Well after replacing all 52 of the paper capacitors except the high voltage ones (1600 & 2000V) on the top of the chassis, I powered up the set again.
I now have much improved results:
I am surprised that the VHF section (1st 2 pics) has a much much clearer picture than the UHF section (2nd 2 pics). I am wondering if I have bad resistors somewhere in the tuner, or if my 6EA8 substitutes for 6U8 tubes over most of the chassis are causing problems. Unfortunately in all the tubes I had only one 6U8 was not short.
The green is definitely alive, but the picture is still collapsed on the bottom of the set. I also need to seriously work on the color convergence of the set - but I don't have any instructions for my Philco model 7100 color bar and dot generator, and so far no way of hooking it up to the TV has produced any results. Has anyone used a similar apparatus that knows generally what the procedure is?
I suppose ditching the rabbit ears and borrowing someone's VCR might help troubleshoot this set as well.
Slowly, but surely!