[cpollock]

Sounds reasonable.
I wanted to update my posting earlier about the light bulb.  I finally figured out how to replace it, by reading some other posts on other radios.  The right way to do this is to remove the bezel, the dial indicator, and the scale showing the radio frequencies, and then insert a #44 from the front of the radio, and not from behind as I alluded to in my earlier post.    Since this is an old radio, and I did not know what to do, I was very wary about pulling the bezel, then the indicator, and so forth.  Everything was stuck after sitting there untouched for decades.  Anyway each part eventually came free, I did no damage,(!) and now I have a very nicely backlit dial face.
In hindsight this should have been obvious.  My dial plate has permanent markings for a bunch of east coast stations, whereas I've seen photos of 38-7s with west coast call names on the faceplate.  Clearly one must have been able to get faceplates relevant to their geographic position, which means the faceplate had to be serviceable.
Nothing beats hindsight!  Anyway, sorry to add misleading questions to the forum. This was my first rebuild, and I would not have succeeded without all the wisdom found on this site.

Clif