Ha! I more or less agree with you. My car is certainly a "heart" rather that "brain" purchase. All said, I purchased my car for $13,000 and put another $1500 into it to make it reliable. I still need about $500 in work to make it uber reliable. (see manual transmission observation post). The "rule of 20" is slowly catching up to me! If you buy a project car it is absolutely positively necessary for you to do all the work yourself. Believe me, if a shop had done the work that I have done myself I would have joined the rule of 20 club a long time ago and I started with a drivable car, in fact my wife and I drove it from Denver to Los Angeles. In retrospect this was very foolish! Here is a priority guide for repairs/upgrades that I have been following: Highest priority- mechanical problems/upgrades that affect the functionality, reliability, or safety of the car, or could cause greater damage ($$$) in the future. (coolant hoses, tune-up, fuel system, fluid changes, TABs, brakes, etc) Medium priority- mechanical issues that do not immediately effect reliability or safety. (Fuel accumulator, Steering column bushing, window motors, etc) Lowest priority- anything cosmetic To address comments privately to the moderating team, please address: moderators@xxxxxxxxxxx For more info on the list, tech articles, cars for sale see www.dmcnews.com To search the archives or view files, log in at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dmcnews/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: dmcnews-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/