Motorola VT-71 resto almost completed.

[Electronic M]

So on vacation a friend sent me a make offer listing for a mahogany Moto VT71 seeing knobs but not being able to evaluate the CRT or see if the back was present I offered $25, my friend picked it up for me and passed it along. CRT tested fine using the working chassis from my blond VT71 and the chassis had all it's original caps, the original back and metal ballast tube. I changed all the paper and lytic caps and all 3 diodes and it just came to life. What surprised me is the original metal ballast tube seems to still work fine....granted it cracked and popped like a yule log on fast forward for the first few minutes.
I recall hearing that the metal ballasts are always bad (and the glass ones are usually fine) anybody else have a VT71 still working with the metal ballast?

Right now I need to get a new CRT rubber mask, mount my new cheater cord, and apply some Howard's.

This set has started a kick to get my electrostatic sets going. I ended up going through my Halicrafters T54 and first then this and now a Silvertone.