Here's an edit of my previous 'progress' post, because now I am finished!
I recently scored these basically complete 'kits' consisting of two Ike Rev a boards and nearly all components less tubes and chokes to complete the amps- it included all new transformers, chassis, and basically all components one would order from Mouser. I've had my share of good and bad ebay deals as both a buyer and seller. This was one of the good ones- $210.50 plus shipping. I ordered C354 chokes from Triode and tubes from a couple sources. I picked up some Mullard El34 Russian repro's- they were cheap, why not? I also ordered the few extra components from Mouser to bring these up to Shannon's latest rev B standards. Including a cheap DMM and all shipping charges, I have everything I need at a budget just shy of $400 including shipping, tools, odds n ends, etc.
Side notes: I like the Radio Shack 62/36/2 solder- very easy to use and very clean, flux is clear. Radio Shack is what it is- they do a good job servicing their intended market, which probably doesn't fit most on this forum. However, you can still pick up a few things for the hobbyist. Since I already have my share of decent multimeters for AC work and misc analog meters, I picked up a cheap Harbor Freight DMM that worked very well for this. I used my old basic 25W Weller iron with a pencil point for most connections and a 40W chisel point iron for the larger connections and ground plane connections. This worked fine for me- though of course as noted some of the ground plane connections required touch-up on the opposite side of the board. The 62/36/2 solder doesn't seem to stay in a plastic phase at all which probably helped to keep me from botching connections.
The only problem with my 'score' was that the 'pre-cut' chassis holes for the octal tube sockets were slightly undersize and out of position. I tried re-cutting with a 1-1/16 hole saw, but the existing holes made for a bad cut. I did a little hand grinding to move the holes to where they needed to be and used appropriate sized O-rings to hide my hack job. Actually, it did not look too bad before the O-rings.
It took a little research and some answers from members of this forum to work through a couple of the rev A to rev B issues, but overall this was not too difficult of a project. The boards seem to be very high quality and were easy for neophytes such as I to solder. I have repaired some tube radios and a couple control boards in my Land Rovers- that's about the limit of my experience w/ PCB's. Despite being my first DIY audio project, most everything went according to the manual and schematics- I was pleasantly surprised that I didn't muck up something.
This is a great forum with quite a bit of good info and some very astute and pragmatic contributors. I have found answers to many questions simply by searching through the posts. I picked away at completing the amps when I had a little spare time in the evenings. If I can do this, almost anyone can. I hope to post pics of the completed amps later. I do have a link to the boards.
Link to pic of Rev A board:
http://www2.snapfish.com/slideshow/AlbumID=217934697/a=22158302_22158302/PictureID=4662990454/t_=22158302