Not to be the annoying little kid Uni, but any reason in particular that I might not be able to get it to work?

The Classic is well known for checker-boarding with bad caps. There is not rust build op whatsoever.

Apart from the RTC circuit nothing is really damaged, at least nothing that should keep the machine from booting.

All the badly corroded vias are going to ground, so at least I want to give it a shot!

I knew that I was in for an adventure when I bought a known not-working machine, that was the whole reason for me buying it.