Estate Sale Finds In 2007!
 

This is the first estate sale TV find for 2007. While a newer set, it needed to be saved. Its a 17" 1979 Zenith Chromacolor II with space command. 1979 is the last year for the chromacolor II. Chroma II's are probably the best most reliable chassis zenith made. The space command was a plus. It was $14.00 at half price at 155 Addison Rd, Riverside, IL. Model SK1745W, 17KC55 chassis. For once I find a zenith set that still has a legible model tag. Most of the time they are either torn off, or badly faded away. I noticed the "space command" and looked around for the remote. Couldnt find it. The people running the sale didn't know either after looking around for a good 10 minutes. So we figured it was lost. As I brought the TV to the cashier, there was a box of miscellanious on the floor next to the cashier. Sure enough, I spotted the remote in there just as I was paying for the set!

Typical zenith, it still works perfect with a strong tube. The remote didnt work. Had some cracked solder joints at the transducer to board connection.
The set was made in Reynosa, Mexico. Many parts were made in Mexico and Taiwan. It appears that the CRT is the only thing made in USA. Its sad to see this. The 1968 zenith sets were the first to start using foreign made parts. Yokes made in Holland, then portugal, then in 1969 you started to see mitsubishi transistors and japanese lytics. Then you started to see Taiwanese made UHF tuners. All the American jobs were starting to dissapear. It just got worse with zenith as the 70's progressed.
They were still the best TV's though.

That's a system 3 tube in there isn't it? I have a set that looks just like this and has a system 3 tube but I haven't opened it up to see if it is a Chromacolor or System 3 chassis.

Cool Doug! And yes.. That is the LAST Chroma 2 chassis. I sold Zeniths then and thet new tri-focus tube came out for the System 3's but Zenith rolled out some "portable" sets with that tube using the Chroma 2 chassis. I always figured they were using up the remaining parts.......

Estate sale find: 4-21-07
 

Went to a sale at 3928 Johnson Ave, Western Springs, IL on april 21. Picked up this mint zenith 4 tube hybrid with the factory correct gusdorf cart. The original owner was an engineer for western electric. He had some old WE photographs I bought as well as a few old phones. The TV was in the finished basement since new. The man had a few chairs arrayed around the TV set near the wall. I think this TV has hardly any hours on it. Looks like it was bought for show only. The house had baseboard heat, so there was practically no dust inside. The photos are exactly what the inside of the TV looks like when I first took the back off. Looks like im the first to pull the back off of it. The horizontal output still has the silicone holding it in place, didn't want to pull the tube to test it as its still original and untouched inside. Very rare to see a chassis with no dust accumulation.
When I went into the house, first place I look are the bedrooms. I found a 1985 zenith table set with space command. I was considering buying it. The lady running the sale said it was half off then said there an older one downstairs. She said they though it was a black and white at first but then found out it was color once turned on. "its pretty old though, you might not be interested" she says. "The picture is not that good". When I go down into the basement I was shocked to see it was a 4 tube hybrid. I havn't found a 4 tube hybrid at an estate sale in years. The picture wasnt that good, because someone turned the focus control all the way to one end and had a dull picture. Adjusted to about mid range and had that pefect crisp chromacolor picture. The peak picture control was down too, adjust that and the picture gets even better. The set was marked $15 and got it for half off as it was after 12pm on saterday.

This one is a 1973 model D4026W with a 19DC21 chassis. Its the chassis that uses the solid state stick HV rectifier (no trippler). I took a good number of photos of this set, mainly because 4 tube hybrids are among my favorite sets. You're very luck if you find one these days.

Compare this to other models available in 1973 and it just makes them all look sick. It gets said again and again...what a way to build a TV set!

Estate sale find: 5-5-07
 

Went to a sale yesterday at 180 Southcote, Riverside, IL. Found this nice 15" RCA XL-100 portable from '74. Uses the CTC-72 chassis. The set was not this clean when I found it, it was sitting on mantle above the fire place in the basement. It needed a good cleaning, so it got taken apart as you can see. Everything came out of the cabinet, including the CRT for proper cleaning. Cleaned up like new and works great. These XL-100's have a great sharp picture like a chormacolor II. Nice bright low hour set with good original antennas.
This one is model ET355Y, no missing model tag for a change! Especially on a portable, they are gone 98% of the time. Then again, the TV's themself are gone 98% of the time...

