Cleaning up a Marantz 6100

I just bought a Marantz 6100 at a pawn shop for $35 CDN (helluva steal, considering how much they can go for), it looks and sounds great, but I'm pretty sure it belonged to a smoker before because the wood has a pretty nasty coating on it, it comes off black on my fingers and there's a a pretty noticable finger mark afterwards.

Before I go and do anything stupid, what do you guys suggest to clean up the wood, the metal trim and the dust cover?

Sounds like you have no choice but to be a little aggressive in the cleaning. If the finish is in good shape, it should stand up to being cleaned with a mild dish-soap solution. Or even some Fantastic or 409 if the dish-soap isn't strong enough. Better to find a detergent that disolves the dirt quickly than to keep the wood wet for too long or scrub too hard. After cleaning, I'd let it dry and apply some good furniture polish.

The fantastic, 409, or Windex should be fine for the metal parts. Could use Q-Tips to get into tighter places.

I'd use a dish-soap solution on the dust cover. Then rinse and dry with a cotton cloth or paper towel. If it still looks a little cloudy, you could try some Kit Scratch Out sold in the automotive department at K-Mart, Wal-Mart etc... (Good for polishing scratched CDs as well and only about $2.00 for a big bottle) It won't remove larger scratches, but will shine up the cover some. BE VERY CAREFUL not to buy another scratch remover product that isn't recommended for plastic and Plexiglass. Most of them will BADLY scratch plastic. I use a damp paper towel to apply the Scratch Out and rub for a while. A dry towel may scratch the cover. I use a dry paper towel to buff while the surface is still a little wet.

Goo Gone is pretty good for cleaning stuff. Especially, gooing sticky labels etc. Look into that. But use it carefully. I like the way it cleans plastics without foggin things up.

How should I mix the dish soap solution? 1/2 & 1/2?

I cleaned up the front of the case with regular lemon oil pledge and it seemed to do a good job. I'm thinking that maybe this TT didn't belong to a smoker, just that the dust has been sitting on it for a while.

By the way... Where's a good place to buy new vinyl? Current stuff. I have a bunch of old albums, but most of them are so worn down and dusty that they sound horrible.

I had a problem with my 6100 I purchased over a month ago. My unit spins 33.3 times in a minute and 1.8 sec. It's sad, I know, I actually counted and used my stop-watch. it came out to be 3% difference, and a stobe-disk showed the same result. I posted this problem on this discussion before. I got alot of good advices (Thanks Guys) but never resolved the issue. I'm just stating this so you may want to get your money back, if that is the case. I guess that's what I get for paying $2 at a thrift store in Aspen. If you need some parts for it, I can give it to you if you pay the shipping.

Best Regards.