1959 Admiral Restoration Completed!!

[holmesuser01]

Yes, it is on the bottom of the brightner.

You may find that picture is darker when you turn it back on.

Good luck with it. Looks really nice.

[Boobtubeman]

Perhaps a gun cleaning will freshen the CRT? after the brightners removed?

Sweet lookin set, I have 2 emersons an RCA and a sparton i hope to get to one day as soon as i master capacitor ordering and subbing.. Might have the ball based antenna you need.... have to check my tv piles... Meanwhile the 69 mach in the driveway is callin me for restoration as well..... BRAVO on the Admiral

SR

[Eric H]

Originally Posted by Magnavox300

Glad you asked!
What in the world is that brightener?

A brightener is a small boost transformer that bumps the heater voltage to the CRT up a bit from 6.3 volts to 7.5-8.0 volts or so.

The purpose was to squeeze a little more time out of a tired CRT, if you remove it you may find the tube is weak enough to be unwatchable, it really depends on how weak it was when it was put on.

Some people have found brighteners on perfectly good tubes, perhaps put there by an unscrupulous repairman or a clueless set owner so hopefully your tube is good.

Running a good tube with a brightener will shorten it's life by running the gun hotter than it should be.

The other possibility is it's being used as an isolation transformer because the tube has a heater to cathode short, the transformer will isolate the heater so it won't affect the cathode circuit.

In any case I would try it without, if it still looks good then leave it off.

[Magnavox300]

Originally Posted by bandersen

Excellent job
I looked through my master list of all Admiral models and although this model was not offer in turquoise and white, other Admirals portables definitely were.

P17E31 - Silver
P17E32 - Bronze
P17E33 - Red and White
P17E34 - Brown and Beige
P17E35 - Black Leatherette

Thanks for taking the time to check!-
Nice to have the "Master List!"
Let me know when you finish your 31!

Magnavox300

[peverett]

On the two of these that I restored electronically, I was barely able to get the new electrolytic caps behind the chassis and leave the disconnected originals in place. Not fun. My sets have a clear rubber sleeve on the metal surrounding the CRT plastic implosion protective cover. This seems to be missing on your set. Was it removed? Mine have shrunk in time and do not look that good, I may remove it. I have not re-painted my sets, but do need to re-paint one of them, a red and cream one. The cream portion has quite a bit of rust. In Texas, I will need to wait till winter to paint it, the heat and humidity here are so high in summer, that the paint does not dry correctly. Luckily winters are mild here.

I was lucky in the the two sets that I restored have usuable CRTS without a brightener. One checks a little week but was usable. The third one of these that I have is solid grey, but has a completely dead(no meter movement) CRT and is missing the back. It has a very restorable case, so I hope to find a parts set someday.

I noticed that your yoke cover was in far better condition than mine(which fell apart). I made one from styrene plastic,hole cutters, dremmel tools, and glue. It does not look that good, but works. I know the celluloid plastic used to make these originally falls apart with age, possibly it fails faster in a hot climate. I saw a very nice yoke cover made on a VideoKarma thread, but the person that made it had access to a lathe.

I am now making a yoke cover for a late 1950s portable RCA set that I am restoring. Disentigrating yoke covers are common for 1950s RCA sets.

[fox_rivers]

Great job!

[Glenz75]

What a transformation Looks really nice, the colour scheme really suits it too. I'm also a fan of the old Twilight Zone series and watching episodes on one of my vintage TV's at the moment The set in my avatar.
Cheers Glen