My neighbor is tossing this out. I toyed with the idea of grabbing it an refurbishing but it is going to need a LOT of work. It would need totally rewired. No telling if the tubes are still good and there is the problem of acquiring those. Most important is most of the knobs ans switches are missing.

I decided to leave it sit but kind of regretting it. Trash man shows in the morning.

Sad thing, it is just sitting out there in the rain.

 

and if only it was in working order...

 

My neighbor is tossing this out. I toyed with the idea of grabbing it an refurbishing but it is going to need a LOT of work. It would need totally rewired. No telling if the tubes are still good and there is the problem of acquiring those. Most important is most of the knobs ans switches are missing.

I decided to leave it sit but kind of regretting it. Trash man shows in the morning.

Sad thing, it is just sitting out there in the rain.


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If it was me, I'd take it just for the housing. It's beautiful!

If you feel like restoring the electronics, cool. If not, gut it and build your own project inside.

 

and if only it was in working order...

Well I doubt it would be thrown out then.

 

Decided that I could not stand for such a wonderful old radio to go on the trash heap. I took a walk up but looks like someone got the same idea because it is gone.

It would have been an expensive project to restore back to the original. It would have likely just sat taking up space. Hopefully whoever grabbed it will give it the love it deserves.

 

Restoring to original is one option, but using such a nice cabinet to house much more recent electronics is another option, with the benefit that it can sound really good. Or have a much better picture. Just consider a super VGA (SVGA) monitor in a cabinet that had a set with a 10 inch tube, and how good the video could be. That is an option if the case is really good but the electronics is really in bad shape, burned out, or missing lots of parts. AND you will be producing a one of a kind project, much neater than building a kit just like 753 other people.

 

Definitely a fixer upper.

 

Or have a much better picture.

Picture?
That is a radio, not a TV.

 

Restoring to original is one option, but using such a nice cabinet to house much more recent electronics is another option, with the benefit that it can sound really good. Or have a much better picture. Just consider a super VGA (SVGA) monitor in a cabinet that had a set with a 10 inch tube, and how good the video could be. That is an option if the case is really good but the electronics is really in bad shape, burned out, or missing lots of parts. AND you will be producing a one of a kind project, much neater than building a kit just like 753 other people.

I wouldn't really be interested in retrofitting it. In my opinion that would be a travesty.

 

I wouldn't really be interested in retrofitting it. In my opinion that would be a travesty.

What could be good looking anyway.

 

That is the second Zenith I have seen of that model. The only other one I ever saw was in my grandmothers house (my father's mother) and my dad bought it for her new when he went off to the old CCC as a kid before WW II. When we would visit grandma on that side that old Zenith gave me hours of entertainment because of the "short wave" bands. That one needs serious work but would make for a great project, there are clubs with guys who restore the old antique radios like that. The wood alone is really nice furniture.

Ron

 

I don't know if steampunk is still "in" but something like that would be a great starting point for a steampunk something.

If I had the space and equipment and could still see properly(ish), I think I might fritter away many an hour making steampunk things.

 

CC, I was referencing old things in general, not just that particular item. Those immediately postwar TV sets that used a 10BP4 round CRT are especially interesting. Years back I had a table model one that used a separate supply for the second anode voltage and so it did not have a flyback sweep circuit. I made it into a working audio oscilloscope and had a lot of fun with it as part of my music system. Unfortunately the high voltage supply develop[ed arcing problems.