Found a last gasp Zenith "Chromacolor II" table set!

[drh4683]

I stopped at a local estate sale today and found an unusual set; a last gasp Zenith "Chromacolor II" 23" metal cabinet table set from 1979! It's also equipped with the original Space Command "800" remote control. I put "Chromacolor II" in quotes only because that's how we typically identify the vertical chassis sets. Being such a late model, the word "Chromacolor II" is no where to be found, nor was there ever a tricolor emblem on this set. It's totally nondescript which is somewhat typical for an end of an era item. It also uses the older rounded corner delta gun CRT.

This particular set was manufactured in October, 1979 making it an extremely late model to use a hand wired chassis. As you can see it's actually an L-line model (SL-2311W) which technically makes this a 1980 model year television! Even the chassis is an L-line, the 23LC45. Up until this point, I only saw 1979 K-lines as the newest "Chromacolor II" sets.

The System 3 was introduced in May, 1978, so the older model hand-wired chassis sets like this would have probably been more on the bottom end of the price scale, when ironically, you would think they should have been more because of the increased labor costs to make them and they were also superior in construction to their System 3 successors. But if you notice, inside the control door appears to be an original hand written price label that the original owners either taped on, or left in place that shows a very pricey cost of $689.95!

Another unique characteristic is that this set was built at Zenith's Reynosa, Mexico plant. Reynosa was Zenith's 2nd Mexican plant which was opened around April, 1978. (Matamoros was Zenith's first plant in Mexico which opened in 1971).

The party was pretty much over at Zenith's Chicago plants by the fall of 1977 when massive layoffs took place. The Chicago plants, while not entirely shut down did operate at a much reduced scale for quite a few years afterwards, basically as sub assembly feeder plants for final assembly operations at the Springfield, MO plant. The Mexican plants however were basically operating almost all on their own by the late 70's, producing entire hand-wired CCII chassis' and sub assemblies themselves and even completed TV's. If it wasn't for the "Made in Mexico" tags found throughout the chassis and on various components, one basically could not tell the difference between a Mexican made and US made Zenith. Same exact parts, same specifications, same quality, just built at a different location.

It would seem that as the Chromacolor II era was coming to a close by 1977/78, that there would be no reason to have all of that additional manpower as required for tedious hand wiring operations which resulted in the Chicago area layoffs. As the System 3's phased in, the straggler old-hat Chromacolor II's, which were obviously a much higher cost to manufacture were shifted over to Mexico where labor costs were much cheaper (unfortunately). They probably only kept these very late Chromacolor II sets going only because they could produce them cheaply in Mexico to use up remaining parts and chassis blanks. But this set is still really a hybrid of American and Mexican made components. Parts like the Orange Drop capacitors, transistors, etc were made in the US. The drive motor for the VHF tuner was made in Mt. Prospect, IL by Molon Motor Inc. (who is still in business today). The metal cabinet was also US made which has the "MoFab" stamp from 10-18-79. MoFab was a metal cabinet fabricator in Anderson, Indiana. The CRT's were always being built at the Chicago suburban Melrose Park, IL CRT plant too. It's a neat piece of history and represents a unique mix as the game was changing in the industry.




DSC04422 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04416 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04423 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04424 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04425 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04429 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04427 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04430 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04434 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04432 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04436 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04437 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04438 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04455 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04441 by drh4683, on Flickr

[drh4683]

additional photos:

DSC04452 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04442 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04449 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04451 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04448 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04444 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04457 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04456 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04447 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04453 by drh4683, on Flickr

DSC04445 by drh4683, on Flickr

[Username1]

~ (WOW) X (WOW) ~ That's WoW Squared, Boy Doug sure has some
kinda touch to get out there and find these things..... Kinda like
Steve Martin in Roxanne ! I didn't know Zenith was in Mexico as early as '72....
Great Pictures ! Thanks for doing such detailed postings for us all to learn from !

.

[dishdude]

You guys in Chicago get all the good stuff!

[Findm-Keepm]

Originally Posted by Username1

~ (WOW) X (WOW) ~ That's WoW Squared, Boy Doug sure has some
kinda touch to get out there and find these things..... Kinda like
Steve Martin in Roxanne ! I didn't know Zenith was in Mexico as early as '72....
Great Pictures ! Thanks for doing such detailed postings for us all to learn from !

.

We serviced about two-dozen of some very-similar metal cabinet duramodule sets - the Navy had them in barracks, and had a cover with tamper proof screws over the channel knob. Once we channelized them, they couldn't be tampered with. There were dimples in the door that cleared the clutch head screws.

