Well, the dryer has been disassembled and vacuumed, the dead coil removed, the new coil swapped in, ready to reassemble as soon as the new belt arrives. I was surprised how much of the brown shmutz in the heater was just ash from the coils - it dusted off quite shiny after I replaced the coil.

Before

After

I’m a little worried about the visibly duller part of the heater assembly, hopefully that won’t absorb too much heat - I tried to cluster the coils a bit looser there to compensate.

It’s even visible on the reverse side.

Either way, I’m reassembling tomorrow when the new belt arrives.