RCA Victor Special...and I'm new here.

[TheNixer]

Thanks Steve! So this tells me my set was a "budget" set and came in either Mahogany or Limed Oak, very good to know.

[Bob E.]

For "glittery" grille cloth, try a jukebox restoration parts house. Jukes of the era were usually flashier than radios and TV's of the time, and meant to attract attention...heck, they even provided their own lighting to make sure you noticed it! I got some white grille cloth that has gold sparkly threads throughout, I think it is also available with silver. And I'm pretty sure red cloth with gold or silver is also available (but I can't imagine a TV with bright red grille cloth!) Try:

http://www.victoryglass.com/

http://www.jukeboxusa.com/

--Bob

[Tube TV]

This is the 1955 Model .
Unfortunatly this is the only info I have for it .

[Tube TV]

This set used the same chassis , but this was the really budget 21" set , with a black metal cabinet .

[TheNixer]

With my Sams number in hand I took a trip to the largest library in our area only to find out they threw out all their Photofact books several years ago. So it looks like I'll have to buy my schematics from the website. It would have been nice to find them at the library but I suppose beggars can't be choosers.

I've uploaded some color photos of the set so you can get some idea of what kind of shape the cabinet is in. I noticed part of the top of the TV (the part that isn't the lid) is also veneer, so a good part of this cabinet is veneer. It looks like the stuff is glued down really well so this could be a bear.

It's obvious this is the mahogany finish but you wouldn't be able to tell looking at it from the front only. In fact I'm a bit worried some of the front frame has discolored and dried out past the point sanding would fix. The lid that hides the controls has also buckled a hair, and I noticed it's not one whole piece of wood. It's slats, like a wood floor would be. Getting this set in the light makes it look a little worse for the wear than I thought!

I'm not discouraged too much though. I would like to know how you guys get movies to this set. I noticed on one web page (Eric's Vintage TV's) he uses a wireless video sender. Is that generally how we do it? If so, does anyone have a link of an exact setup they bought? The TV isn't ready for this yet but I did wonder how it was done.

Bob E, thanks for the links! I've been looking over those sites for the past few days.

Tube TV, thanks for the photos!