Chromacolor II. Another Trash Rescue!

[Carmine]

Hey.. that rhymes

A friend made me aware if this set a few days ago, so I warmed-up the ol' TV hauler truck and snatched it from the curb!

Of course, not before some fool cut the cord for all that valuable .05 oz of copper. Here's my UL® approved repair:



That was it for repairs. Then I fired it up:



(Those crazy black lines are from using a camera phone)





It has some cosmetic blemishes in the silver paint, but it would be a real easy fix if I had reason.

I have no idea what I'll do with it, just didn't want to see it in the trash. Like a typical (old) Zenith, it works fine. I'm sure some adjustments would help, but pretty good for a curb find.

[MRX37]

Oh yes the blasted cord cutters! I save any power cords I can find because of the cord cutters!

Very good find. I too have a truck I use mainly for hauling TV's, and whatever else I find on the curb that's too big to carry home.

[Carmine]

MRX, that's channel 62 BTW... Comes in the best on the eastside (no antenna)

[radiotvnut]

Be glad ALL they did was cut the cord. The idiots around here go around with hammers and bust the yoke off the CRT along with any other copper they can get. That cabinet must have been a popular style. I've seen that exact same cabinet used on some '80's system 3 sets.

[mr_fixer]

Nice Zenith! Excellent rescue, Carmine!

[fujifrontier]

Originally Posted by radiotvnut

Be glad ALL they did was cut the cord. The idiots around here go around with hammers and bust the yoke off the CRT along with any other copper they can get.

Good god I hate that shit.... it happens the same damn day the telly gets put out on the kerb. I hope the CRT gave them a nice jolt!

[zenith2134]

Awesome score. I always liked that cabinet style. Nice to see another one saved! One day these will all be collectibles I am sure

[MRX37]

Originally Posted by Carmine

MRX, that's channel 62 BTW... Comes in the best on the eastside (no antenna)

Yeah I can see the CBS logo.

I can bring in 62 decently with a paperclip, if the TV is good enough.

Some Sony Trinitrons I've found don't need an antenna to pull in 7, 38, and 62

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by fujifrontier

Good god I hate that shit.... it happens the same damn day the telly gets put out on the kerb. I hope the CRT gave them a nice jolt!

This just happened to me a couple of weeks ago. A friend called me and said there was a nice looking Zenith '50's B/W console at one of the county dumpsters. He described it as the old type with the seperate safety glass, then the knobs below the tube, and then the speaker under the knobs. He said the cabinet was not even beat up. Well, by the time I got a way over there, about an hour later, some #$%$^$^@#@$$ had busted the set all to heck and back. All that was left was some busted glass and the old busted speaker. The chassis was nowhere to be found. My friend said he would have gotten it for me; but, he can't lift anything very big and no one was there to help him. I reminded him that if he saw ANY vintage electronics to please try and get it if at all possible.

Concerning the Zenith Chromacolor; does anyone know exactly how long Zenith used this cabinet style? I've seen it used with CCII sets, the early SYS 3 (9-153) sets, and the second generation SYS 3 (9-160). Was this cabinet style possibly used with the 9-181/9-186 chassis?

[zenith2134]

All I know is that I never saw a 9-181 set with that style cab... All of these sets (from about 1982-1988) have always had those cheaper particle board and plastic cabinets, in my experience. The last one I saw with that style was from the later 70s, probably a '79 that belonged to one of my good friends. Got tossed out before I could get a chance at it...

[orthophonic]

There is an identical Chromacolor II free for the asking
over at the antique radio forum (look under television and
then "check out this Zenith" or something like that).
It appears to be mint and in good working condition.
It is going to be tossed if no one claims it.

[jpdylon]

That exact model has been at a nearby thrift for only 24 bucks. I'm tempted to snag it before they bash it but I don't have any room for it.

[radotvguy]

i have that same exact set , its a everyday watcher . Excellent reliable tv .

[Carmine]

A little trouble with the Chromacolor...

I have a friend who is opening a new business (gym). She said she is going to be very bored the next two months while she sells memberships. I said, "How would you like a color TV to watch for a while?"

Solves her boredom issue (somewhat, lol) and gets the thing out of my way until I find a place for it. Since the truck was right there, I fixed the cord, loaded it up, along with a set of rabbit ears. (an analog perk we'll soon lose)

When I fired it up with an antenna I found NO reception on VHF. It has snow, not a blank raster, but no trace of any of the strong local VHF channels.

Didn't notice this problem right off because I only tuned in our strong local UHF channel (62). It works fine on UHF.

One thing I noticed was that the little piece of co-ax cable that Zenith started using at the antenna strip had the outer section of shielded wire missing for about 1/4th inch around the circumference. I patched it with a small piece of copper wire and wrapped it with electrical tape. Then I plugged it back into the jack, so the 300 ohm ant. strips will function. (This is correct, right?)

Any idea why the VHF is dead? Since this is a varactor tuner, shouldn't it all be dead?

??

[MRX37]

UHF works, but no VHF?

I had a panasonic with the same problem, and it turned out to be a broken wire inside the set.

I don't know the tuner type, but maybe the VHF portion of it is mis aligned or damaged.

It looks like one of those tuners with fine tuning controls in the front. Maybe somebody played around with the fine tuning.