Unusual moderne Ford-Philco console

[hposter]

Has anyone seen one of these before...someone in Salt Lake City asked my advice...and I'd guess $100-$200 or so. It has a great moderne style...

Philco Ford Television
Model No. C255OEPC
Chassis No. 4CY81

[AiboPet]

I actually LIKE that alot....and it's even a Philco set, so even more interesting!

[sampson159]

that might be the philco solid state vertical chassis.good sets,but problem riddled.we could never keep these together back in the day.crts were good,but they went through horizontal modules and regulators like crazy.martin at united tuner sold a revised set of modules that solved the problem.saw that cabinet in a sales brochure.grab it,very unusual

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by sampson159

that might be the philco solid state vertical chassis.good sets,but problem riddled.

Sounds like you're disagreeing with yourself there home-boy. Anyway, it's a pretty neat set, never saw anything like that before. Looks like an ordinary credenza with the doors closed.

[sampson159]

if you can get the updated modules,they are good sets.that was the issue.after those were installed,no more problems.no home boy here.too old to be anybodys boy.folks call me ron,ronnie,mr ron or sir.you may call me sir

[Jon A.]

It's just a reference to the Homer avatar actually. I know that it's a screenshot from one of your XL-100s, I have been through some of your threads. Seems that you like those rigs quite a bit. I certainly do.

[zeno]

Never seen one in person but remember pictures of it back then.
This would be hard for even me to pass up.
Only saw a few philco solid states & they were all SCR
sweep ala RCA. Full of bad pc cons & always a few boards to
boot. Also made more conventional SS sets but GTE soon
put them out of there misery...........

73 Zeno

[sampson159]

xl100s are good sets.partial to zeniths,of course and sylvanias.oddball sets are interesting but those philcos drove us crazy!seems like those modules would last less than a year.dont know where or how martin scored the updated modules,but they did the trick.didnt have one come back after they were installed.i would take this set if it were closer

[Jon A.]

Not familiar with the Sylvanias, but I do like the Zeniths from around when the XL-100s came out and a few years beyond. Would like to find one that will work with my 7-button Space Command remote with Zoom button. Anyway, any one of the sets in the original post that is still working at all today probably already has the updated modules installed.

[radiotvnut]

I've only seen 3 Philco-Ford solid state color TV's in 25 years. The first was a 19" motel TV with no HV and a totally dead CRT; which, got junked. The second was a 19" consumer grade TV that had some sort of HV regulation problem and I gave it to a TV repair friend of mine. The third was a monster 25" solid state combo from the early '70's that someone brought me for repair. I was not at home when they dropped it off at the house; but, they somehow managed to knock the neck off of the CRT while they were unloading it. My Mother was here watching them unload it and she heard the air rush when the CRT got necked. I never even plugged it in and I made them pick it up once they didn't agree to the cost of a CRT plus whatever else was wrong. I think GTE bought Philco from Ford in '74; so, there wasn't too many years for a lot of solid state color TV's under the Ford era.

There was a guy in town who kept up a bunch of 18" Philco-Ford color hybrid motel TV's and when the motel updated their TV's to Zenith System 3's, they gave him all of the old Philco sets. These sets used low focus voltage CRT's and he gave me a bunch of left over junker TV's that I eventually junked.

[sampson159]

y sister had a philco/ford combo from the 70s.very good performer!she had it approx 10 years and sold.heavy beast.always liked the hybrid chassis philco.overall,the philcos were good sets and we didnt see many in for repair.the standup ss chassis were the only sets we really saw.really fine crts in these sets.thise low focus 18 inch sets leave a lot to be desired.btw-kv-1926r,i have a zenith console that your remote will work on.love to move it out of my way

[dieseljeep]

I think GTE treated Philco as their entry level line.
I worked on one and was surprised to see a low-end 19" type Sylvania chassis in a 25" console.
Not very impressive.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by sampson159

btw-kv-1926r,i have a zenith console that your remote will work on.love to move it out of my way

Yikes, imagine the cost to get such a beast hauled up here. Not really in a position to do that, but thanks anyway.

[sampson159]

i remember those 25 inch gte consoles.e34 chassis with a 25vamp22 crt.not even a dark matrix tube.saw a few of these,actually owned one as a watcher.decent picture,good performer just no bells or whistles.by this time,it was the end of philco products.

I recently read something that indicated Philco was having real quality issues in the early '70s. They opened up a plant in Brazil that made modules, that were then sent to the US to be put in TVs. The Brazil plant was supplied by Motorola in Japan (which was also having quality issues). Once they got a bad batch of boards from Moto which were shipped to the US and put in finished TV's apparently without testing along the way. Philco had to recall three months worth of production to replace the parts. That incident was what pushed Ford to the decision to sell Philco. I don't think Philco ever made a profit for Ford.

Philco actually sold their picture tube and cabinet plants to Zenith (who closed the cabinet plant), and the rest to GTE. So, Sylvania really only got some component plants, b/w tv plant, and the rights to the Philco name.