Couple Zenith Avante Questions
 

Have a couple questions about appearance and strength.

Does anyone know what the white paint used on the cabinet is and what shade of white? So many chips and dings. I want to first touch it up, then one day take it apart and refinish it. Will also paint the base along with it since doing retrobright only 6 months before it started turning yellow again and in another year it was back to what it was before.

How strong is the top? I have an RCA VDT-350 I would like to put on top, but not sure what that might do in the long run. It seemed to handle it well when I placed it on top, but didn't leave it because I was afraid it might not hold up well over time. I would say the VCR is over 40, but under 60 lbs.

Thanks

Dont worry about the weight of the VCR. You could probably stand
on it IF you dont jump up & down. Things were built different then. I remember
walking on the hood, trunk & roof of my '72 Olds Toronado. Four of us
sat on the roof for a good view of the fire works. No damage, just
made a popping sound when we got off.

Try some rubbing compound in a corner somewhere see if it helps.
IIRC there were other threads on the Avanti cabinets also.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

I've sat on my Avanti...it has had an 80Lb Stromberg Carlson TV-10 (Dumont RA-103 with a different cabinet) sitting on it for years now.

Perhaps you could take a paint chip to a paint store and get it matched.

Okay, I feel better. The darn VCR weighs quite a bit and I was worried about the long term.

The paint places I've contacted want a piece of paint at least 1" square. Don't want to take off anymore paint and certainly not that large. :lmao::lmao::lmao:

Is it actual paint ? If so look under the base & if its finished there you
can grab a big chunk. Nobody will ever see it.

Other smaller sets of that era used white but the color was in the plastic
( example E4030X ). So the compound idea..... Dont remember the Avanti but the white was very pure & the low end of semi gloss.

73 Zeno:smoke:
LFOD !

It is paint, but not like a simple latex used now. There are a few spots where it got dinged and took a spot of paint off and you can see the wood below. I'm not up on identifying paint, but it seems to be a kind of enamel paint, or something like that. It's pretty tough. Never thought about taking some paint off the bottom, under the stand. I think I will do that.

I could just pick a shade of white with low gloss as most wouldn't know or remember the true shade used.

If you need a paint chip bigger than your comfortable obtaining to match instead just grab a bunch of color sample swatches hold them up to it and pick the closest one you find...Most sets have faded a bit anyway so if you repaint it a close but slightly different shade it won't be easy tell....

IIRC the back of mine is painted the same color...you could probably bring the back in as your paint chip and just have them be gentle with it...

The back is pretty close, but maybe more accurate as it doesn't seem to have any areas that appear faded. So if it is the same color, then it is the most accurate. What I've also noticed, and I don't know if original, but from the top of the sides, it is the same shade of white until about 3" from the bottom where it is a different shade of white that is more on the dingy side like how the base turns. It is on both sides, so either it was something they sprayed on to accent the rounded corners on the bottom, or it changed colors over time. It doesn't show up well in pics, but if you think back to some refrigerators that were harvest gold, the center panels were in the gold family and the edges where a shade or so darker.