Chairside Zenith
 

I picked this chairside Zenith up at an auction for 10 bucks this weekend. They painted it pink, and then white! It's a 5S237.
They had a philco that they gutted and filled with parts of a boombox. they didn't do too bad of a job. They even got the dial cord to work with it. I let some other fella get it.

I also picked up a stereo Coronado council for my brother for a 2.50 and a Wards council for a buck which I will post later.

The horror, the horror.:sigh:

They put a bit of paint on the glass dial, didn't they? A good thing you got the
radio of their hands!

Yep. His cold dead hands...it was an estate sale.

You gonna TRY to get that horrid mess off it ?

Yep. It may be possible. I watched my mother when I was young strip white paint off a Hoosier kitchen cabinet. She worked on that thing a very long time. It was in the grain really good. It turned out great in the end.

Zenith chairside painted over twice--pink, then white yet!...good grief, why?
 

I agree. Who would do such a thing to any of Zenith's (or any other manufacturer's) chairsides or tombstone, etc. radios for that matter--and why? I like the looks of any kind of dark wood cabinet; I own two Zenith radios in dark wood cabinets (plus one in a lighter finish that is actually walnut underneath) and like the appearance of each of them. The Zenith MJ1035 in my avatar is the same one I have; same cabinet finish as well. Would never dream of painting over the wood or doing anything else to destroy the natural beauty of these cabinets.

To see a nice cabinet like that all but ruined by two coats of paint makes me wonder what this radio's owner must have been thinking. :scratch2: After all, who ever heard of a (heaven forbid!) white or pink chairside radio? Until now, I never saw one painted over twice like that. I don't think Zenith ever marketed any of its chairsides in white (or any other color) either, although I did see a white Zenith tombstone on eBay a while ago; I'll never know, but I have a sneaking suspicion that one was once walnut or some other dark wood as well. I hope the paint can be removed from the set being discussed here without causing too much (or any) damage to the original wood.

It looks like the seems in the wood are opening up a bit on the bottom edge in a couple places. I had to re-glue the cabinet on a Airline once because the glue let go. It's not too bad.... perhaps I can give it a squirt of glue and it will be good. I would prefer to not totally disassemble all the wood. What did people put on the shelves? Doesn't seem to fit magazines well.

Probably someone's teenage daughter painted it pink... :yuck:

Funny thing is this guy was a bachelor. So he must have bought it pink and painted over it white. Or he liked pink and after painting it was made fun of by his friends so he repainted it white

probably the shelves held books.

usually Zeniths of that era were a walnut or some other medium color wood. They're actually very pretty in their proper original finish. usually they got painted if the original finish was damaged, probably common on chairsides. I can just picture white rings from glasses sitting on it over the years. Amazingly my big Philco has no water rings on it, and my TV wasn't the victim of houseplant disease either.

actually i found one in original condition, darker than I'd have expected

http://www.antiqueradios.com/gallery...S_237.jpg.html

Well my Mom is going to refinish it for my Christmas gift. She has started to strip it and has found it was originally white. Painted pink, and then white again. Once she gets it striped down further she'll know more. She is thinking the paint is in the grain really good, and the wood they used is not all that attractive. Same story as my Motorola tv in another thread. Looks like I may have to paint that as well. Any paint recommendations? I have spray equipment if needed so that's not a problem .

^^^You may not want to refinish it, if the color under the pink is white, it may be original. zenith had an option for white painted cabinets, if it had this option, no veneer was put on the cabinet. I can't seem to find anything on the net about it at the moment.

I don't know if the model number variations were actually stamped on the radio and/or cabinet, or if they only existed in catalogs, but:

5S237: Wood.
5S237W: Bone White.
5S237Y: Ebony.

Cooljjay may be correct about the veneer. It would be logical to assume that if the original was painted instead of stained and lacquered, they wouldn't have wasted a quality veneer under the paint.

Since you didn't say that your model number included the "W", I would certainly go to the trouble of carefully stripping off some of the paint, and taking a look at what's underneath. If it's walnut, walnut is an open grain wood, which means that the paint will have gotten into the grain, which means that getting it out is going to be a pita. You'll need a stiff-bristled brush to go along with the stripper, and a lot of patience.

If you're going to repaint, that's easy. If it turns out there's walnut veneer under the paint, and you decide to try to restore the finish, you'll need to go here:

http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums/...2281e938f1f77d

I will have to check the numbers but according to my Mom it was factory white, and in the grain real good. She has refinished many things. I have done a few things myself. I remember a Hoosier cabinet she did once that was painted a dozen times. The first coat was white and was deep in the grain. But she managed to get it out. Any white paint recommendations? Imron?

^^^go over to http://www.antiqueradios.com/forums and post in one of the categorys. there are a lot of zenith experts over there, they could tell you what the best paint to use to match it close to the original. What made me think it was factory is because of the knobs, most home painted cabinets i see, i don't ever see the knobs painted.

Looks like I am painting the set. I have a good match. I have a couple questions perhaps someone might know. Does this set use decals? If so what do I use? Gloss or semigloss? the knobs are painted but did they outline or do anything with the Z?

I asked over at the other forum as well. I found an interesting article on Fender guitar paint on the web. It goes in depth with a history of paint, and has many good ideas which are helpful for painted sets.

http://www.provide.net/~cfh/fenderc.html

For the gloss or semigloss I was referring to the clearcoat.

Looks like I am painting the set. I have a good match. I have a couple questions perhaps someone might know. Does this set use decals? If so what do I use? Gloss or semigloss? the knobs are painted but did they outline or do anything with the Z?

I asked over at the other forum as well. I found an interesting article on Fender guitar paint on the web. It goes in depth with a history of paint, and has many good ideas which are helpful for painted sets.

http://www.provide.net/~cfh/fenderc.html