Take heart, you have landed on an empathetic & knowledgeable web site, where the express intent is to ensure as many of our cars make it past their next MOT.
Once you have sorted all the niggles, it’s mainly running maintenance or upgrades, so you are in for a great ride.
Part of ownership & it has to be something you “sign up for” is, bruised hands, blood sacrifice, oil under the chipped fingernails; in fact the smell of oil & brake fluid overpowering the whiff of perspiration created whilst trying to shift a recalcitrant bolt.
The car’s reputation is a double edged sword, the clueless naysayers who criticise the car “down the pub” keep the prices artificially low by claiming that it was rubbish when it was made & it’s only got worse. If that were possible. This tend to exclude those who, for not much money, could ruin a potentially good vehicle & thus by not buying one it makes those available for future enthusiast. Obviously those that are left are mostly in the hands of folk who are keen to demonstrate just how good & reliable these cars are.
I have had both f & tf, the f being my current car & initial it cost less than £1k, it’s a dolly. By sympathetic maintenance & upgrading it has served me well, the attention I lavish on it repays dividends in the form of great & sunny days out over the Lancashire moorland roads, into the Lakes & romping around the Dales, both Yorkshire & Derbyshire.
It could take a while for all facets to gel into a coherent whole, but you will know when you’re there by the smirk you will carry around whenever you are off over the hills & far far away.
And it need not be a parochial car either, there are members who take Europe by the scruff of the neck & give it a good shakedown.
One last point; don’t expect it to be a pounds, shillings & pence investment, that won’t happen.
M