1958 ADMIRAL TV Set - CRUSH IT OR PART IT? I need you guys to decide!

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classicfan1

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 15, 2010
Messages
251
Location
Ohio, USA
Today, I demolished a shed at my step-dad's house. In it was all kinds of stuff that 20 years ago, back in the 90s, could have been saved. Now it is all rotted and hardly anything can be salvaged. It is all going to the crusher tomorrow. I wanted to know if parts from circa-1958 Admiral TV are worth anything? The cabinet is TOAST, and the speaker grille has decayed. It was put in there over a bad picture tube. All of the trim pieces, knobs, glass, and possibly the chassis is either good or rebuidable.

So, do I CRUSH it or PART it? Let me know, I will check this thread tomorrow and save the TV for last.

So, no pics (yet, anyway).
 
Part it!

I would love to see a photo of it as I rebuilt a 1952 Admiral TV and all I need to complete it are some knobs, so I would definitely be interested in them!
 
Save its tubes-many TV type tubes are no longer made-they may be useful to someone else trying to repair or restore an older TV.The tuner might be useful to an older set restorer as well.
 
I would part it out. Keep the knobs and the trim pieces and the chassis. Throw the picture tube out(assuming you are for sure it is shot) and throw out the cabinet. Keep the rest(reason I'm saying to keep the whole chassis, is that there are several parts besides the tubes to keep, such as the flyback, yolk.
 
Status...

Well I saved it and worked around it. There was a Montgomery Wards sprayer thing with a 3.5 HP engine on it inside too. I took the engine off since the cylinder was clean and I crushed the rest. Other things I had to crush were an antique sled, old gardening tools, etc (not mentioned the very shed itself). It took all day and two full loads to haul it all away.

I'm also parting out a Montgomery Wards lawn mower as well.

Anyway, the TV. I checked it out and the chassis is rebuildable and complete. It has all the knobs, and one of the trim pieces needs to be rechromed. I have it under a tarp outside (it can't get any worse) and will take it apart Sunday. I would post pics but I'm having trouble getting them off our cell phone.
 
Oh, and the bad...

To give you all an idea of how bad it is...the legs have decomposed, the speaker grille at the bottom has decayed, the panels on all sides of the cabinet have fallen off and partially decomposed, and to top it all off, a critter dug a hole through the backboard and through the bottom into the ground.
 
When you say things that are unwanted get "crushed" just what kind of crusher is it?RL trash truck,SL trash truck-dump site compactor?Just curious-since I also like crushers and shredders,love videos of them being "fed".
 
The Crusher itself...

The place I was going to had a large scrap crusher/baler in which things such as a old bicycles, appliances, sheetmetal, etc all get dumped in it and crushed into cubes. Had everybody sai "crush it" that would have been the fate of the TV.
 
Scrap metal balers are mean machines-probably the most powerful of "crushers"-some even have a shears in them to cut the bale into smaller peices.These beasts may have engines or motors of 1,000Hp!And really large hydraulic systems.No hoses on them-pipes instead to handle the pressure and fluid flow.Really large hydraulic cylinders on these!Scrap metal balers can even take on cars!!!Crush them-and shear the bale if the baler has the shears.Awesome machines to watch.
 
No kidding!

Yes, those machines are quite vicious! This yard had a baler AND a standard car crusher. The only two notable cars on death row was a 90s Thunderbird (I love T-Birds of any vintage!) and a circa 1984-1989 Dodge Caravan. The K-Cars and minivans are what saved Chrysler in the 80s, so seeing such a history making vehicle in such a sad state is depressing. This was a very modern place with almost NO human itneraction and they sell nothing once it gets unloaded. I hate those types of yards but it was the closest one and I had to get the job done.

Anyway, I now have pics and I got some of the knobs off. I hope to dismantle it completely this week.
 
Does the scrap metal place you go have a car-junk shredder-another HUGE mean peice of machinery.Largest is the LYNX shredder that has up to 10,000 hp engine-motor that can shred a car in less than a minute.Truck or bus in less than 2 min.Hammers on the rotor can weigh up to 800lbs-and the rotor rotates up to 400-600 RPM.These things are used to grind loose scrap and white goods,too.Somewhere on YouTube there was a video of a shredder grinding a car and the gas tank blew!a really cool video-don't know if its still there.A large flame belched out of the shredder intake!Glad no one was hurt or nothing damaged.Something a shredder operator doesn't want to happen.
 
Well...

No, they crush it up and sell it to another yard that does have a shredder. There is only one locally that does but they are in a very bad neighborhood and I will not go over there. I know they have one because the local news was over there during the "Cash For Clunkers" program and they were throwing perfectly good (well except for the engines that get blown up) cars, trucks, and vans into the shredder. A large magnet would pick them up, drop them on a large conveyor belt, and SMASH!

