Turns out the above fears of ancient cam belt were unfounded, it was actually 20,000 miles and 14 years old. So fine.
But now replaced of course.
And speaking of replaced, it's had it's rear arches cut out on both sides, new metal welded in and made good. Inners have had rust removed, converted and protected, and the sills had already been done a few months ago by my dad and my brother, who did a TON of work clearing all the rust from underneath and protecting it. It also had a rust patch on the drivers door removed and painted in when the rear quarter panels were getting their paint job. Looks great, especially as the arches had been fillered and repainted some time in the 2000s and the paint they'd used had aged to a different colour. Hopefully will get some photos of the work done soon. For info, it cost £960 for both arches and the door at a decent shop. Another quote was £1000 for the arches from a one-man-band type of shop so seemed reasonable. I did investigate having the whole car gone over, restored and repaainted, but that was looking like £4000 so i'll maybe look at it a panel at a time!
Plus a new center cap to replace a broken one and a new aerial as when i took it off for the car wash the rubber and plastic disintegrated in my hand. Cars looking and driving great!
