Its starting to seem as though there is a lot more work involved than i had first anticipated.

I am in no huge rush to finish the project and my dad is currently welding his transit ready for its mot, and fair play he is doing a cracking job so i will have to get him to give me some lessons as I am working on a budget, and there is no way I can afford to splash out £1500 just on the welding. I have a good garage with a pit, welder, compressor and pretty much everything i will need there.
Are repair plates easily available from Ford or will I have to fabricate everything myself. My uncle is service manager at my local main ford dealership and his brother runs the bodyshop their, so i can get a lot of advice and cheap parts from them.

There is no way I can afford to buy a minter outright so I figured if i buy a project I can do it up at my own pace. The engine was as sweet as a nut last time i drove it about 2 years ago and it has hardly done any mileage since then.
I am just going to have to think now whether it is worth all the work.

Cliche i now but my heart is saying yes but my head is tellin me to stay away.

Thanks for all of your valuable advice anyway