Here's a very pleasant update: First, the refoam worked perfectly. I did that over a month ago and began using these in my office, running them with a Marantz 2270. Right off the bat I noticed they were a quality pair. Unusually large sound stage for a room that is only 8' x 16'. Great imaging too. I like the punchy bass they give out AND the fact that they don't dig into the deep octaves. Just a well balanced sound. Now, about a week ago I decided they were keepers and recapped them with Solen's. They opened the sound up even more and added a degree of brightness that made them a little too hot for the room, so after a few days I switched the tweeter control over to the -3db position. They are now really dialed in, at least for classic 1970's pop hits like "Magnets and Steel," "Brandy," etc. I also notice they play quite loud with the 2270 with no real effort on the amps part. That's a real bonus.
Now that I've done this pair it might halt my restoration of a pair of EPI 150's. They need EVERYTHING. Caps, tweeters and woofers. After all that effort and money I expect them to sound similar to these AR 17's.
Might put them back out into the wild.