I have a couple of questions on the cosmetic restoration of a beat-up R-388.
1. What's a safe and effective way to clean the drum dial? This radio was apparently used in a heavy smoking environment. The lettering is crisp but I'd like to clean the drum. I'm gun-shy because one of my early "Oh sh*t" moments in radio occurred 30 years ago when I used Fantastik on the dial of a Philco tombstone and watched the numbers disappear before my very eyes.
2. All the IERC tube shields are missing. How important are they? Does anyone know a source for them? Fair Radio has them, but a complete set will cost more than I paid for the receiver itself. Is there any acceptable substitute?
Drum Dial — nicotine or not, they almost all turn tan to brown. The lacquer used to coat the paper yellows and darkens over time. I've seen several approaches to "cleaning" or trying to bleach it out, but frankly think it's a fools errand. You can purchase a new drum dial overlay for under $15. They're easy to apply. One source is Nationwide Radio run by KE9PQ (google it). There are others — maybe Howard Mills (W3HM), and some I don't remember offhand.
Tube shields — the radio will play just fine without them. They show up from time to time on eBay, too, still overpriced of course.