[Milsurplus] general restoration tips?

[Ray Fantini]

The key to learning how to do restoration or repair is to get something and start restoring it. Reading about it, or talking to the experts or watching a YouTube clip is all well and good but you don't learn much and develop any skills until you start doing it yourself. Get some projects like hacked ARC-5 sets or a BC-348 that's a basket case and start with something like that first and you will get a real idea of what the problems are and what questions to ask. Sorry if I appear a little reactionary  or harsh in my tone but have been doing this stuff for a while now and tend to think best learning is by doing, and think any number of people are around to offer advice, mentorship or whatever when you run into problems. 
BC-348 receivers are around in good numbers and the hacked versions can be had for little money. They are about the easiest radio to work on, no parts are hard to obtain or expensive and much can be learned by finding a basket case and building in a AC power supply and getting the rest of radio working. Maybe after tackling that you can work on doing an all original version but then be prepared to spend a little more money. 
Do you have a project in mind now?
Ray F