Restoring an absolutely filthy cassette deck - Technics RS-M215 (Part 1)

In this video I start the work on restoring this absolutely disgusting (but still pretty nice) cassette deck. For the moment we limit ourselves to A LOT of cleaning and then we try to get the cassette mechanism fully working.
WARNING: Do not attempt to repair electronic equipment if you don't know what you're doing.
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Music by Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
Noise video footage by Milan Matos
Electrocution logo by Nesdon Booth, The Noun Project

[@geirendre]

When units are so dirty as this was, I just totally dissaseble everything (as you ended up doing anyway) and clean the front, top lid, etc in the kitchen sink.
Much easier to clean it that way. Just soak it in warm soap water for a while.
The scratch on the plastic window you probably could polish off just like you would with scratches on a turntable lid.
There are lots of how-to videos showing that (and polishing car headlight glasses).
I actually have the same model tapedeck in my shop, it's just the darker (champagne?) version.