I can recommend a good restorer. It would take a little work on your part to get it there but it would be well worth it from what I can see it's a nice set and you could have a lot of fun watching it.

I have almost the same set, (same box, different controls) - called the "signet series by Westinghouse" - black and white as well. The condition of mine is not nearly this nice, the wood is slightly dented and scraped, and it's missing a knob, the speaker fabric is stained.
I was planning on the same thing, replacing it with a new screen.

I was told that this tv isn't particularly rare, and especially not because it's black and white.

Is everyone saying not to upcyle it just because his is in great condition?

I don't want to ruin something rare, but if it's nothing special I'd rather it live on and be useful!!

Hello I would never gut a vintage tv unless the crt is real week and will not hold a blast from a rejuvinater or a booster if you like this set fix it and watch old movies on it.. think it over

since you asked what you should do, restore the tv and put the POS new stuff on top using the tv as a stand. then watch "the fountain head" on both and decide which makes more sense

I faced the same dilema a while back: http://www.videokarma.org/showthread.php?t=252431

I put an LCD in a 1951 porthole TV cabinet and it worked perfectly. Granted, my TV wasn't as nice as yours. The nice thing about porthole CRTs is, have hardly any curve to them and the LCD fit behind the safety glass with no gaps. Granted, finding a 4:3 LCD TV isn't easy anymore, but I had one laying around. Anyhow, I saved the CRT guts for the day I do decide to restore it the right way. I made no hard mods to the original cabinet, so it can be put back to original in like 15 minutes.

It's fun for novelty watching, or ambiance, but it could never be our "main TV" due to the corners being cropped, heh. It's in our 50s themed dining room now. My wife loves it. She likes to have old-timey shows playing on it on while she works.

My experience might not help you much, but if you could find a dead porthole to convert, they are easy ;).

I'm not going to say don't convert yours. But I will say don't modify it in a way that's irreversible. Because a lousy conversion job wont please the wife, and a chopped up original won't resell for much. So think twice before you modify anything too much, heh. Mine was a super-easy deal, and I had nothing to lose. The wife was happy, all went well...

I'd go for the resto route myself. To have something that has historical value as well as something you can enjoy that represents a bygone era is irreplacable and enjoyable. It doesn't have to be some "rare collectable".

And newer sets just don't sound all that good. I guess we're all supposed to have surround systems nowadays...
A lot of sets had some deceint audio stages and a nice size speaker to boot!