Estate sale find: 6-2-07
 

I havn't seen one of these around here locally in 10+ years. Its the 14" color portable, the smallest set zenith made at this time. This set is a 1971 model B3510 the "Halley". Uses the 12B8C15 chassis, which is one I've never had before. This is a series string hot chassis set.
Riverside has been a good TV spot this year. I found it on the same street this years first TV find came from! This came from 385 Addison Rd, Riverside, IL. The man who owned it was Joseph Kuizinas and would have been 56 years old when he bought the set. It was actually plugged in downstairs on a bookshelf. It was displayed just like zenith did in the brochures for the small sets, sitting on a nice bookshelf mounted to a wood panel wall with plants and books around it! I wish I had my camera, but it seems like when I bring the camera I dont find anything. The set was using its built in antenna. The antennas were both folded down and intact. The good news is, riverside is just a few miles west of chicago so you can watch TV just fine without extending the antennas, thus they stay preserved.
The TV is a little dirty but all intact and still has the tags on the back so I could identify it. The TV got used probably into the late 80's early 90's. It has several repairs underneath which look like total crap and need to be neatened up a bit. Luckily, the service techs were responsible enough to not lose any of the original back cover screws.
The good news and typical news is, it still works and has a nice picture. A few marginal tubes need to be replaced to keep it reliable. CRT is still good yet! A good cleaning should make it display nicely.
The photo of the set in the book is a 1971 zenith dealer products catalog and shows everything zenith made in nice color photos for this year. 1971 is the only one I have that includes color TV sets. I hope to fine more of these someday..

Hey Doug, in your attached photos, what is the component soldered to the vertical metal chassis, immediately to the left of the AC line in terminals? The AC line wires go into this component, a small thumb-sized metal can, and black and white wires also come out. The two solder blobs where the component is mounted to the rear panel are visible in your photos.

BTW, I enjoyed looking at your site. Nice collection! I think I recognize at least one mid-60s RCA that my aunt had years back...

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Doug,, visited your website, very nice!!
Dan

Years ago I had an RCA set that had a chassis that looked a lot like yours
http://www.audiokarma.org/forums/att...8&d=1178503746
I still have some of the plug in modules from it, let me know if you might be interested in them.

I have one of those 14" portables, in rougher shape but, of course, still working. They are underrated...who else would build a portable like that?! Talk about making a Portacolor look sick...

True, but I betcha it *weighs* twice as much as a Portacolor..!

I suspect one big selling point of the Portacolor was that unlike most other "portable" color TVs made before the mid-70's, the Portacolor was actually *portable* in the sense that it was rather lightweight and easy to carry.

estate sale find: 6-9-07
 

Picked this set up yesterday at 420 N. Quincy Dr, Hinsdale, IL. This was a tri-level home and this set was in the lower level. As soon as I looked at the carpet on my way into the room, I figured there MUST have been some kind of older TV in there. Sure enough, there was a 1970 RCA early American console. The first picture you see is what the set looked like in its original home. Newer TV on top, which lead me to believe the set didn't work and that the top of the RCA was ruined and scratched.
I was wrong on both counts, the newer TV had wide rubber feet and didnt leave a mark ontop of the set. Since its a well built cabinet, the weight of the newer TV didn't "push" the top down or leave indention marks. The TV powered up and had a color picture, not too bad either! CRT is bright as new and is the original colorama dated 69-39. No signs of cateracts anywhere.
Here's where I got concerned. When you look at the first picture, you see the control door is missing. I was really dissapointed to see that. I figured it must be somewhere in the house. I figured if it was me that broke it off, Id put the broken pieces somewhere safe where they couldnt get lost. As you can see in the first picture there is a green desk. Thats the first place I went to look, and the first drawer I pulled, it was in there under all the junk! Ok, so I found the door, but the broken off hinge piece was still missing, and it was a small piece. Looking more into the same drawer, I found that too! I couldn't believe it!
Now if this were one of those estate sales in which everything was cleaned up and prepaired for hundreds of people to walk through, those desk drawers would have been cleaned out and that door would have been gone. The door was a very nice clean break, and will glue back together almost perfectly. You can see where it broke on the close up of the control door, I didn't glue it yet, just wanted to get some pics while it was still light outside.

As for the model, its a 1970 model, made late in 1969. GM 627L the "Providence" with a CTC-38XJ chassis. Once again, I got lucky and the model tag was still on back! I thought I had a CTC39 at first. This has one of those indented 3 channel readout UHF tuners. The set is in excellent shape inside and out. Don't see this type of cabinet too often. It will need just a little work to bring it back 100%, but the good news it everything is complete.

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