After a few days of doing other stuff, I got the Hitachi all cleaned up. I was going to re-belt the deck, but I had a reality check. My domestic supply of belts is now gone (used to be TradeTech in Auckland but they went under) and I have to order from WES in Ozzy.
I decided to forego the operational tape deck because a) I won't play tapes on it ever anyway and b) we needed a good sounding fairly portable box to pull FM stereo duties round the pool this summer and the Hitachi fits the bill perfectly. After a clean of all the sliders, pots, record bar etc it sounds really excellent and for a small box the sound really fills the pool area nicely
Time for this little guy to have his summer of love !