Since this thread is about somewhat frustrating/irritating lighting repair experiences, here's a good one from 20 minutes ago...
I brought home that vintage shoplight this afternoon. I decided to pop the ballast cover (a wide, THICK reflector compared to the shoplights of today) to see what ballast it had. It's a (and I kid you not) General Electric BonusLine .8A ballast that's rated for 34w lamps but I won't use any just to be sure. (I've wanted one of these for awhile now). It appears to have lost some tar at some point in it's life but it's still pretty quiet which is a good sign (and most likely has PCBs but I haven't looked for the date code). So in the process of reinstalling the reflector (I only removed one screw, just so I could peek underneath) I disturbed one of the lampholder brackets and in the process of fixing that and knocking the lampholders off I broke a socket. So I was able to replace it (thankfully I had similar ones from a cheapo shoplight (the ones described in the cheap shoplight syndrome thread I started) that I was able to use. I was able to get away with replacing only one socket and there's a slight mismatch (noticeable when installing the tube) but it works. Then I was able to re-install the reflector without further incident and stuck in a pair of (Mike will appreciate this) Sylvania CWP tubes and fired it up. Those tubes have slight mercury starvation issues it seems (flickers dimly at startup) but that didn't last long with a good full power ballast behind those lamps. I haven't tried different lamps yet but it doesn't have much startup flicker from the three times it's been lit so far. The .73A ballasts seem to produce exciting startup flicker though.
All in all it was about fifteen minutes of frustration but it was well worth it! I'm satisfied:)
At this point plans for this light are TBA, but I'm considering my bedroom ceiling.