Today I finished an "endgame level" project that I have been contemplating for quite some time, and I did not end up doing exactly what I had originally planned.
A couple of years ago I transplanted blue Alps into a Northgate Omnikey 101 and it turned out really well. There were a couple of failed attempts on the way there, due to low-grade soldering skills and equipment, and I ended up trashing a couple of them in the process. That made for a great keyboard but perhaps less than perfect because the switches and caps did have a bit of wear and my soldering is not impeccable.
So, a few months ago, I got a great Omnikey 101 on ebay that is probably new, although it was sold as "used". It came from a gaming store and I suspect that it was only ever used little or none - it was immaculately clean throughout with no sign of use or wear whatsoever. The only problem was that there were odd stickers on about a dozen keys that were very difficult to remove.
I had a large collection of orange Alps in good condition which I cleaned ultrasonically and lubed with dry Teflon spray with the intention of doing a "creamsicle" (great name, whoever made that up) type mod from the top. But as I looked at the pieces that I had in front of me, I saw a pile of white sliders and top housings that were essentially new. So, rather than use the orange sliders that I had cleaned and lubed, I used only the tactile leaves and springs from the oranges and the near-new white sliders and housings.
I lubed the white sliders with light Krytox and a small paint brush, sparingly, only on the sides, and put them back together with out doing any soldering or any other "destructive" modifications to the original assembly.
So far, without long-term evaluation, this is a magnificent keyboard and immediately moves to the highest level of my personal pantheon.
I will report back later if it drops in its position.