cost of restoring admiral bakelite television

[Kamakiri]

I think you guys are way light on your figures. I just got done restoring an RCA 9T246. The parts alone were about $75. I bet I replaced about 40 capacitors plus a couple tubes. I have about 20 hours in the set. Doing it for someone, I wouldn't do it for less than $15 an hour, which is more than fair.

Big difference between repaired and restored on these old sets. If you just want it fixed and not restored, you might as well leave the chassis out of the cabinet and leave it on the bench, because parts will end up failing sequentially with usage.

Your television is 65 years old. What you're doing, and what we all do, is something that the manufacturers and engineers never intended nor thought possible.....which is use these things after over six decades of existence.

At this point, basic diagnosis and repair theory goes right out the window. You need to start with replacing every capacitor underneath, then start from there.