Estate Sale Finds in 2009!

[drh4683]

I've found a few sets this year already, they just never got posted. I finally decided to bring this thread back, and hopefully keep it going. I picked up that '69 Zenith console at the Evanston estate sale on Friday morning. The sale was at 9524 Hamiln, was a family run sale and we were all standing in line getting ready to get rained on. We were ready to have one of the most serious downpours in history that morning.
It was at this sale where saw Max for the first time in quite a few years. He was waiting in line too before the sale started.
This was a nice old house, basically undisturbed in 40+ years. The zenith was up in the bedroom, and as I hoped, it was the 16Z8C50 chassis. The son of the original owner was there, told me it was their first color set, then it became a bedroom TV later on where it never got used again. Not even an antenna, or antenna jack connected to it, it just sat there since the early 80's.
They told me to take the TV for $10. One of the guys working at the sale told me they had a much better newer TV downstairs. This zenith actually works, just a dim picture. Might need a kick start to the filaments to bring it back, looks like it had the back off maybe once. Completely original.

One of the guys working at the sale offered to bring it down the stairs for me and help me load it into the truck. As soon as I got the TV downstairs, I had the truck waiting in the street with the tailgate and cap door open. It got very dark, very quick. The rain started to come down pretty good at this point. We threw a big heavy blanket over the TV and then me and this other guy picked up the set and litterally ran out the door with it to get it to the truck. As soon as the set was in the truck, we were soaked, but the blanket was good enough to where it didn't saturate the blanket down to the cabinet. As soon as I felt the TV was safe and sound, I pulled the blanket off it. Right then and there the rain just picked up fiercly and a huge gust of wind blew the rain sideways, right into the truck blasting rain water all over the TV! NOO!! I had to get in the truck, turn it around 180 degrees so the rain wasn't blowing into the back. Fortunatly I had some towels with me, I was able to dry it off asap before the water ruined the cabinet. The rain was so dense that you could hardly see 10 feet infront of you. I was instantly soaked as I had to run back into the house to pay for the set. And as always, I had to hear people at the sale talk among themselves "I can't believe someone actually bought that thing". I hear it every time! I was asked by someone what I do with it. I told them I wanted it for the cabinet. The one guy says "oh, yes, its a very nice cabinet to make into something else" That ended it. No more me needing to explain why I like the old sets, no more people looking at me cross eyed when I tell them how good the picture is when they are properly working, no more people telling me that its not digital ready and that I'll need a convertor box to watch it. This way, it just speeds up the process, tell them what they want to hear and everyone moves on.

Its safe now, just need to open it up and see whats all wrong with it and get it going again!

[batterymaker]

Look at that green shag carpeting. Talk about walking into a place where time stood still! Takes me back to my childhood.

I think the TV has that late '60s Mediterranean styling...

[Rental Limo]

Originally Posted by drh4683

I've found a few sets this year already, they just never got posted. I finally decided to bring this thread back, and hopefully keep it going. I picked up that '69 Zenith console at the Evanston estate sale on Friday morning. The sale was at 9524 Hamiln, was a family run sale and we were all standing in line getting ready to get rained on. We were ready to have one of the most serious downpours in history that morning.
It was at this sale where saw Max for the first time in quite a few years. He was waiting in line too before the sale started.
This was a nice old house, basically undisturbed in 40+ years. The zenith was up in the bedroom, and as I hoped, it was the 16Z8C50 chassis. The son of the original owner was there, told me it was their first color set, then it became a bedroom TV later on where it never got used again. Not even an antenna, or antenna jack connected to it, it just sat there since the early 80's.
They told me to take the TV for $10. One of the guys working at the sale told me they had a much better newer TV downstairs. This zenith actually works, just a dim picture. Might need a kick start to the filaments to bring it back, looks like it had the back off maybe once. Completely original.

One of the guys working at the sale offered to bring it down the stairs for me and help me load it into the truck. As soon as I got the TV downstairs, I had the truck waiting in the street with the tailgate and cap door open. It got very dark, very quick. The rain started to come down pretty good at this point. We threw a big heavy blanket over the TV and then me and this other guy picked up the set and litterally ran out the door with it to get it to the truck. As soon as the set was in the truck, we were soaked, but the blanket was good enough to where it didn't saturate the blanket down to the cabinet. As soon as I felt the TV was safe and sound, I pulled the blanket off it. Right then and there the rain just picked up fiercly and a huge gust of wind blew the rain sideways, right into the truck blasting rain water all over the TV! NOO!! I had to get in the truck, turn it around 180 degrees so the rain wasn't blowing into the back. Fortunatly I had some towels with me, I was able to dry it off asap before the water ruined the cabinet. The rain was so dense that you could hardly see 10 feet infront of you. I was instantly soaked as I had to run back into the house to pay for the set. And as always, I had to hear people at the sale talk among themselves "I can't believe someone actually bought that thing". I hear it every time! I was asked by someone what I do with it. I told them I wanted it for the cabinet. The one guy says "oh, yes, its a very nice cabinet to make into something else" That ended it. No more me needing to explain why I like the old sets, no more people looking at me cross eyed when I tell them how good the picture is when they are properly working, no more people telling me that its not digital ready and that I'll need a convertor box to watch it. This way, it just speeds up the process, tell them what they want to hear and everyone moves on.

Its safe now, just need to open it up and see whats all wrong with it and get it going again!

