another ruined console

[DaveWM]

I know these aircraft carriers have limited appeal (I like them), but I still hate to see this happen to them. It "may" have gotten 50-100$ it it had the orig TV, as is its just pure junk

http://knoxville.craigslist.org/atq/1555260903.html


To bad someone thought it was a good idea to take an RCA and replace it with a junk set.

[old_tv_nut]

No statement that the stereo works or is just "there" either

[radiotvnut]

As common as this practice is, I still hate to see it. Over the years, I've found several nice combos that either had a new TV in them or a hole where a TV used to be.

[Jeffhs]

I see nothing wrong with transplanting a modern TV into an older 3-way console.

Many times this is done if the owner of the set likes the looks of the cabinet, and doesn't want to give it up. I had two great-uncles who did the same thing with their old 3-way entertainment centers when the TVs went belly-up; both sets looked and worked great after the retrofit jobs. In both cases, one would have been hard-put to tell if the TV was a retrofit, as the replacement sets fit the opening once occupied by the original color chassis almost perfectly. Both sets had a wood frame around the TV opening, to compensate for the differences in width, height, etc. between the original chassis and its modern replacement.

The seller of the TV console mentioned here does mention that "everything works", so the stereo components must be working at least passably.

BTW, when I saw the title of this thread, "Another ruined console", I was half expecting to see a TV with a badly defaced cabinet (scratches, dings, chipped or missing veneer...) and perhaps a mess where the control panel was mounted, as I saw some time ago with the photos of an older Magnavox 3-way set here on VK. As it was at the time, that one was a safety and health hazard, with all those diabetic testing supplies (needles, strips....) strewn around the master control panel, and the cabinet itself being infested with bugs, spiders, having bits of rotted wood inside--sheeesh! Never saw such a mess inside a TV set in my life. I forget who had (or may still have) this TV (I'm sure it's someone here in this forum), but I'm wondering whether they ever got the bugs out (literally) and got the set working again.

[Eric H]

It's hard to get too worked up about a set like that.
I gutted a similar Packard Bell (solid state) back in the early 80's for the same purpose.
It was a hideous thing with fake plastic wood and red velvet speaker grilles. I guess back then it looked good to me.

[jeyurkon]

Seeing that happen to a set that is of the same vintage as what I grew up with as a child bothers me. But not to more modern sets. For me that means 1960 and on.

I think if you're 20 years younger then seeing it happen to a 1980 set might bother you.

But that perspective is a result of why I'm interested in vintage TV.

John

[Eric H]

When I gutted the Packard Bell it was probably less than 10 years old, just an old set then, nothing special.

We probably junked a lot more interesting stuff than that at the shop I worked for but again, it was just old back then, not classic.

[DaveWM]

well I got my eye on another air craft carrier, so I hope its decent, I will post when I find out.

[jr_tech]

Originally Posted by Eric H

When I gutted the Packard Bell it was probably less than 10 years old, just an old set then, nothing special.

We probably junked a lot more interesting stuff than that at the shop I worked for but again, it was just old back then, not classic.

If all of these sets had been saved (not 95% or more junked), would we be bothering to collect them today?

jr

[freakaftr8]

Guess the gutting saved the cabinet for a few more years.. Yeah I dont like seeing that either.. But whatcha goona do.

[RobtWB]

Well heck, that thing was never going to be worth a restoration anyway - damn few of them are - just a common old and ugly RCA - it looks as though they at least attempted to make some sort of "mask" to frame in the bpc set. No reason to get upset over this one - now had they attempted this hack with a Merrill or some other set of real value, that would be upsetting.

[RCAkid]

Well heck, that thing was never going to be worth a restoration anyway - damn few of them are - just a common old and ugly RCA - it looks as though they at least attempted to make some sort of "mask" to frame in the bpc set. No reason to get upset over this one - now had they attempted this hack with a Merrill or some other set of real value, that would be upsetting.

Seems to me that there are a great deal of people who find these "common" sets to be quite uncommon and I happen to be one of them. If this is what I think it to be, this is not the typical 70's plastic cabinetry. While it is not the best example of RCA's cabinetry, I seriously doubt that the plastic "wood" is employed in this example. RCA put a lot of work into the quality of their high end cabinets, especially to the end of the 60's and prior.

Granted, while this is no Merrill, these are not all THAT common and are, especially now having seen this, becoming less common every day.

That looks like it was a CTC-17 like the one I have coming from CA. The tuner/stereo, from what I can tell, is the same time and would have had a lot of juice in it. The tv, based on the stereo employed may well have been a remote set as well and these buggars were very pricey at around $1200 or so at the time. In today's dollars, that's about $8000 bucks.

That is such a shame that it has been gutted. But I guess it just makes the one coming from CA that much cooler. imho

[3Guncolor]

Guys keep in mind the deed may have been done over 20 years ago when the combo was just another piece of junk with a dead TV. The store I worked for did this all the time during the late 70's. As sad as it to to see it at least it was not done yesterday.

[RobtWB]

I have a 67 or 68 Zenith console, don't remember the year or the chassis # off hand. A gorgeous maple cabinet, real wood, no particle board, plastic etc., in the Colonial or Early American furniture style.

Unfortunately the tv is worn out junk - most all tubes test near dead, tuner wafers worn out, chassis extremely dirty, "moldy" cataracts on the the kinescope etc. The list goes on ad nauseum. The only part of this set worth saving is the cabinet.

QUESTION: Should I remove the chassis, kinescope (CRT), mask, you know, the guts of the tv, and carefully miter and stain 4 pieces of birch/maple to match the cabinet, place them as a "mask" or frame in the newly created opening and carefully slide in from the back, one of those modern marvel 26" class LCD sets from WallyWorld. The most it could possibly cost is a meager $300.00 or so. Then I could have the best of both worlds - an authentic Zenith hand made cabinet and a Thompson/Audiovox/RCA lcd high definition multi-tuner television.

[julianburke]

What's wrong with you folks? There is a nice big combo Zenith here in Knoxville, Tn. that is far prettier than this one for the taking and not one person has stepped up to get it! I don't get it and you are worrying over that one as shown above???