1949 Motorola 7VT5A ETF score, restored!

[zenithfan1]

I won this set in the silent auction at the ETF convention this year. I also won a set identical to it in the live auction, it is in rough shape but I'll repair it to working condition but the case is really torn up. I have to switch the CRTs as the crappy set has the bright and sharp tube. It's an RCA while the softer tube is a Sylvania, both have good emissions though. Right now, the softer tube is in the set and the better one is seen in the pics of the chassis in operation. Those are the first pictures it greeted me with when I powered it up the first time, a hot blonde dancing, hell yeah. I think the set likes me.LOL. I'll switch the CRTs this weekend and post a pic of the finished project. I also plan to get a hold of a few spare 7JP4s as these little sets are fun to work on and I might get a few more later on. The pics were taken before the last 5 wax caps were changed, those have been replaced now. I didn't order enough somehow. All old leads were removed unless they couldn't be. Some of the old caps went a few inches from terminal to terminal and the new caps couldn't reach. I think a total of 5 "J" terminals were made. I prefer none but oh well. All 6000v caps were insulated with blue heat shrink to prevent any accidents or arcing. The electolytics have been restuffed as well, I didn't replace the seleniums with diodes but might later on. I'll add terminal strips to the bolts that mount them and leave the selenium rectifiers in for looks. The case cleaned up well, it really surprised me how nice it came out. I'm looking for some rubber feet that are brown but will probably have to settle for black ones. I used white rubber cove base for the CRT bezel, the original gasket was black but the white looks better, I have a black piece too. I plan to make one out of it and see what happens. That's on the to-do list this weekend as well. Instead of just wrapping it around the tube, I tried for a more factory look by cutting it and making a bezel to attach to the tube and spacers to secure it . Anyone not told what it is might not notice, we all know of course. It would seem that the reproduction masks are only available for the VT71 and 73s, I see nothing that will work for this model anywhere so the cove base is good enough. Eventually, I would like to make some homebrew ballast tubes for these, I was lucky enough to have a good one in this set. I have studied how to do it and it's no big deal, I might go with Phil Nelsons idea but haven't decided yet.










I repainted the Moto emblems with Rust-Oleum metal flake gold and clear coated with Krylon clear coat, I repainted them on both sets. Here is an original compared to my repainted one. It is not clear coated yet though in the pic.