My zenith is getting a makeover

[jpdylon]

Got this set awhile back from Adam. Thread here:
http://audiokarma.org/forums/showthread.php?t=87006


It's been raining here the past two days, so i needed a spare project for when i come home. I pulled the set all apart. And after hours of chemical strapping and scraping, I'm finally down to bare wood.

I'll be putting on a stain tonight. It will probably take multiple coats to get the blond look the old finish had. However, anything is better than that stupid ugly blue paint that was on it.

What it looks like as of current. I'll be further prepping and putting lots of stain on it tomorrow.

[Tony V]

Its looking really nice Jordon. It looks like you have a nice base to work with. Are you going to add legs or anything to it? Regardless, it should look really nice when your done. Cant wait to see the final result of your hard work!
-Tony

[jpdylon]

After a few days of work, I put it all back together this afternoon.

I used minwax "Poly Shades" honey pine semi gloss. It took about 3 coats to get to the original blond color. This contains the stain and poly coat in one, so it makes it a little quicker job. stain, wait 6 hours, rub it with steel wool, repeat. THe only real problem was keeping stuff like air bubbles and dust out of the drying finish.

The cabinet had alot of scratches, grooving, and dings in the top, so it looks a little spotty from the filler. same does for the right side, but anything was better than that sunbaked finish with blue paint I also added rubber feet and scrapped all the blue from the trim and glass with a razor.

The color almost perfectly matches the blond philco below. I think it turned out decent. I may or may not keep it in the future, but I'm at least proud of the job it did

Enjoy!

[ohohyodafarted]

Beautiful Job! I particularly like that attractive curved front glass.

[blue_lateral]

Nice job!

John

[Eric H]

Hey Jordan that looks great!

Done anything with that PB roundie yet?

[jpdylon]

Originally Posted by Eric H

Hey Jordan that looks great!

Done anything with that PB roundie yet?

That's coming up on the list. I pulled a FULL compliment of tubes out of that cabinet The CRT came loose from the mounts on the way home but lucky for me it didn't loose its grip entirely and break.

I'd like to refinish the entire cabinet, but I'm not sure how to go about the doors. I'm still looking for a tuning knob for it.

I've got my friend's porthole on the bench right now, and I'm trying to rid myself of a few B&W sets to make room to work on it, but I'll get to it in the next month or so.

[compucat]

That's a beautiful set, Jordan. Seeing how that turned out, it inspires me to refinish the wood cabinet on my B&W roundie, a Motorola 9VT1 with TS-18 chassis. If I were you I'd keep that set. Nothing beats a Zenith for quality and longevity. That is a set that should be watched every day.