Needless to say the battery was stone dead, so I jumped it off the soarer and it burbled into a deep throaty idle immediately. After 10 minutes of tickover it had a few customary blips of the loud pedal.
So glad I didn't bust it and gave into the bullying from my missus & Dazleeds that night. So the plan now is to do some work on it and get the old girl performing a little better and banish the marine theme that is going on in the passenger footwell so I can get the carpet back in.
So the (non-exhaustive) list of jobs is:
1- Head gasket replacement/ top end rebuild
2- Swap over noisy diff & replace rear subframe bushes.
3- Invesitgate vague steering/ knock forn front end
4- Repair large rust hole to bulkhead & inner front arch
5- replace engine mount
6- Repairs/ tart up the bodywork
Piece of piss eh guys?
Maybe I will be found rocking in the corner of the garage shortly..
Schnarff schnarff

