I was surprised to find that the knobs on this set had the white crud growing on them. My other Sylvania didn't have this problem. I decided to try banderson's patented 407 in whiskey glass technique.
It worked pretty well. Some of the paint came off of the numbers on the station dial. They are hot stamped in so it should be too hard to fill them in with paint. The plastic is a bit dull from the white growth. I may try to polish up the clear plastic with Novus.
I'm not sure if I'll repaint the gold/brass. The patina kind of seems right for the age of the set. I noticed that one knob didn't have the gold paint in the center. This was true on my other Sylvania too. I thought it had worn off, but now I realise that they signified the power switch this way.
There's a very large opening in the top of the chassis since this version doesn't have the AM/FM radio. Mice seem to have used that to carry nuts into it. It didn't look like they were actually living in there.
I started to try to remove the 12VP4 so I could use my other set to test it. It turns out that whoever replaced it before replaced the pads and glued them to the chassis AND CRT just like the factory did. This makes it very difficult to remove the CRT. I'll have to remove the plate that holds the control knobs. Then it'll come off with the CRT. It's not too hard to pry it loose once it and the CRT are out. The service manual says to use a putty knife between the pad and chassis to loosen it, but that too scary for my tastes.
Schatzi didn't trust me either. He took cover as soon as I started on the CRT.
I hope to get it out and tested tomorrow.
John