I don't care what side of the political spectrum somebody is on, that program was one of the most wasteful I've ever seen. I was a teenager at that time trying to find cheap, honest transportation and right when I had enough money to buy something, the prices shot up! They're still up! I drive a handme-down Taurus daily, but it has a V6 and that sucks up my money yet I can't afford a $5,000 car! To make matters worse, we all PAID for that program!

sorry, I digress. That subject stirs a fire inside me.


My usual place is an OLD operation from the 1930s. They still have a 1965 International R190 sitting in the lot, the owner refuses to crush it and he still has the original window sticker for it. The truck was used for hauling stuff around the town until about 1999 or 2000. IF it is still there when i go up there today, I may offer to help sell it since I'm on many classic car and truck forums.

The place doesn't have any crushers except a small baler that takes in copper, aluminum, small bits of steel. They do have a backhoe though but thats it.
 
Presenting....

Fresh from the bowls of a delapidated structure, sits a once-great marvel or home appliances, a marvel with class, style, and functionality. This marvel was left to rot for 35 years until today, here it is, a 1958 Admiral!

classicfan1++5-13-2013-08-40-16.jpg
 
More...

Yes, I demolished the shed around it, it has not been moved. Here is a shot fo the chassis. Believe it or not, it is more solid in person. No holes and hardly any pits. Mostly surface rust! Remarkable!

Whats more outstanding is the fact that the wooden frame isn't too bad except for the legs being gone.

classicfan1++5-13-2013-08-42-43.jpg
 
hmmm....

"How Long have you been down here?
"4,999,450,852,312 nano seconds. Ever since that awful day when...when...transistors were invented. I've seen it all"
- The Brave Little Toaster to the Rescue (1998)

classicfan1++5-13-2013-09-05-15.jpg
 
The TV appears to be a "transformerless" power supply model-the two large selenium rectifiers.Save those,too if you are parted the machine out.This type of TV had the tube filaments wired in series across the line-like some old Christmas light strings-and the two selenium rectifiers were used as a voltage doubler to rectifiy and increase the voltage to a higher DC voltage to run the set.The tubes in these are indeed unique-no longer made.
Sad the shredder in your area is in a bad neighborhood.Would have been interesting to visit.
Too "rescue" that TV-the Brave Little Toaster would have quite a job on his hands-or levers.Would need Kirby,Blankie,Lampy and the Radio to help.Was a nice TV in its day.
 
Stephen.....

Here's a photo of my Admiral "TV" if you want to call it such, but as you can see in the photo, I'm missing the four knobs on the front of the set. I'll probably dye them to match the Maroon knobs that are on the set, but I think they will still look GREAT on it! Thanks again, I'll be in touch via email soon!

Steve

s31463221++5-14-2013-07-28-26.jpg
 
Admiral C21E12

I have the brochure for this.
Mahogany Grained Finish $259.95

NEW ! "Thin As A Dime" styling in smart console design opens the way to exciting new room planning ideas. Thrilling new Admiral Slim Line cabinets fit flush against the wall...

DELUXE 330 chassis.
 
I doubt it...

$100-$500 in scrap? LMAO! How do you figure that?

With the four little knobs already pending, I'll dismatnle and eBay the remains and pitch the cabinet.

Oh and I got a lead on a guy who has a bunch of old TV tubes, I'm not sure whats rare, how I can tell if its good or bad (I have no tube tester so I'm not sure there are any ways to visually tell if the tube is good), and just whats good to have in general. He says he has a big tube that came out of a floor model radio that is several inches high and 3 inches in diameter.
 
My mom and I are big estate sale fanatics and we go to at least six of them every weekend and we go back on sunday for "half price day." Anyway we found a 1950 Admiral tv cabinet in a blonde finish that was missing all of the internals except the built in antenna and we paid $50 on half price day for it. when we got it home I took a 20' 80's tv, turned the color down to black and white and slid it in to the cabinet and it fit perfectly! Since there are no original controls on the cabinet and no way to get to the toshiba controls, I found the remote for the toshiba and when I want to use the tv I just open the flap on the admiral and the remote sensor works right through the empty hole. Its so perfect I haven't told any of our guests. We only use it for parties as a conversational piece, so no one knows the truth about my laziness. I cant share pictures of it on here until we rotate our furniture from the forties to the fifties in three months, but the ad below is of the same tv that we have so I guess that works too. 


 


<span style="white-space: pre;"> </span>P.S. Notice how the ad says, "huge 19 inch."

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We are playing taps now...

Or are we? I just got gone dismantling the TV and the chassis appears to be restorable if someone was brave enough. After I cleaned out the cabinet, the front legs are surprisingly intact but the back legs are another story. For the most part, the rot is confined to the bottom half of the frame.

Any ideas on how to go about parting the chassis or selling as complete? was this particular model rare?
 
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