[Arran]

Ron, I think you are getting much better at the cabinet restoration, it's like anything where you get better and better with practice and learn new techniques as you go along. One think that I have learned is that what matters is the finished product not how you get there.
I have a few sets in similar condition to that Philco 53C, believe it or not you can still get that inlay banding from Constantines and Rockler, I think, but it can be made as well. The 40-125 before shot looks like a typical "weekend warrior" or "Antique Mall" finish, some of my earlier restoration projects came out like that, except that I at least tride to darken the shaded parts with paint or stain, but even then I knew it didn't look right. I didn't know about shading lacquer or grain filler at the time, some were so bad that I stripped then down since and started redoing them. In fact if I end up with one finished by someone else that way I almost always will strip it down and start over even if they did use laquer, the reason being is that half the time they used oil stain on the wood and finished right over the dents and scratches.
There is one guy who get big $$$ on fleabay for his sets for some reason, every finish he does is glossy but he puts the same brown fogged finish on them like a guitar ignoring the original colour scheme and veneers used, it's 100% wrong and tasteless but i guess Herb Tarlek was right, tasteless sells. What concerns me is that it may end up like the Philco decals at some point in the future, everyone will think that every old radio had a finish like a cheap Midwest cabinet or a Gibson guitar.
Speaking of the plastic dial lenses, reproducing one of those is going to be one of my future projects. I have a few with cracks aling the outside edge but there is one on a Kadette radio I have that is fogged up so bad that you can barely see through it, it has a haze of cracks all over like old varnish.
Regards
Arran