Zenith Porthole Restoration

[Ampico-kid]

It's been a long hard battle, but I think I've finally got my Zenith Porthole ready for it's official unveiling. It looks pretty good and works great on all functions.

The TV section, which I'd imagined was going to be the most difficult part of the job, turned out to be the least troublesome of the lot.

I figured I'd start with something easy like the turntable. It needed to have both rubber idler wheels rebuilt, complete disassembly, clean and relube, the platter needed to be reflocked, and the cartridge/needle had to be replaced. Nothing earth shattering, but it did take a lot of time, energy and money to complete. It works quite well, although it's a rather odd functioning system since there's no auto shutoff after the last record has been played.

Next came the AM/FM radio chassis. This turned out to be the most troublesome of the entire job. Aside from the obvious recapping job and a general cleaning and relubrication of all of the mechanical moving parts, I came face to face with the dreaded Zenith Mica caps in the IF can Syndrome. What a project that was!!!! Just about every IF can (both AM and FM) had to be removed from the chassis and disassembled. On some of them I was able to clean the carbon track off of the mica, and some of them I had to replace the internal mica cap with new silver mica caps. For anyone who has never had one of these things apart....I can only say avoid them when possible. It was a nightmare. But, persistance and patience does pay off sometimes and in this case after quite a lengthy battle I was victorious. The FM radio sounds absolutely fantastic and the AM sounds like AM.

The TV chassis restoration was pretty uneventful with the usual replacement of all paper and electrolytic caps, and out of tolerance resistors. Also a few weak tubes were replaced and a general clean up was in order. The crt had a booster and tested totally dead on my crt tester. I decided to give it a shot with my REM crt rejuvinator and the tube came back like gang busters. It now looks great.

I was lucky that the cabinet was in pretty good shape when I picked up the unit a few years ago. The only thing I did was to go over it with some wax to clean it and bring up the luster a little bit.

I've attached some pictures of the various parts of this combo unit.

It's quite a large and HEAVY unit, but seeing and hearing the end result, it's surely worth all the time and effort.

Bob.

[Sandy G]

Jeez, it's 1950 again...(grin) GREAT job !

[mattdavala]

Amazing. WOW!!

Great job

[Dan Starnes]

End result is truly fabulous!! Congratulations!
Dan

[Fisherdude]

Outstanding! Did you do the cabinet as well? It looks fabulous!

Congratulations.

[Celt]

Beautiful!

[Ampico-kid]

Originally Posted by Fisherdude

Outstanding! Did you do the cabinet as well? It looks fabulous!

Congratulations.

I cleaned and waxed the cabinet. The original finish was still in very good condition and didn't require any additional work.

Thanks.
Bob.

[batterymaker]

I spy Andy Williams' "Dear Heart", one of my favorite albums.

[ohohyodafarted]

Originally Posted by Ampico-kid

I cleaned and waxed the cabinet. The original finish was still in very good condition and didn't require any additional work.

Thanks.
Bob.

You should show these guys what a REAL restoration looks like. Post some photos of the player grand piano that I saw in your living room the day I picked up the 21 in roundie crt from you last spring.

I know it isn't a tv, but you really should show these guys what a real restoration expert can do. I am still telling friends of mine about your piano.

NOthing short of AWSOME!!!!!


Bob G.

[Tony V]

As always, nice restoration Bob! I have one of these also. This gives me inspiration to start on mine soon!
-Tony

[Ampico-kid]

Originally Posted by ohohyodafarted

You should show these guys what a REAL restoration looks like. Post some photos of the player grand piano that I saw in your living room the day I picked up the 21 in roundie crt from you last spring.

I know it isn't a tv, but you really should show these guys what a real restoration expert can do. I am still telling friends of mine about your piano.

NOthing short of AWSOME!!!!!


Bob G.

Hey Bob!
Thanks for the kind words. I don't want to stray too far off topic here since this is a site for antique TV's, and this thread was specific to my Zenith Porthole restoration efforts, but I can't resist this opportunity show another conquest that took about 5 years to complete. It's a 1925 Steinway 7 ft. Grand Player Piano that I restored.

It was a "ground up" restoration job for the piano, the case, and the player system. The player was manufactured by the Aeolian Company and was marketed under the label of Duo-Art. The case is covered with a veneer of "Mottled Mahogany" and is quite striking to see in person. The piano was originally owned by one of the old time Hollywood elite by the name of Georgie Stoll, musical director, composer and arranger for MGM during the late 1930's and 1940's.

Here's a link to see it. http://flickcabin.com/public/viewset/2330

Thanks again for the kind words.......
Bob

[jpdylon]

Simply fantastic!

well done!

[Old1625]

Sweet!

And durn-tootin' right those are heavy. I carried a table-model porthole up a flight of stairs one time, and that darn near did it for me.

[radotvguy]

nice job , love the combo , now i need to get going on my zenith combo .

[zenithfan1]

WOW! THAT is NICE!!! Great job on the restore Bob, it looks like brand new! I'm jealous I too still tell people about that piano, you should show 'em a picture of ALL of the internal mechanism, that'll blow their minds!