Those estate sale rats of course would talk shit about the set, but once they see your collection the frowns would turn upside down. Some people have no sense of style.

[drh4683]

I took the back off to see what I'd be up against. Darn it tall, the infamous brightener was on. I rarely see those brighteners on color sets. I figured the tube was toast as they normally always are at this stage. My RCA CRIII couldn't do a thing to it. The old B+K 465 did the job, and very well too. The emission went up to a near perfect tube on all 3 guns, so the tracking is excellent. This it the picture it produces without touching a thing, except backing off and setting the grey scale. The picture detail is a little smeary, but its not the CRT, probably some some tubes and simple alignment, but its got a picture and I can tell it will clean up to a good working set.

See the yellowish dust? It was a smokers set, not very extreme though, but it has that hot tube cigarette smoke smell once the set is going. That smell takes me back as a kid looking in the back of old sets, smelling the hot tube smoke smell looking at the filaments under all the dust....

[radiotvnut]

Very nice find & I'm glad to see this thread going again.

[67Zenith]

Congratulations on this Zenith find. Wow, what a beauty. That's a great looking '69 Zenith set. The picture looks good too (is that the rained-on US Open on the screen?). That's a nice looking house too, possibly built in the early 1960s?

It's been raining like crazy in New York for the past two weeks, pretty steady. As a result, the apartment buildings don't put out heavy stuff on the sidewalk for garbage (like portable a/c's or console tv sets) they usually wait until it is dry (I don't know why). I will be keeping my eyes open this summer for old Zenith's and RCA Victor's.

[zenithfan1]

Nice! I know that smoker's smell all to well, for one, I used to smoke and two, I seem to find a lot of smoker sets. Always have, I guess everyone smoked back in the day.

[AUdubon5425]

Nice set. I wish I could find 1/10th as many sets as are turning up around Chicago!

[maxm]

I'm glad you got that set, it was nice seeing you at the sale.
That rain was pretty bad, I was worried that the set might get wet when you were bringing it outside. The rain seemed to be heading into Chicago, so it followed me all the way home, some of the worst rain I've seen here for a while.

[Jeffhs]

Originally Posted by 67Zenith

The picture looks good too (is that the rained-on US Open on the screen?).

I think it is. The U.S. Open was supposed to have finished up yesterday (Sunday), but rain cut things short so they are playing the last few holes today (the NBC station here in Cleveland is showing local programming as I write this, at 4:44 p.m. EST, so it must all be over except, as the expression goes, for the shouting).

I agree--the TV looks great, and the picture is excellent with your DTV converter box between the antenna downlead and the set. I did, however, see that "green halo" around the edges of the screen, both in the first pictures of the set and in the one that showed the U.S. Open. That was a real problem with Zenith CRTs after they get a few years on them. I sometimes wonder if they ever licked it, or was the halo a problem right up to the end of CRT production? Hmmm.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by AUdubon5425

Nice set. I wish I could find 1/10th as many sets as are turning up around Chicago!

I heard that. It seems like anything remotely good has disappeared from this part of the country.

[67Zenith]

^ Don't fret. Every time I want something from the 1960s (color set, clock radio, table radio, electric wall clock, etc) it just seems to turn up within a month or so of me really looking online or ebay or estate sales. The US economy in the 1960s was quite good and a major status symbol was to own a big color console tv (super status was to also have a nice color portable in the master bedroom as well the big color console tv in the living room). As a result, production in the mid-late 1960s and early 1970s was really booming. Just like with vintage cars from this period...they turn up in barns and garages...electronics will likely continue to turn up at estate sales. Keep checking www.estatesales.net and plug in the zip code near you.

[zenith2134]

Great finds. I'm also glad your threads are back. You find some amazing tellys.

About the smoke smell....I know it all too well. It's almost like, every set over a certain age just reeks of the stuff.

Too bad about the brightener

[drh4683]

Finished tuning it all up this evening. Went through a cleaning process. Had to take it all apart, down to the CRT. Had to pull the CRT so I could clean the "smokers dust" off the bell of the tube. It was pretty bad as you can see in the "before" photos earlier. It did clean up really well though with the paint brush and my 1963 electrolux model G vacuum cleaner. Tubes were actually good. That brightner never belonged on this CRT. the Video output tube was weak! The tekie put that in no knowing where the real trouble was. It is a low hour set, lots of original tube still good and going strong. Even the 6Z10 was good! After the repairs, it got a "cook out", and sure enough the 6Z10 shorted out on me. So it got replaced anyway. Go figure. Typical zenith tube set though, focus is somewhat soft due to the leaky focus rectifier. Put in a new NTE118 and it sharpened up and brought the pot mid way like it should. It converged really well, even with a good selenium convergence diode. Lots of zeniths with high hours will have a burn up convergence pot for the left side blue horizontal line control. Another tip this set didn't see much use as that pot was still good and not "crumbling" when I turned it. I really like these tube chassis/solid state IF models. They were always good working reliable sets. The 16Z8C50 is a chassis I don't run across too often on the zeniths. 9 times out of 10 I find '68 model zeniths with a 20Y1C48 chassis. That must have been a big year for color TV sales. I can't tell you how many '68 models I have and how many I have run across over the years.

Got some large pics here, so enjoy. Looking at the chassis is what its all about on zeniths.

[zenith2134]

Hey, good stuff! You do nice work.

I could eat supper off that chassis! (and, I suppose, cook supper on it )