[shamrok]

Crazy prices on some of the basics. I'm not that surprised by the engine rebuild worst case price, but the rest is pretty absurd. Outside of the tranny and engine, working on this car is pretty straightforward, not a lot of crazy tools needed. You can nearly take the entire car apart with a 10mm and 13mm socket or wrench.

If you do want to wrench on it, get the 101 Projects book, and get really good at using Google with searches such as "pelican shift coupler rebuild". It's all here, just gotta dig a little and get dirty.

Here's a very rough top-of-head punch list, go through it over time with what you think is important.

- Shift coupler and transmission mounts are maybe 2 hours of work since you've never looked at them.
- Bilstein shocks and bushings ~$1000, day of work.
- Replace every piece of rubber in the suspension, ball joints, $1000? Weekend of work.
- Complete brake overhaul, parts ~$1500 (PMB Performance has an entire kit just for you), 2 lazy days of work.
- Turbo tie rod kit, $250, a couple hours.
- CVs "ready to split"? Buy a pair, all new bolts/Schnorr washers for ~$700 and wait for that day, replace one in an hour.
- I have no idea on the speedo or tach. Chances are some of your gauges are jumpy or sticky, don't mess with the gauges yet. Replace ground strap, clean up grounds up front, clean up sensor connections, reassess.

Regarding the engine, probably worth getting another opinion. Things are more complicated there but certainly can be addressed in a reasonable manner, depending on the potential issues.