instructions said 'do not adjust the IF transformers' as they were pre aligned - for me this was not the case.ess) but the rest of the build was fine.
I had the "benefit" of not being able to read the instructions, so I assumed mine were unaligned.
I built mine starting from the audio amp working backward, testing each stage. Once I had the last ( my first ) IF, I lightly coupled in a modulated 465kHz and adjusted for peak audio. I did the same as I completed the next two, re-tweaking the stages already done. The hardest part was the oscillator inductor and oscillator trim cap. I used a very small cap to couple some oscillator output into my scope, and used the frequency measurement feature to set the oscillator range, tuning the red coil to set the low end, and trim cap to set the high end, and going back and repeating about 6 times.
I would have assumed 455kHz, but the instructions said 465kHz. Could have been a typo, but it will tune up fine either way.
To get the antenna trimmer to peak, I had to slide the antenna coil all the way to the "left" end of the ferrite stick.
I didn't notice the more expensive Elenco until after I was done. I downloaded the Elenco instructions. The theory, stage by stage test, and final alignment instructions are fantastic. I would recommend downloading and reading the Elenco manual even if you don't buy their kit.