A new freebie!!!

[Kamakiri]

This is one of those things that "never happen", but they seem to come by me more often than not

Got a call from a guy that I gave an old console cabinet to, from a set that was too far gone both cosmetically and electronically to reasonably restore. Turns out he does house cleanouts, and came across what he described as "an old RCA TV with double doors in the front". Nobody wanted it, and he thought he'd do a good turn for me and offer it to me. Why sure!

Figuring that it was most likely a common-as-water KCS40 chassis RCA, I went over to see it, and what to my wondering eyes do appear but this CTC-12 that someone hung ugly window shutters on!!!

Everything intact, ZERO cataract evidence, with the back and a clean chassis!!

Apparently he comes across these sets "all the time" and has a REALLY hard time getting rid of them because of e-recycling guidelines. I gave him $20 and thanked him for saving it for me, and told him I'd buy whatever he came across.

Picture when I first got it, and a couple shots of where it is now.....wedged in my living room until I can get a friend to help me carry it down (my 15 year old son was pooped helping me get it this far ).

Turns out the picture tube has absolutely perfect emission too! There were RCA service tags laying inside the back, the latest was from October 2, 1973.

Now I've done literally dozens of black and white restorations, but only a half dozen or so color sets, and all of those had already been powered up at least once before I touched them, so they weren't complete unknowns as this set currently is.

My thinking on this one is test the tubes and bring it up on a variac, but I want to give this set a good fighting chance. Do I do a total recap first, or what's opinions on what I should do from here with it?