Valve seal replacement

I've heard of it often but have never done it by stuffing a rope down there. Ive done the air compressor and the "pull the head" each many times. With that low of miles id definitely try the air first, with the head on the car/ usually that cuts the oil consumption from where it starts out to somewhere between "tolerable" and "almost none". At least that's been my experience. Unless you have further reasons to suspect a valve problem. If the car 's only gone 88k in 52 years about any reduction in oil usage would be noticable, and besides even if you still use a little bit, on something driven so little, a little top end lube won't hurt anything.
I've seen them go from 1qt in 500-650 miles down to 1/2 a quart of oil used in 4k miles (4k is when I change my oil) and the pack of valve guide seals themselves are quite cheap. So even if it didn't work, you got a new experience and aren't out much.
And just because you pull the valve spring and see that "oh that valve still has its seal, it hasn't fallen apart and gotten into the pan yet" don't let that fool ya into thinking the seal is still"good". They harden up, lose their pliability and Don't work any more.