Now that you are familiar with the general overall steps that will be taken to clean the inside of your Beta and know what to avoid it is time to begin.

With the cabinet top off and no power to the unit remove as much loose dirt, dust, tape shards and gum as you can using the solvent and the blunt wooden sticks, cotton swabs, cotton wads and mini swabs (made by twisting cotton onto the blunted tips of the wood picks). If you have a can of compressed air, use it to blow away any loose particles. Look at the photos below and use them as your guide. The dental mirror will help you see into the difficult areas. Remove as much debris as possible. This is a only a preliminary cleaning, more detailed and extensive cleaning will follow in future steps.
Removing tape shards
Cleaning front rails (SEE NOTE)
Cleaning rear rails (SEE NOTE)
Cleaning full erase head
NOTE: AVOID DAMAGING THE VIDEO HEADS! Move them away from the area where you are cleaning to prevent them from getting hit and broken. Be very careful in these areas. Use the damper on top of the video drum to rotate the heads out of the way. If you use are going to use tweezers or a hemostat to hold the wads make sure not to scratch any of the smooth areas that will be coming in contact with the video tape.
Cleaning ACE assembly

Next comes a complete tape path inspection, to go to the next step click here. To go back to the previous panel click here.

NOTE: For a closer examination of the individual components being cleaned consult the following links: ACE refurbish page, Adjusting ACE tilt, ACE height and center and Video drum.