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Just my opinion; but, I'd keep the tube type Zenith in it's original condition. There are plenty of solid state Zenith Chromacolor and Chromacolor II consoles out there that will serve you well. If you fix the Zenith tube set, it will give you a good picture and it will likely last for a long time. I think the reason these Zenith's hold up so well is because they were built on a steel (no pc-boards) chassis. The RCA's had a great picture as well; but, were built on PC boards and the extreme heat was murder on the circuit boards. Back in the '90's, the Zenith tube sets that I brought home usually only needed minor repairs. The RCA's usually had smoked flybacks and/or brittle PC boards.
As far as 23V CRT's, the last 23V delta gun based Zenith TV was the Chromacolor II "K" line from '79. After that, Zenith made an inline gun 23V tube for it's system 3 chassis.
As far as solid state goes, the Zenith horizontal chassis sets from the "C", "D", and "E" model lines are built like a tank. The chassis is a steel chassis that looks like a tube chassis, only it has transistors and modules on it instead of tubes. These were made from around '71-'74. Zenith also made some hybrid sets that only used 4 tubes in the sweep circuit during the same time period. These were still good sets, cost less than the 100% solid state version, and were geared for the folks that didn't want to spend the extra $ for the SS version. A friend of mine said that when he bought a Zenith console around '73, they had two identical looking models except one model was all SS and was $100 higher than the hybrid model. He said the pictures were identical and for $100 difference, he could wait 30 seconds for the picture to come on.
After that, they came out with the solid state vertical CCII chassis. This is still a metal chassis with much handwiring, except for the plug in modules. These were around from '74-'79 and were used in "E", "F", "G", "H", "J", and "K" model lines. The only thing you want to watch with these is that "E" and "F" line models originally used a white safety capacitor in the horizontal sweep circuit that would open, causing the HV to skyrocket and blow the neck off the CRT as well as ruin other parts. I'm sure that 98% of these sets have already been converted to the orange drop cap; but, best to look just to make sure.
All of the above mentioned consoles up to this point used delta gun CRT's and they rarely ever go bad. There were a few CCII 13", 17", and 19" portables that used an inline CRT.
Starting around '78, Zenith introduced the System 3 chassis. This is when the metal chassis went away and inline CRT's started to be used. These sets had a good picture when working; but, are not as reliable as the older sets and can be a pain to troubleshoot. Also, the CRT's didn't hold up as well in these sets.
If you want A/V jacks, you'll either have to get an RF modulator or find a newer set. I don't think Zenith started using A/V jacks until the mid '80's. By that time, Zenith sets really weren't made any better than anything else and they are just not that impressive to me. And, by the '90's, Zenith really went to crap. Bad CRT's left and right in fairly new sets were too common. Also, the CRT's would short and burn up the power supply.
Zenith did have space command remote sets as far back as the late '50's; but, the remotes remained of the ultrasonic type until around '81. Up until the mid '70's, the tuners were motorized. In the mid '70's, Zenith came out with a "silent" varactor tuner for their CCII sets. They didn't come out with OSD and digital cable ready tuners until around '79 with the System 3 sets. Some Zenith remote sets from the CCII and early System 3 era had a "Zoom" feature on the remote that would enlarge the picture on the screen. Some of the early '80's Zenith's, even had a built in "space phone".
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