A Tip of the Cap to N5OLA
I had an email exchange with Will, N5OLA. several weeks ago, regarding finding replacement L2 and L3 coils for you know "That Rig". N5OLA lives on south Padre Island and does Heathkit restorations. His videos are quite excellent, and I learned a lot about how to clean up the old boat anchors. I need to find where to buy some Krud Kutter.
In watching his videos, it is clear he has a process, and I am still warming up to immersing a rig in the kitchen sink and giving it a bath followed by a bake in the oven followed by a process similar to sun drying tomatoes. The end results speak for themselves.
One learned lesson for me -- avoid any work on the SB Series of Heathkits with the LMO. I swear I spotted three hands in the video as he reassembled the LMO back into the chassis. In truth it looks like you would need three hands.
Going back to an earlier statement regarding N5OLA's process and that starts with a full inspection of the "as is" condition, the cleaning process followed by testing all of resistors. He has Cheat Sheets which are laminated Xray photos of the component installations so he can follow right along and mark up the sheets with suspect components. I have a dental mirror but now need to get a couple of dental picks.
I was surprised to see the paint failure on several of the radios. You could use a fingernail to scrape of the paint. In one video he shows how he bought an overlay ($40) and that essentially gave you a new front panel.
So, while you may not be restoring a Heathkit the process applies to any boat anchor.
The never fails comment applies here as well. Never trust that some former owner made a not so obvious mod that causes the radio not to operate. That is where the thorough initial inspection is important as does reading the manual. A failure in the S Meter circuit after a warmup was linked to two tubes and the necessity to only use a certain brand as any other brand will fail the heat test. RTFM! Well that never fails...
Them that know can make it go.
73's
Pete N6QW