Got a decent Zenith at a garage sale! - Videokarma.org TV - Video

kx250rider · #1 07-13-2008, 09:09 PM

Today I got a call from another TV collector here in the LA area, who found this nice high-end Zenith at a garage sale in Encino, and also a Motorola 23" combo (in another thread)... He has no room for any more sets since he has about 400 (I won't say the name, but most locals know who I'm talking about

) So he offered the lead to me, and I happened to be in the Valley after a brunch that Kay and I went to. So I made a deal with Kay: She gets to go shopping at Old Navy, and I get to go to a garage sale to look at an old TV

I went and met the other collector at the sale, and I got the Zenith for $15. The remote is missing, but other than that, it's a very nice set! I have a spare Space Command 600 for it, so I'm in business. I haven't Variac'ed it up yet, but the seller said his Dad used it up til the 90s when they got a big screen. I believe it because it has some Phillips-ECG tubes in it. And the CRT was replaced in the 80s with a local rebuilt.

More details when I get a chance to check it out!

Charles

jpdylon · #2 07-13-2008, 10:39 PM

great save

3Guncolor · #3 07-14-2008, 12:30 AM

Charles, Great save looks like you need a convergence coil or two. I always liked changing the HOT in a dark room on those sets and my back remembers them too that's not a lite weight set. There were a lot of them in Orange County in the late 70's
BTW is that a real NOS KMET bumper sticker on your back window?

kx250rider · #4 07-14-2008, 12:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3Guncolor

Charles, Great save looks like you need a convergence coil or two. I always liked changing the HOT in a dark room on those sets and my back remembers them too that's not a lite weight set. There were a lot of them in Orange County in the late 70's
BTW is that a real NOS KMET bumper sticker on your back window?

It does have at least one unwound coil. I hope I can carefully rewind it, as I've sometimes been able to do before. I used to have boxes and boxes of Zenith coils, but they all had to go on eBay for lack of space.

And yes, that's a real KMET sticker! That truck is one of my hobby Toyota turbo-Diesels that I don't drive. Kay and I were in down in the Valley in her Lexus, so when the Zenith call came, I pulled the red truck out of storage down in Chatsworth to go get the set. Being a 1985 truck, I had to add the KMET sticker. I also put 1985-ish Centerline "sawblade" wheels on it. I entered that truck in the Toyota National car show last year, and got Best Truck trophy with it. It's one of only three ever built with that exact configuration (Short bed, XtraCab, turbo-Diesel, 2 wheel drive). It was custom-ordered by the owner of a Toyota dealer in Northern California. The only thing I need to do is replace the back bumper. That one is a 1995 bumper, but I'd rather have it for now than to have somebody bang the original paint. Otherwise, it's 100% accurate and original.

Charles

*zenithfan1* · #5 07-14-2008, 04:00 PM

Nice truck!! Is that Zenith a '67 with the 20X1C38 chassis or thereabouts? If so, that thing will outlast all of us! Nice save!!

orthophonic · #6 07-14-2008, 05:22 PM

Beautiful set and the price was right.
That is the model that Mr. Phelps
has in his apartment in the second and third season of Mission Impossible, except his is
in the contemparary cabinet.

drh4683 · #7 07-14-2008, 05:54 PM

Nice save! Yours must be a '67 with what appears to be a 23XC36 or 38 chassis? I have this same exact set but with the 25MC46 chassis which has the huge post deflection purity magnets. What model number is this one? Didnt know they made this model with a different chassis.

Oldstuff78 · #8 07-14-2008, 08:01 PM

That is a very nice set. The Itallian Provincial style cabinet looks in good cosmetic condition.

reeferman · #9 07-14-2008, 09:03 PM

Nice set. Isn't it a scream how big that remote control chassis is? Can you change channels by jingling keys, like you could on the old ones?

3Guncolor · #10 07-14-2008, 11:34 PM

Charles,
I must be getting old oh-well... Your newest find was about a year old when KMET signed on and your truck was a little over a year old when KMET died. 1968 to Feb 1987... One of the greatest rock stations of all time... 58000 watts of RCA power..
"A little bit of heaven 94.7 KMET Tweedle-Dee"...

kx250rider · #11 07-15-2008, 01:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3Guncolor

Charles,
I must be getting old oh-well... Your newest find was about a year old when KMET signed on and your truck was a little over a year old when KMET died. 1968 to Feb 1987... One of the greatest rock stations of all time... 58000 watts of RCA power..
"A little bit of heaven 94.7 KMET Tweedle-Dee"...

I remember it like yesterday. They started a campaign that nobody understood... until it was over. They started saying, with an eerie voice; "FOURTEEN DAYS... then THIRTEEN DAYS.... etc etc. That was my favorite station. Then we were saddled with KNAC, which came out of Long Beach with what sounded like a 750 milliwatt transmitter

. That one died in about '92. And yes, I do have KNAC stickers on hand for when early 90s vehicles get collectable!

Now on the posting:

I Variac'ed the Zenith (it's a 23XC36 chassis), and it came to life! It has it's problems, but basically it seems totally repairable. CRT is strong with great gray scale, and I got a picture. No color, and a bad horizontal blanking problem. So I will have to do some recapping, then likely troubleshoot the color circuits. I remember seeing weird problems in these chasses with the 3.58 oscillator transformer. I'll get into it soon, and will post more.

Charles