On an earlier thread I recapped an Eico signal generator that I had bought at a yard sale along with a Heath VTVM, total about five bucks for the two. Today I decided to tear into the VTVM, which didn't work.
The case on the outside looked good, the panel almost perfect, good meter face. The case on the inside had some bad rust problems on one side but that could be fixed. Somebody had left a cell in for a long time and there was corrosion, also could be fixed. But checking the meter terminals with the highest setting of an ohmmeter, I got open circuit. I dug into it and actually was able to get the movement out of the meter case (not easy, they use watchmaker hardware.) Checking right at the coil terminals, the meter was shot.
Phooey. I harvested the pots and their hardware, knobs, and the power transformer and chucked the rest. I'm in no rush to find one and will stumble across another some day, I'm sure.