Craigslist free section-2-living room in 1 week.

[Carmine]

I spotted a Zenith "Avanti" on the Craigslist free page a couple weeks ago, but forced myself to pass, since I already had a 1972 version awaiting restoration. Concurrently, I have recently began dating a young lady who had a 1993 27" Zenith as her main television! When she said she didn't watch much TV, I had to believe her... There is no other way it could have lasted so long!

So a couple weeks ago the good Captain Moody called me, while she and I were at breakfast. He made sure I was aware of the "free" Zenith, but I again declined. After I hung up, I explained what the phone call was about.

She then asked if the TV would fit in her Ford Escape. I replied, "yes, but you don't want this TV..." I went on to explain that it was nearly ten-years older than her, that it had a "weird" looking cabinet, it was heavy, non-remote, located on the other end of town, etc.

After all this, she said "Will the picture be better than the one I have now?" I could only reply with a sheepish "Yes"... That set in motion a trip through Detroit to snag this dirty old hunk of wood-and-glass from a dark front porch.

Below you see the result...

As found...


I've never seen this style of tuner... It slides up and down through about 15 (I think) positions. There is a spring-loaded detent at each position. Note that the volume slider knob is broken off.


Here's a shot of the set working, as-received. All of the user controls were turned to crazy positions, and after a few seconds of adjustment, I had a "decent" color picture from our good analog friends in Canada...

Do you like that workbench?

Not having the time to seek-out (or order) a new volume slider, I heated a paperclip red-hot and pressed it into the remaining nylon "stump". Knowing that the set would have to function with a converter box, I figured it would see very little use anyways after being set. At the same time, I removed all of the dirty pots and cleaned them with de-ox-id.

I was very surprised by both the volume and quality of sound in the set, given its small, single speaker. (It has a tone control)

Model number:


I'd always wondered about these stickers... Who is going to attempt replacing a semiconductor with the power ON??


Built in November 1974


Here's a shot of that tilt-out Chroma2 chassis. I removed the boards and cleaned the pins after noticing some color-shifting during the first try-out. This is after cleaning...


After some greyscale and vert-size touch-ups, (CRT is still excellent!) I began to turn my attention to the cosmetics...

This is a real wood veneer, although quite thin and easy to sand through if you aren't careful!

The cabinet itself was full of gouges, nicotine, and paint spatter. This set must have seen a lot of use. I treated it much like an automobile finish, feather-edging each damaged spot. This did reveal a rather interesting plywood finish that might look kind of cool with no white finish, and just a coat of varnish.


And now the AFTER pictures...

This one shows off the refinished wood (I sanded lightly with a DA 220 grit, then rubbed with walnut-toned danish oil. Finished with a spray satin varnish). It also shows the cabinet gloss I achieved by using a Rustoleum™ gloss-white enamel. The oil base gives more "flow-out" time for a higher gloss, just like the original. I used a formulated plastic-paint on the yellowed base.


Cell phone screen shots don't really do it justice..