Into the Future with Our Vintage Sets

[Sandy G]

Originally Posted by AiboPet

Surface mount technology would keep me from restoring or repairing anything modern. My attempts at working with anything like that have always ended in tears....so no LCD sets, and I've had a REAL bad record with the little tiny Panasonic TR sets.

I just noticed yesterday that my Panasonic TR-1030 now suddenly has a focus problem. I'll likely make the problem MUCH worse trying to figure that out. I have KILLED two TR-1010 sets already that started with vertical problems...and are now "in a basket"

Part of the challenge, I think, will lie in trying to fix something that basically was NOT designed to be fixed...It was designed for ease of manufacture, to be cheap & disposable, & not have a long lifespan...I seriously doubt Panasonic ever imagined that there would be a small society of Mad Monks-US-who would want to collect & preserve those l'il fellers...

[Einar72]

Originally Posted by AiboPet

Surface mount technology would keep me from restoring or repairing anything modern. My attempts at working with anything like that have always ended in tears....so no LCD sets, and I've had a REAL bad record with the little tiny Panasonic TR sets.

Hey, no problem with 0402 and larger pitch SMT here. I learned SMT rework at 53

[hi_volt]

Originally Posted by Sandy G

Yeah, its the same sort of thing for the VW microbuses...You know, the fancy "Samba" models that had all the little windows on top, along w/the big sunroof ? They were TERRIBLE cars...No power, hot in the summer, cold in the winter, yr feet were the front bumper...But "Price" one today, IF, that is, you can find one for sale at all...You'll be lookin' to drop $30-40 LARGE on one..

I own a 1961 VW Bus. I wish it was a Samba, but it's just a camper conversion. By far the best car I've ever owned. I've had it for 18 years, it has been totally reliable, and cheap to maintain. It cost me about $20 to do an oil change. It has air conditioning. And it has been around for 52 years, and will likely be around for another 52 years.

[Sandy G]

Oh, don't get me wrong-I'd LOVE to have a VW Bus-I've ALWAYS thought they were The Bee's Knees. But they ARE pretty Spartan for spoiled 2013 Amerika...

[Jon A.]

How's this for Spartan? The 1984-87 Hyundai Pony. I knew a guy who had three of them, but not all at the same time. Two '85s and an '87. Those were loud enough to begin with, but the '85 I was in got REALLY loud when it went over a raised manhole cover in a construction area, which ripped its muffler off.

[AiboPet]

I had a Hyundai Pony as my last car before I left Hong Kong. As SOON as I got to the states in 1986, the two cheapest new cars were the Yugo and another Hyundai (Excel/Accent). I chose the Excel...and kept that POS for 244K miles, until some kid rearended it in 2000.

I don't think the Pony was ever in the USA....because my Excel was like the first Hyundai here. Spartan works in some cases. I got that car new in 1986 for like $3,500, and I didn't want to be paying attention to the complexities of a stuck electric window or some obscure vacuum problem while getting myself going in USA. (Of course this car turned out to be a NIGHTMARE if you ever had to deal with that weird "feedback" carburetor in later years).

I want a very "spartan" tube set some day. Very small, and very clean chassis would be so nice to look at. I'll likely display it and run it without it's cabinet. I find the bare chassis with the well mounted CRTs very pleasing to look at. They must be very beautiful in the dark.

[Jon A.]

I believe that the 1984-87 Pony that I'm thinking of was made only for the Canadian market, which probably explains the lack of parts on eBay. There were other versions of the Pony for different parts of the world. I have seen quite a few of those on CarDomain.

[AiboPet]

I thought Pony was just the precursor to the Excel. They both resembled eachother quite a bit. The Excel was Mitsubishi (Precis) based, and I suspect Pony was too. There were quite a few of the Pony in Hong Kong. Hong Kong gets a lot of Asia market AND stuff that was UK bound. Dunno about that these days after Handover in 1997.

HK had so many Philco and Phillips TV sets...as well as the usual Sony sets and a whole BUNCH of funny little Chinese cheap sets. Dunno why...but hardly ever saw REAL old tube sets except the few Philco sets my Dad had, as well as "Grundig" radios.

It's almost like TV never caught on in Hong Kong until at least the 60s.

[Jon A.]

Big difference between the Pony and Excel, at least here: rear-wheel drive and front-wheel drive respectively. I never saw any resemblance between the two. Another chick-magnet that I used to see a lot of: the Hyundai Stellar.

On that note, I'm tellin' ya, "Lynx GL" has nothing to do with bagging the chicks, if you get what the trim level letters could be thought of as standing for.

[AiboPet]

Forgot about that whole bit of RWD, perhaps the TRAUMATIC experience of dealing with Excel's transaxle at least twice. When the oil leaking out looks like an episode of Gold Rush.....Time to get your wallet out again :P

[vintagecollect]

there's collectors that restore them and then just have tvs for static display afterwards. These tvs will be around in 50 years. Sets watched regularly will not be. CRT HAVE A finite life span in hours. RIGHT now NO ONE REBUILDS CRTs most of the value of any set wiil be the picture tube as w/ the CT-100. Relics mostly don't survive as display items.

[6GH8cowboy]

I have taken the time to type and document each tv and radio with a brief history, including marketing and cultural significance as well for each. In addition my grown kids have expressed keen interest in some of them and their names are on the apropriate envelope in each piece. The rest would be sold at the time with a knowledgable idea of what they have. Maybe even museum bound by that time. Mission acomplished!

Just trying to think ahead. Any serious collector should too. If your the last man standing for your prized restored collection the whole lot could be dumpster bound.

I have been around when folks pass and its often a shame when the family or the state empties the house, often in haste.

In a sense this is what happens when factories close. Theres no money to archive documents ,engineering papers, development samples and such. The building changes hands and the new owners "clean it out" or raze the site and poof gone for ever. Even the web pages we rely on and love could go away with the passing of just one key person.

Food for thought.

[vintagecollect]

One collector I know of restores sets and just leaves them for display. Such sets will survive if treated as museum pieces. A lot of space time and energy goes into restoring one of these. Are the newer generations going to value these complicated devices? Do younger people want to collect these when old TVs used mostly as a static display pieces to avoid wearing out CRTs?

There's a sharp drop off in TV collecting, Large screen CRT projectors, early remote sonic sets & early solid state color sets are nearly non existant and rarely saved from the 70s.

It's going to be a challenge for TVs to hold their value the next 20 years, most collectors work on sets themselves. Possible for 50s sets if people want to dedicate themselve to one set since getting only rarer. There's a hugh push for e-recycling everyone knows about, I'm sure plenty of TV test equipment will go this way soon.