I did Google search, and this is a Zenith F615 from 1962 with the CONELRAD markings on AM. Good call with the Bluetooth on this model because there's nothing to listen to on AM nowadays.
Quite often I have found the filter caps ok in old radios. If the radio is for my own use I leave them. Most of them have carried on wirking fine fir years . Different if you are selling to the public of course . Aleays pleased to see one of you vids pop up . Best wishes from the UK .
I restored a Crosley from 1940 that had, I am pretty sure, the original filter caps that worked fine. I debated a bit and decided to restuff the can. The old electrolyte was still wet. Always wondered if I did the right thing but I tend to leave it playing for hours (I added a bluetooth receiver to the phono input). The light-hearted tune about poisoning pigeons was a little unexpected 😄 Look forward to your next projects Seth.
I think you made the right call on the electrolytics. Whenever something comes into our shop which will run without service for an indefinite period, we replace those components which will inevitably fail before the EOL of the rest of the machine - and that always includes the electrolytics. Three gang tuner, six tubes, nicely dimensioned rod - no wonder this sounded good. You mentioned that Zenith used one chassis in many different cases and I wonder whether this particular one wasn't also meant to be used in their smaller consoles? Stereo LPs were still a few years off and Multiplex FM even further.
That's a really nice wireless set with classic mid-century styling. I agree you made the right call with the electrolytics. A collector could always reverse out the new ones if they felt like it.
Zenith model F615 from 1963. Found schematic in Photofact set 649 folder 10. Made better than the ones RCA made back then that looks similar ,the 1-RA-50 and 1-RA-61, both which were an early PC board mounted components. Their knobs are held in place like yours Seth. I believe too in the past the old speaker was replaced by a service repair shop that had an oval speaker in stock. The cardboard tube was there to keep the ferrite antenna from busting in half in case the radio was ever dropped. With that strange shape I bet that did happen more than you would think! Good call replacing the E cap as it will be sold to someone else at the museum sale this year. Most collectors like working radios! The Bluetooth is always a plus as well.
I like that set, not the styling, but the overall design of the electronics. About the filter caps, good cal replacing them for reasons others have noted, but I would add that a good ESR value with your tester may be misleading. The tester only puts 600mv across caps that are rated at 100s of volts; turn up the voltage and the ESR may go WAY up. Cheers!