The CRT sockets gave us grief - the little holes are spark gaps, and nicotine and tar from cigarette smoke would accumulate, starting an arc, and carbonization of the socket. We replaced a half-dozen or so. I remember replacing only stupid stuff - cords, antenna input terminals and leads, and the odd-focus pot damaged by sailors. (Give a sailor a rubber mallet and an anvil, and he'll break the anvil first....).

CRTS never went soft, despite being run almost 24/7. Those sets and the Panasonic projection sets they had in the barracks made us some really good money - checks from the rec fund paid for it all, and they had deep pockets. They later replaced most of them with System 3 19" sets that just about disappeared - they never bolted them down, and they lost 14 or 15 sets, stolen from the lounges. The next batch were on locked pedestals, bolted to the concrete floor. The key ring weighed about 10 pounds, and finding the right key took a few minutes..

Very nice find - I never saw one in that great of condition.

[jstout66]

God that's one NICE set. I don't know if we ever had them on the sales floor or not.
Kind of ironic that the last gasp CC2's were better than the latest and greatest System 3 I ran the original price in the CPI Inflation calculator. It would be equivalent to spending $2,261.70 today.

[radiotvnut]

Very nice, Doug! in 25+ years of doing this, I've seen 3 23LC45 sets. All 3 of them were 23" consoles with single knob non-remote varactor tuning. One belonged to one of my family members and the other two were ones that I fixed and sold.

[Username1]

So what's the difference between the Master on-off and the power on-off.....?
Does Master turn off the remote receiver, and the power, turn the tv on-off
manually, without remote....?

Is that also the last-last 23" set...?

I can't get over that price tag.....

.

[Jon A.]

Interesting, I didn't think any Zeniths bigger than 13" use a motorized tuner like that. I always liked the side-scrolling indicator wheel so I was stoked to discover one in my Sylvania console.

[sampson159]

i have the very same set myself.not as clean as dougs but it produces the famous zenith picture.bought it for 10.00 at a moving sale a few years ago.love those zeniths

[jstout66]

Username1, Yes on the switches. Not sure why one would even want to bother not using the remote, but Zenith had a master off switch for quite awhile. Also, Zenith did market 23" sets in the System 3 line for a bit. As a matter of fact.. Zenith may have been the last maker to even bother with 23" tubes.

[radiotvnut]

Originally Posted by Username1

So what's the difference between the Master on-off and the power on-off.....?
Does Master turn off the remote receiver, and the power, turn the tv on-off
manually, without remote....?

Is that also the last-last 23" set...?

I can't get over that price tag.....

.

No, Zenith offered a 23" set at least until '82-'83. The ones after this one used an inline EFL gun tube and some models had RAT tuning with remote control. I think it's a pretty safe bet that Zenith offered the last 23" color set for the USA market.

[Jon A.]

Originally Posted by jstout66

Username1, Yes on the switches. Not sure why one would even want to bother not using the remote, but Zenith had a master off switch for quite awhile.

My Sylvania has a remote master switch as well, easily accessed through the back, unlike the recessed switch in my Zenith. In the days of ultrasonic remote sets, the user could be trying to control one set and activate one in another room. My Sylvania has responded to its remote from quite a distance. Some remotes have a sticker instructing the user to turn off the master switch before going out or going to bed.

[Username1]

wow, Thanks guys.... Yah, ultrasonic remotes can get some range... Sounds logical...
At $690. for the 23's, what was the $ on the 25's $800. ?
No wonder we didn't get a color set till '76 I think it was $379. at Sears for a 15"
I remember Dad's '65 Corvair he sold in '71 for $250. I can't picture a tv being
that expensive... I guess they were.....

.

[Electronic M]

Originally Posted by Jon A.

My Sylvania has a remote master switch as well, easily accessed through the back, unlike the recessed switch in my Zenith. In the days of ultrasonic remote sets, the user could be trying to control one set and activate one in another room. My Sylvania has responded to its remote from quite a distance. Some remotes have a sticker instructing the user to turn off the master switch before going out or going to bed.

Some makers were conscious of interaction between remotes in different rooms. My '67 admiral puts a 'remote range' (master gain of the reciever) pot shaft out the back as a user control. At least with remote inter-compatibility back then if you had a true scatter-brain in the house that carries remotes from room to room regularly whatever one happened to be present in a room could probably be used.