Nice Zenith Porthole on Ebay
 

I'd love to have this one and would buy it if it was closer. I'm looking at a 20 hour round trip from Cincinnati, $200 in gas and $150 in hotel and food. A little too much time and $$$.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...%3DI%26otn%3D2

Oooooh, dat's PURDY !!

The seller offers shipping via freight carrier, so you wouldn't have to make the trip if you used that option. Please be advised, however, that freight charges can be very steep--I'm guessing $100 or more from Pennsylvania to Cincinnati. The set would be shipped across quite a distance (catty-corner [diagonally] from southwestern Ohio to the northeastern part of the state is at least 300 miles by itself; from northeast Ohio to northwestern Pennsylvania would be another 60-70 miles, totaling 360-370 miles or more), so the freight won't be cheap by any stretch of the imagination.

I would keep looking on eBay or Craigslist; sooner or later one of these sets, located a lot closer to you, is bound to show up. I see these Zenith porthole sets quite often on eBay, so you may not have to look very long.

Good luck. You will have found a classic if you snag this one; I've read good things here on VK regarding these postwar Zeniths, and being a Zenith radio collector myself, I believe them. A recap and a cleaning of the controls and tuner and you will have a TV that will serve you well for many years to come. They don't make them like that anymore.

Add to that price the cost of a new picture tube. Notice the brightener hanging off the back, a sign that it was played to death.

Nothing I have read about Zenith portholes makes me want one. They sound like a big PITA to restore.

Jeff's right, these are common. You can see a different one just about every week on eBay.

Phil

I picked up that exact model last year. It even has the veneer on the molding missing in the same spot!

It should ship well as long as the chassis are still bolted in. Especially if the back cover is still there. It's a heavy metal mesh. The neck of the CRT doesn't extend past the back of the cabinet.

But it does look like you'd need a new CRT.

And mine was about $100 and has a good CRT. I don't think they'll get $299 for it. You never know though.

John

I agree, i'll just keep looking.

I STILL want me a "Claridge"...Any o' youse byrds have one & want to part w/it, I PROMISE I'll love it, pet it, play w/it, 'n' call it "George"...(grin)

Like to find a good 16EP4A picture tube like in that set.
Its the same chassis as in my Zenith porthole - but without the radio/record player.

I wonder if the picture tube is better than we think because I've been told those old Zeniths were hard on flyback transformers. Maybe the service tech just put a brightner on it but the real cause was something else? Am I wishing on a star?

Carl

Nice set. I have a 12" version in a plainer cabinet that I still need to restore. Mine cost $15 in Chicago in about 1980 at an estate sale, with a note on it "would make a nice liquor cabinet"! The sellers were kind of surprised that I wanted to keep it as a TV/audio system.