I would read the description of that porthole set again. After the seller made that remark about the set's cabinet making a good fish tank
, he/she followed it by saying "collectors may disagree", as everyone on this thread, myself included, has done so far. I had a 1963 Zenith 23" console b&w TV in the early '70s which I would not have turned into a fish tank or anything else; the set worked much too well by the time I finished restoring it. Unfortunately, I had to get rid of the set when I moved in the summer of 1972. Nearly broke my heart to do it, as I had put quite a bit of work into it; besides that, it had probably the best sounding audio I have ever heard from a TV set, with its 6BN6 quad detector, 6BQ5 output and a 6x9 speaker. (Today I have a 1963 Zenith K731 AM-FM radio in a walnut cabinet that sounds just as good, with a 35C5 output tube, 19T8 1st audio and, again, a 6x9 speaker; I bought it in an ebay auction, probably to make up for having gotten rid of that Zenith console, not to mention liking the looks of the cabinet--in that order, of course. I wouldn't be caught dead gutting that radio for the cabinet--I like the sound of it, and the overall operation, much too well.)
To have gutted that 23" set and turn its cabinet into a fish tank
would have been a horrible mistake. (I'm glad I rescued it from the trash and got it working again; I am only sorry, however, I couldn't have kept it longer than I did, because when I finally put the last new tube in it and fired it up, it worked as well as any modern set of that period.)
Kind regards,