

in an ideal world youd buy a mint example first.

i bought a fairly immaculate car myself.

but there is always something thats been missed, its a 20 year old car, and even the most immaculate examples will develop a problem or 2, even as soon as a couple of months after being properly restored if they are driven

"properly" and used on a daily basis on english roads.

mine has some rust developing in the usual problem areas that needs welding up sooner rather than later

but as for my definition of

"restoration", aside from rust, suspension bushes wear out for example, engine mounts, gearboxes get sloppy and develop play, steering bushes and joints wear, etc, etc.

these are all things that ideally need sorting before the car can ever feel good, no matter how much money is spent on suspension and engine upgrades.

its best to get the car to a state where it is a good base platform before spending lots of cash on upgrades that are only ever as good as the weakest link in the system