1949 motorola table top

[Zenith26kc20]

As a rule, seleniums are trouble waiting to happen. I usually start with about a 22 ohm 5 watt in series with the silicon replacements and once things are running I can change the value slightly up or down to compensate. Not using a dropping resistor in series will raise B+ too high and it can cause instability issues (voice of experience).
Also, make sure the IF tubes are good and have no grid leakage. I have had many problems with the TS-4 and the TS-18 chassis with these tubes.
Those tubular ceramic caps are fine 99% of the time. It's the 6KV ones that will cause problems.
If I remember right you are going to use the capacitive ballast system. If you are going to use the black, iron wire ballst, a variac is a must. At their age they make all kinds of noise when turned on until they stabilize. The glass ballast is fine.
I use a ts-18 as a daily driver for the news and weather. I like the Motorola electrostatics. They are reliable once up and running!