I rechecked voltages tonight, and yup, with that new coil in my weird loading issues stopped.
I also noticed why my screen adjustments weren't quite perfect: the focus electromagnet was replaced with a pm RCA assembly! The yoke also appears to have been replaced as well.
I cleaned up the pins of the channel strips, but you really can't get anything into the other set of contacts under the tube deck. So, I applied some strips of sandpaper to a tuner strip, and then racked the tuner back and forth over that channel, cleaning those hidden contacts. This operation cleared up most of the static I was getting in the picture.
Started in on the cabinet today as well. It had been stripped as found, so I applied filler and will try to lacquer this weekend.
GEDC1006.jpg
GEDC1007.jpg