Don't tell my wife, but the dishwasher works GREAT on all kinds of old items.

I would start with the brush attachment on the end of my vacuum cleaner hose. Use a 1" round camel brush to augment the vacuum brush. See where this gets you before trying other, more vigorous, methods, like water washing.

Well, first you drop trou...

Where do I even begin to clean this chassis?
 

For about a year now, I've been cleaning Predicta chassis's at my local carwash! Yes, CARWASH! Not a problem one. I even leave the tubes in and they get clean. I do remove them afterwards and use WD-40 (which displaces the mositure) generously on the tube sockets and all controls, mechanical assemblies, etc. As stated elsewhere, let it dry a day or so. Try it, you'll see that it works.


Larry

You wild man! How the heck do you DO it? Toss 'em in the pickup bed and drive through??? This makes my radical bath look tame by comparison -- I love it!

I just remove dust, spider webs and things like that. Rust is treated with a little Naval Jelly and any tube shields are wirebrushed. Other than that, they stay the way they are. I do clean the CRT, safety glass (if equipped) and make the cabinet look as nice as possible (I do need to do some finish repair on one). There is only one set I have that needs total cabinet and chassis restoration (RCA 16" wood). I was considering giving a chassis a bath, but with my luck, I would have fried critical parts. I find a paint brush and shop vac do just fine.

Spray that chassis down with an industrial cleaner-degreaser (take it easy around the transformers)then hose off with warm water. As long as it dries off it will be fine.
The place where I used to work did that with industrial monitors before repairing them, they had to as they would be full of grease and coolant from cnc machines.
Never had any problems and the units looked like new when finished.
In the end it is someones own personal preference as to how they want to do it, personally I have repaired hundreds of monitors and televisions over the years and always preferred the above mentioned way.