National TV-7M (and why I'm not bidding)

[jshorva65]

Originally Posted by tvdude1

Also has wrong knobs and impossible to find.

The issue of its having the wrong knobs is why I'm not interested.

Sometimes, it's not so bad to buy a partially-restored set that's confirmed capable of producing picture and sound, IMO. Certainly, some of the challenge of restoring a set is troubleshooting, but knowing in advance that all the critical parts work can be a good thing.

As long as the set doesn't have any completely-irreversible hack "repairs" to contend with, anyway. Most sets 50+ years old have had at least one repair that involved some "improvisation" of dubious quality in their service history, but cases where corrective measures can be implemented aren't nearly as bad as those where radical modification of the chassis (cutting of the sheet metal, etc.) is a factor.

I perform a bit of modification on many sets, but I keep it reasonable. Adding a fuse by using a vacant tube socket pin (confirmed OK to use as a tie point per Tube Manuals, of course) is a common one. Pin 1 of a 5U4 is one such case, and almost all 1940s RCA models and their clones have pin 1 vacant on their 5U4s. My view is that it's better to have a fused B+ feed on pin 1 instead of the original unfused connection to pin 8. I'd rather sacrifice a bit of originality in a manner that's hidden under the chassis than risk losing a power transformer to some future overload condition. Another trick I use is to add an AC line fuse to sets not so equipped by OEM, either by using a vacant lug on a nearby terminal strip or replacing a "full" strip with one having "n+1" lugs (involves drilling out and replacing one rivet).