I've owned hundreds of old radios and only aligned less than a dozen. To me, it's a PITA and next to impossible to do correctly without a signal generator and a scope. Replace all the paper and electrolytic caps first, test the tubes, replace any that are really really weak, then see what it does.
One possible problem is many radios, of this vintage, suffer from "SMD" or silver mica disease. What this basically is, is an oxidation of the mica capacitors inside the RF and IF transformer cans, which can create serious reception issues. It mostly effects radios from about 1955 on. It can be fixed, but is a little tricky. Google silver mica disease to get an idea of what you are looking at. If you are having reception, and/or sensitivity problems, this could be what's going on. 15 years ago, almost no one had dealt with it yet, but it's common now.