Found a Wards Airline 19"
 

It's been a long time since I found any tube sets at a Thrift Store so I jumped on this one even though I didn't really want it. :D

It's a Wards, it has UHF and a code number inside of 64-32 so I'll guess 1964 model?

There's an entire cartons worth of Lucky Strikes coating this set inside and out and it dusty to boot, surprising thing is it works very well!
Picture was taken with a small screwdriver acting as an antenna.

Cost? about $3.50 after the $30% discount.

Great save!

Nice set glad you saved it. Who made airline TVs anyway and where were they made?

I don't know but this set seems very well made with a nice stout metal chassis, a transformer and lots of those brown Sprague molded capacitors, it does use PC boards though not point to point wiring.

I do not know who made this one, but once, a long time ago, I worked on an Airline color roundie. The PC boards had "RCA" marked on them. This probably was common in that era as RCA pioneered electronic color TV.

Store Brands
 

Most store-brand sets were built on a contract basis, like other major appliances. So I imagine if RCA had the factory capacity, and the low bid, they would build sets to Montgomery Wards specs (labeled as Airline). Next year, if Toshiba had the low bid, it was probably them (still labeled as Airline).

Sears even sold a car (!) for a few years in the 50s called the "Allstate". It was really a "Henry J" built by the Kaiser-Fraiser company, with Sears badging.

Didn't Wells-Gardner make radios for Monkey Ward/Airline ? IIRC, they kept going into the TV era...

I had a 70s tube color set that was branded Airline, built by JVC (I think... It was certainly Japanese). I just received an Airline that is the same as a Setinel. (Ociliscope-looking set)

Cleaning
 

This set stunk too bad to bring inside so I took it apart and started cleaning it.

First i did the cabinet, I used an industrial cleaner we use at work called "Blue Beast" full stength it will dissolve Bakelite (ask me how I know that :sigh:)
diluted way down it cleans better than anything.

Put it in the tub and sprayed it down, didn't have to scrub, it just melted the tar right off, rinsed it off and I was done.

The CRT followed, I was afraid I'd lose the Dag or the labels but i did it really fast and gentle and it came out fine, it looked like I was pouring coffee down the drain!

Last, and most worrisome was the chassis, I decided there was no other way to do it though and in the tub it went, I pulled the tubes first so the markings wouldn't wash off.
Sprayed it with "Beast", and quickly rinsed it off, I avoided the power transformer, labels and flyback cage as much as possible and I didn't spray underneath.
Well it came out sparkling, tobacco makes a good preservative, kind of like Cosmoline! labels and markings are intact and I quickly Deoxed the controls and tube sockets to keep them from corroding.

Here are a couple before pics of the chassis, I'll post some after pics in a while.

I had a late '70's 19" Ward's Airline color set that was made by Admiral. I've also seen some made by Sharp. The one in question is probably a Wells-Gardner or Warwick.

Clean Pics
 

Here's a couple chassis shots after cleaning.

Wow, that looks outstanding! Incredible before and after pics. Nice job!

Man, Eric, that puppy looks NEW ! Good Job !

Cleaned the tubes and yoke, reassembled it and plugged it in, yaaay, it still works!

There's a slight vertical problem (isn't there always?) but it looks really good, the CRT tests like new too.

Just noticed the tuner has a tag that says "Hoffman" wonder if it's the same Hoffman that made TV's? and if they just made the tuner or the whole set?

My parents had (still have, actually) a Wards Airline console stereo from 1967 that was said to have been made by Hoffman Electronics (a Wards serviceman told my Dad this), so I would imagine this television could have also been made by that company.