Admiral Color Roudie Score

[Spinning Head]

Picked up an Admiral Imperial 330 at an Estate sale in Schiller Park IL today. This is a Chicago suburb very near O'Hare Airport. It was a two bedroom house that was packed basement to attic. I spotted the set yesterday, and went back first thing this morning and got it for half price: $12.50. The sales people were of course asking "What do you do with these ?"; they had even suggested yesterday that it could make a nice fish tank. The most amazing thing was that the set was still in the small living room. The sales people said they had moved it back just to clean all of the dust from under it. They had even tried turning it on. I heard from two different people that it produced a vertical line. A very good sign of overall condition.
A couple of strange things with this set. First there are signs of a modification. A two position rotary switch has been installed along with an RCA jack. You can see the pencil lines where they punched/drilled the chassis in the photos. Fairly certain this wasn't original. Someone had some electronics training / interests in the early to mid 60's judging by some of the books. Also found a home brew power supply. Second there is a note tied to HV line to the CRT indicating that it is the wrong length (too long) and gives the part number for the correct length. Finally, the set is devoid of any labeling on the back or inside. The chassis is stamped 14E180-3Z, with a date of June 24 1957. It looks to use two 5U4s in parallel for rectifiers. It has an elaborate sound system with separate amp and four speakers. The flyback appears in great shape, no cracks or melting. I've always considered Admiral to be a bit on the 'cheaply made' side. But I'm impressed with this set. It appears to be a full point to point chassis; no printed circuit boards. All the tube numbers are stamped on the chassis. They must of liked Admiral, as there was an old floor model Admiral console radio in the basement along with a couple of 50s table radios.
This is my first color roundie, and fills a real hole in my collection.