then removing them before the dry cycle.

Have to echo Maxhifi and say; Nice set and with a transformer yet
I recapped an older but similar RCA 17PT8701 with a standoff-PC board and it was a pain!

I have 3 1961 RCA Sportabout models(I know this as I have the RCA. advertizing brochure for them. The modles I have are the "Trimette" and the "URBANITE". I had all three working at one time, but the horizontal has gone off on the "URBANITE" and I need to open it up again. The two "Trimette"s that I have work fine except for the irritating buzz in the sound as they power up. Once they are up the sound is pretty good.

The "Trimettes" do not have power transformers but the "Urbanite" does. The "Urbanite also has a 6BQ5 audio output tube, kind of fancy for a B&W portable. The others have the standard 6AQ5.

I did some cleaning on this set today.

I washed the chassis in the Soap & Water parts washer at work followed by a thorough rinse with hot water, I washed everything, including the Flyback and Yoke, I tried to stay away from the power transformer as much as possible.

It's sitting in my Oven right now cooling down after about an hour baking at 170 degrees (the lowest setting my Oven will do).

I also sanded and polished the safety screen, it was pretty banged up but it came out nice. There is one small crack but it's way off in a corner, there was another deep scratch dead center that I couldn't sand all the way out (it might be slightly cracked too) but it's not noticeable any more.

I used a kit made for buffing out headlights, start with 800 grit (or 500), then go to 3000 grit followed by buffing with Rubbing Compound and a sponge wheel, it came out quite nice.

Oh, this chassis does have access holes behind the PC board so recapping should be easy.

It has mostly those Brown or Maroon Epoxy caps, I believe I'll change them all out anyhow.

The CRT is a 17DKP4, it has a really short neck like a Predicta tube, I wonder if it would work in a 17" Predicta (6.3 volt heater though)

This is a nice find! I'm impressed how RCA used a power transformer.

All the higher line RCA portables used a power transformer. The next year model of the set shown, used silicon rectifiers and a voltage doubler. Also, it was the first year to use a Nuvistor tuner. It also had a plastic back that would crumble from the heat.

How does the yoke cover look? These are an usually an issue with RCA's and Zeniths of this age(and other sets also). They used a plastic that falls a part with age(even on NOS yokes). There has been an article about making these on VideoKarma, but the person who wrote the article had access to a lathe.

I am in the process of trying to make one of these without a lathe for an Admiral portable that I have. So far it appears that it will not look that good but will work. I could buy a lathe, but have no room for it.

Hi all, I made some progress on this set, I figured it had dried long enough so I recapped about 90% of the paper (or Mylar) caps and replaced one small Axial Electrolytic that might be in the Vertical section. Pretty much the whole sweep section is done, I'm going to leave the i.f. section alone, there's not many caps in that area anyway.

I'm going to leave the Cans alone for now also, 1959 isn't that old and they seem to be fine for now.

The Yoke Cover is in good shape, a little shrunk with age but useable.

Anyhow, put the tubes in it, brought it up to 70 volts to check for smoke, it looked OK so I cranked it up to 90 and it sprang to life, Oscillator humming, Speaker speaking, or at least whooshing, then the raster popped in.

Whatever killed the vertical must have been replaced because it's working now. I turned it up to a full 115 volts and it filled in nicely.
Hooked up a DVD player and after a little fiddling around I got sound, followed by a picture.
The Vertical was rolling but the Horizontal was dead on, a small adjustment of the Vertical hold and it locked solid! I like it when a set cooperates!

This set has a remarkable picture too, nice and crisp with good contrast.

I need to get some small stuff, Cork to make new CRT cushions, Knobs, I have some small knobs from some mid 60's RCA's that might work OK even if not cosmetically correct.

BTW there's an identical one of these on eBay right now, looks to be in similar condition too. It's not mine, no affiliation, etc.:D

http://www.ebay.com/itm/16-RCA-Victor-Portable-TV-1950s-/120866936415?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1c243b165f