WXM, thank you for the kind words and recommendations. I am taking a week off from the project so I can get some fresh eyes on it. I will definitely tinker with some of the values you mentioned. That being said I will probably never be 100% satisfied with it (I am somewhat a perfectionist to a fault).
What you are doing is an extremely challenging thing to even attempt (as I surely don’t need to tell you 😃) and you’ve achieved a miracle so far. Hopefully my little, amateur “fresher eyes” suggestions will be a little bit fruitful and not just have you running in circles with settings-toying for an hour or two only to land more or less back where you started.
However, I’ve come up with an even better idea since that post!: Go to Lucasfilm and tell them you need the original camera negative for this shot. When they give it to you, you get it scanned in 8k (be sure to tell them to turn the color on!) and that way you don’t have to worry about the colorizing anymore. On top of the color being good, the grain and resolution should at a better starting point than what you’ve been using. Yay, so simple, eh?! Bet you’re kicking yourself for not thinking of it! 😃 (that idea is j/k of course 😄)