Mike,
Very sorry to hear of your problems with Carly. I know just where you are -
this is exactly what happened to Carly's identical sister Daffy, about a
year and a half ago. Heartbreaking.
One idea I toyed with was a Hurricane body:
http://www.caburn.demon.co.uk/Contents/CaburnEngineering/Hurricane/
This is a fibre-glass body tub and bonnet that is pretty much a straight
swap for the existing (rotted!) body you have - bolts straight down to the
chassis, and your existing interior gets stuck back in. To my mind, not
quite as pretty as the original body, but still a classic long-nosed
two-seater small sports car look - and no more rust problems!
The downside, of course, is cost - if you can't afford to fix Carly's
existing body, you can't afford the Hurricane body (which is about 3 grand).
The general rule is that you never get back the money you put into these
cars, and I suspect that would apply to fixing Carly up to sell her. It
might pay off, but (at least without seeing some fairly good quotes on the
cost) I'd probably not go that route.
I ended up with no real option but to sell Daffy as an MOT failure. I got
#300, but you may be luckier since there is more demand for Spits down your
way than in Aberdeenshire! Also a front trunnion failed on the way back
from the MOT, so Daffy looked in a sorry state which won't have helped her
saleability.
Putting her away to deal with in a few years depends on where you put her.
As I remember (unless your situation has changed) you don't have anywhere at
your home, and you had to pay to use a garage that was a several minutes
away. Paying garage rent month after month to house a car you don't know
when you will fix seems like throwing money away to me. If you have
somewhere DRY you can store her that doesn't cost you anything, this may be
a more feasible option. (I'm lucky enough to have such a space, which a
couple of weeks ago I filled with Nancy, an MG BGT that I'm bringing back to
life!).
Yep, I hate to say this, but none of your options look good! I would get as
solid a quote as you can for the remedial work required to get her through
MOT. If you genuinely believe you could sell her for at least #800 more
than that cost, fix her up and sell her. Otherwise cut your losses and sell
her as is.
I can well understand your reluctance to split her to components. But, if
you sell her as an MOT failure, that's exactly what the buyer will probably
do anyway, so there's no point being sentimental about it. If you lack the
time, space, or enthusiasm to do that, fair enough. Given how much I made
eBay-ing the various bits of Daffy that her buyer didn't take, I now regret
not doing that with all of her.
Richard Gosling
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