I'm in the same position Mike. I'll still take a quick look at TVs, VCRs, etc. for friends and neighbors, but even on a "just for fun" basis much of it is now unrepairable. Have you tried getting a replacement line output transformer for a modern TV these days? Even if you can find one, it'll cost at least three times the value of a 5+ year old set.
Service manuals or even a schematic -- Forget it.
Most of the VCR mechanisms on the £29.99 supermarket specials (and on a lot of the mid-range stuff for that matter) use so much cheap plastic that after a few years continual use it's all worn to the point that you'd have to rebuild the entire mechanism to get it back to a reasonable technical standard.
I'd rather spend my time restoring
old equipment which is worth keeping going because it was built up to a standard rather than down to a price.
