Ah, you may have seen this TV before in my other entries. So here's the story: Once upon a time, Sony made this TV for the millionaires of the world. Truly a dream TV. This baby retailed for $10,000 like 20 years ago. We got it with the house when we bought it from my in-laws. No way could we possibly afford something like it. So one day many years ago it broke. I called a repair shop about it, read the model number off to them, and the guy calls me back the next day. He explains how Sony only made a few hundred of these, and flew technicians out to each location to service them when needed. They were truly the Rolls-Royce of TVs. Unlike Rolls-Royce, though, there ain't no more parts for these things. No parts, no TV. So I gutted out the now-dead innards and plugged in a TV in the hole.
So that brings us to March, 2010; five years after the "Fill the hole with a TV" changeout. For my lovely wife's birthday, I got her this flat-screen TV; a 42" Sharp model. Ah, but how to get it in there? The "hole" where the original TV showed through was not wide enough to fit the new TV's width. My only practical choice was to mount the entire flat-screen TV in front of the cabinet, rather than within it. I don't have blueprints, and seeing how this is probably one of the few remaining cabinets of it's type, I don't think you'll need them. So, for those who may want to convert an old bit of TV cabinetry to something modern, here's what I did: I mounted two 1/2" galvanized steel pipes inside of the TV. I did up two 2x4s with u-bolts to mount a swing-arm flat-screen mount to. By loosening the u-bolts, I was able to adjust the TV's vertical positioning. The swing-arm itself allowed me to get easy access to the back of the TV for mounting wires.
Now here's the hard part, the TV was, what $500 or so, but the swing arm alone was $200. Argh! $200 for a mount? The swing arm mount was necessary, though. At least it should survive the TV. I'm sure the next TV will be twice as good and half the price. But for now, the cabinet lives on, and overall, we like the result.
Click to see a few more pics if you want.