VT-71 "upgrades and mods"

This is my first post on this forum. I have been an electronics engineer/technician for about 30 years. Most of my experience has been in pro audio but I have worked with a lot of vintage gear and a few antique radios over the years.

One thing led to another, I bought a VT-71 to restore, then another one, now a third one. (Two will be gifts to friends.) After doing a total recap, building a retrofit ballast etc. and getting them in more or less like new operating condition, I started thinking about some mods and upgrades.

The main things were adding 3 RCA jacks to the rear panel for direct audio and video inputs (along with a switch to select between the internal tuner and the input jacks), and changing the horizontal AFC circuit to make the set compatible with VHS tape players.

(Isolation transformers are hardwired to these sets, so there is no problem with patching the new RCA's to external electronics.)

After spending way too much time with my head buried in old Motorola schematics I finally got the mods working perfectly. I'll be glad to share the circuit details with anyone who's interested.

There's one more thing I'd like to do, and that's find a way to eliminate retrace lines. Does anyone have any thoughts about how this could be done on a VT-71? If so maybe you could save me some time.

I realize that many people who restore old electronics feel that vintage designs should be left as is and I generally agree. But the VT-71's and VT-73's are so common it's hard for me to see this kind of thing as a historical disservice and besides - the mods I did make the picture look really, really good.

I would be interested in any technical insights on these sets or any sort of "hotrodding" that others have done on them. Thanks in advance.