My two cents worth: I agree with Doug, the cars were made to be driven and
enjoyed. Its a sad fact that in the past 10 or so years speculators, and
not true "car people" have put parts, restoration and enjoyment costs out
of reach of most people interested in cars, myself is included. I grew up
restoring cars with my dad, even though we never won Pebble Beach, we have
restored 6 cars to a high enough standard to win multiple first place
trophies with the Antique Automobile Club of America. All body, paint, and
mechanical work was done in our garage, and all cars were regularly driven
on tours and to the shows. I still judge AACA meets, my specialty is
sports cars, and if you want to catch a change in mood of the hobby, hang
out a Hershey during class judging. During the last couple of years it has
gotten nasty. Anyway enough band width wasted. I will probably never find
the perfect Spitfire that I can afford with out buying a basket case that
I would never be able to afford to restore. I can say this, what ever you
do to your car do it right, apply high standards to your work cuz once you
have invested the time, material and parts it doesn't take much to do a
first class job, but then watch out for ship fitters disease... While I got
the master cylinder off, I might as well do the brake hoses and renew the
calipers and repack the bearings and clean up and paint the peddle box etc,
etc, etc....... Have a great weekend, Chris in Detroit
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