Congrats!!!
Get some pics please! Are you the one who will remove them or someone else? Of have you or somebody else removed them already?
My Sears shoplight restoration project is still going on, but today I put the light back together, stuck a pair of Sylvania /CWP lamps in there and hung it in my garage over a chest freezer. It's still going to be painted and get new tombstones, and I'm seriously considering changing the ballast. With all the dirt and crud on the reflector gone (the top of the fixture is still pretty dirty) it's much brighter and nicer-looking. Even with scratch marks in the reflector from sanding it with steel wool and other prep work, it's actually slightly shiny; the tubes reflect off it a bit when lit! Still going to be painted and completely rewired eventually though.
Do you guys think it's really necessary to paint the inside of the ballast channel?
The /CWP lamps do flicker at startup but that goes away after a couple minutes with that full power Bonusline ballast behind them. I do daresay the /CWP lamps do have a nice color though, but still not as nice as GE Chroma 50...the light is slightly warm/pinkish though sorta like /CWX (which I don't think I've ever really seen in person, just in pics on LG/GOL) but without the dimness of "Deluxe" lamps. Once warmed up, on this ballast, they're BRIGHT! The light is in a location where it only gets a few starts a day and runs for hours at a time, so the warmup issue with the /CWP lamps isn't an issue...so I think I'll keep them there for now.
Eventually, unless I can find a magnetic T12 ballast or maybe an electronic one, it'll probably be T8 instant start when I retire the old ballast. Although, programmed-start or (my second choice) electronic rapid start would be the way to go with a T8 conversion IMO...
Nice thing about most (well electronic IS anyway) T8 ballasts is that T12s will work on them well so if I so choose I can still run T12s in there for the authentic look in a 1970s-era fixture. In that case, (until they're spent) the GE 34w Watt-Misers the light came with when I got it will probably go right back in! (cleaned up of course; they're FILTHY as was the rest of the light when I got it in November of 2012.
Any advice from you guys?