Spend my $1000 on a turntable

I am loving this thread folks, thank you.... the DIY red would be tricky, not enough time and mileage may vary on spray, sand, spray, sand etc... the GF and ‘wife’ are the same ;) I’m hoping it’s a table I have for a long time but for the amount it will get used 20% of the time. There is a process of listening to vinyl I want to be realistic..... as I tip toe lightly in the analog forum. 

Gents, I’m assuming we are all gents. The table is old, it was a DJ table but it’s in decent shape. The dust cover is trashed, someone tried to take off the DJ’s name with a scotch bright pad. I can polish it off with headlight restore. I have a bad channel, so I did the KAB Cardas tone arm rewire, still a bad channel. The interconnects were replaced a few years ago when I was trying to sort out that bad channel. I need to figure out did I rewire it correctly? Could it be a bad cartridge? Is a pin bad at the end of the tone arm? If anyone has a link to a diagram of the technics wiring at the head shell area and the board is apprecieate it. Our living room is now nice and the GF/Wife feels like its old, the trashes dust cover doesn’t help. I live in Los Angeles so moving this “DJ” table should be ‘easy’. But maybe I look at sorting out the wiring, I need to anyway before selling it as well as the dust cover. I just didn’t want to get a new cart + head shell then sell the whole thing at a near loss. 

I brought the Mrs with me and my turntable in to a nice dealer in Los Angeles I think that I might sell the technics and get a Project Classic with an upgraded cartridge. She is ok with NOT a red table which opens up a lot of options. Fixing the technics + a nice cart is about $300 or getting a new table. 

The Project Classic with an Ortofon Bronze, about $1400 or the 

The Classic SB featuring a Sumiko Blue Point No.2 cartridge.

I will put some feelers out on the technics. It might be nice to have some thing new with dealer support and a table that the GF likes in the living room.