I'm sure there's gotta be one of these consoles closer to you than I am. We can hardly be further apart and still be in the continental US!

I know thanks

Say, you know, I bet you could take one of those ancient console TVs from the mid 50s and pull out the guts and put a lighted aquarium inside. What's on tonite? Another Jacques Cousteau special, in color!

Hi,
I think your creation might be a little more larger than you show it. Logistics in mounting a large speaker and interferece with the chassis might occur.
You want to see others 'creations? Mostly photos of someone elses attempts rather than an ARFer. Search the forum for Frankenradio you will find some photos.

You could restore the set as it is, then include your Ipod jack and an input to connect an outboard 4 speed changer. That way, the original set will remain intact.

If you are not a woodworker you might run into trouble resizing the cabinet, and possibly give up on it. Could become a little overwhelming even for a seasoned woodworker, which I am not either.
Good luck whatever you decide to do.

Thanks Gary. I did search for frankenradio, and what I found is truly a cautionary tale.

One thing I noticed in many of the threads, is that these radios get resold in forums (eg on eBay) where they are represented as original, authentic radios deserving a high price. That really seems to rub people here the wrong way, and rightfully so. One thing I know about myself is that I wouldn't ever misrepresent something I had created in this fashion. But as someone earlier in the thread pointed out, "In 2044, some collector would be cursing..."

Once it leaves my jurisdiction, I would no longer be able to represent it at all. At that point, any future seller could say anything they wanted about it. This is a point I had not considered.

Hi PGT,
Yes there are many unscrupulous sellers on Epay for sure. We all have seen hacked up sets and grossly misrepresented descriptions.

Bottom line is, the console is your set, to do with as you please. I think the guys just want you to think about how converting an otherwise complete set, removes one from circulation. As stated, this is not really a rare or high dollar set, but it is complete and someone out there might want to have it as original. OTOH, shipping to that person might not happen because of shipping costs.

Personally, I think there are a lot of things you can do to your set to keep it basically original. Adding the Ipod input, adding an outboard phonigraph. Even if you install a later model inside, you can save the original 78 RPM phono in case you ever want to change it back.

So do what you like to your set, but perhaps do it in a way you could change back if you (or someone else) ever wanted to in the future.
Take care, and good to have you on the forum.

I think you should do whatever you want with it, and not worry about what the preservationists have to say (what did you expect the reaction to be on a board like this?).

Practically speaking, it's not economically feasible to ship it for $ or a trade, and you apparently don't want it in it's present size. The Photo shop mockup didn't look bad at all, IMHO.

sell it. buy a cathedral or tombstone