Sounds like you landed a great set.
It is good that everybody generally agrees the better move is to replace the waxies and electrolyic caps before powering the set. Also checking cleaning the valve sockets, checking resistors are in spec etc and replacing what is necessary.
In the case of the LOPTY, if pitch coated and you can see cracks extending down to the overwind, I would not power that until the pitch was dissolved away and the Lopty varnished (there are other threads about doing this)
It is tempting to want to power the set to see what happens, but its much safer to replace the parts first and make sure everything is as sound as it can be. Once that is done there is also no need for a variac, it is needed when the capacitors are old and in a risky condition, so if you reach for the variac with a notion of re-forming old electrolytics it is worth thinking twice if you should be doing that in the first place.
There is a picture in this article of rebuilding that large dual electrolytic in the TV22:
http://worldphaco.com/uploads/BUSH_TV22.pdf