My advice would be to start by cleaning, lubing and adjusting for maximum performance in stock form and living with it for a while. That will give you a chance to determine what (if any) shortcomings there are in the sound for you and what upgrades (if any) you really need. You can mod this table until you can barely recognize it if you want, but not every mod will produce an improvement in sound that is immediately apparent to every user.
Most older ARs suffer from old, congealed lubrication in the platter and tonearm bearings, and will benefit enormously from a thorough cleaning and a fresh dose of light oil.
If you look at the small hole in the side of the rectangular arm bearing block and see a pin in it, the original factory damping is still engaged. This was an early form of viscous cueing intended to slow the fall of the arm if accidentally dropped; the AR tonearm is not intended to be a damped arm. Over time the visous goo will have hardened, and since the damping was originally designed for cartridges that tracked in the 2-3g range, the pin should be pulled out to disable the damping for under-2g tracking anyway. Without damping, the AR arm can track a medium to medium-high compliance cartridge to about 0.75g before it starts to experience tracking issues. 1.25-1.50g will provide ample safety margins. If the arm seems to stick when you swing it over the record, check to make sure there's a ball bearing in its well. The ball on the platter spindle is pressed in, but the arm ball is loose and they sometimes get lost.
If you experience rumble after cleaning and lubing, check to see if there is a plastic disc at the bottom of the platter bearing. These thrust discs sometime disintegrate or get lost over time.
Get a relatvely lightweight platter mat no thicker than 2mm to avoid messing up the suspension and VTA.
Good reproduction logos are available from Larry Lagace ("vintage-ar" on eBay).
