Well I guess I’ve bitten off more than I can chew…well that’s not exactly right, I can chew it, but don’t like the flavor of this car any more. So I am asking this esteemed group (and by rank copy and paste, other esteemed groups) what I should do with my 122 wagon.

As it is, I have more in it than I’ll get out, but I’d like to minimize my losses, so what do I do, and what don’t I bother with?

As it is, it’s fairly straight, and has little rust, and is all there, even the hubcaps and trim rings, which are in pretty decent shape. It’s still pretty ugly, though, with a funny green house paint, which is peeling, over the original dark green. I’ve just had the bad seams in the seats re-sewn, and replaced the webbing, so the interior is OK for use, but is by no means nice. I was futzing about with the wiring under the dash, cleaning grounds, replacing bulbs, trouble shooting the always-full gas gauge, and managed to kink the heat gauge tube, so now it does not work either…the fuel gauge now shows empty all the time. Grrr..

Mechanically, it runs and drives, is tagged and licensed, has newly overhauled brake hydraulics, new clutch hydraulics, new tires. Steering is in adequate condition, as is the exhaust. Carbs have been cleaned, and have almost no slop in the throttle shafts. That’s the good. The bad, is the engine is tired, and has a nice round cam lobe on #3 intake, some piston slap (I think), and is pretty low powered. Clutch and trans seem OK, but either the center bearing or the diff is kind of noisy, I haven’t checked out which yet.

So what to do? Is it better to swap what I think is a good B18 (that I have tucked away) in or sell the car as is since it does run OK and drive, and then sell the engine separately? Fix the fuel gauge, or with the rest of it, let it go? (the tank sender is bad, and I’m not sure what else after I went and played under the dash)? Is it better to sell it cosmetically as-is, or do the Rustoleum $50 paint job to improve the appearance cheaply?

My labor is cheap, but I want as few $$ in it as possible, again with the goal of minimizing my losses.

What says the group?