[Arran]

Ron;
It's hard to tell from the before photograph, but other then the grille cloth the cabinet didn't really look that bad, not compared to some of the crud I've hauled home, in fact it looks like a good cleaning may have been good enough for me. It's not that I don't know how to refinish cabinets, it's just that I'm a bit lazy, I don't like to refinish cabinets that are at least passable.
The pushbutton problem was a deal breaker for me on a 41-280 console I once saw, that and the escutcheon, and knobs, all made out of that horrible Tenite plastic that warps, cracks, and turns to dust, that was easily another $80-100 before doing anything else. At least the 1939 and 1940 models didn't have that, just the pushbuttons, which you could live without, or even bodge some substitutes if you didn't want to pay out.
I've never had a speaker reconed, so I have no idea what they charge, when I started I was a teenager, pre internet, not much money, but a retired TV service man showed me how to repair speakers. patch, or reset a warped cone. I did not fix everything but I probably salvaged 80-90% of what I ran into, mostly in farm battery radios, again because those were what I could get cheap.
I have been meaning to have a go at making plastic dial lenses, I think that Kirk and a few others have figured it out. Somehow paying $25 plus shipping for less then $.50 worth of sheet plastic rubs me the wrong way.
If you kept track of the hours you spent it would be even worse, but then again there are people who blow twice what we might spend on a radio, or car, and have NOTHING to show for it.
Regards
Arran