Hotel Philco-Ford - Videokarma.org TV - Video

*zenithfan1* · #1 07-07-2008, 11:46 AM

I picked up this Philco Ford from my friend Craig over the weekend. He's been holding it for awhile. This thing is pretty rare in my opinion, as hotel sets are not treated all that nicely, to find one in this condition surprises me. No one has scratched it up or put cigarettes on top. I have another one like this and it is bad, cigarette burns, dings, dents and "Days Inn" engraved on the top in large typeface. The picture is bright with good color, all I had to do was replace the vertical output tube and now clean the chassis and cabinet. This set works fine other than that.

radiotvnut · #2 07-07-2008, 12:13 PM

Nice find! Old motel sets are hard enough to find in any condition, let alone one that has not been abused. In the early '90's, someone that I knew that used to fix these for a local motel gave me one complete set and a bunch of remains for others. He said the motel gave him several of the old TV's when they switched to Zenith's in the early '80's. The one complete set had a bad flyback and there was not a good one in the remains that he gave me. I wound up junking the set. Mine was an 18" with, I believe, a low focus voltage CRT. Mine had a sticker on the top that read "for your enjoyment, we present Philco-Ford color TV". Under that were operating instructions for the TV and a warning about the set being connected to an alarm system, etc.

I also had a slightly newer 19" SS version of this set. That one had a toasted CRT as well as HV issues. It wound up getting junked as well. It would be nice if I could go back in time and get all those old TV's that I junked as a kid.

Tony V · #3 07-08-2008, 04:27 AM

I had one of these also. It played well until the flyback went in it. Mine had the frosted faceplate on the crt. I have encountered several since then and still the same thing...bad flybacks.
-Tony

Rental Limo · #4 07-08-2008, 09:06 PM

WOW! I did not realize it was a hotel set until you mentioned it. That probably was why there was a metal cover over the rear controls so nobody could putz around with the set. I knew you would get that thing going Mark!

*zenithfan1* · #5 07-09-2008, 06:36 AM

That is what it's for,I've been cleaning it up and will post more pics when I'm done. I'm also swapping out some parts with the set I already have like this one. It's in sad shape but is making a great parts set. This one will be like new when it's done, CRT tests really strong. Thanks again Craig.