+1
I do all my own work too.
Well - almost - I tried doing my own re sprays, and it didn't go so well - I lack patience - so I do the prep and sanding now, and hand the car over to a sprayer.
I've bought decent turbocharged cars for less than my coffee machine, had fun with them and turned them over for a profit.
I've had auto boxes apart, engines apart, chassis replacements, carbs, injection, axles, electrics, welding, even transferred a California camper roof across to my T5 camper, and got all the electrics to work on it.
I do like that moment at a classic car meet ( especially the rolls Royce ones) when someone asks who the mechanic is, because the car is sounding fabulous ( or rather, in the case of my mate's Rolls-Royce Phanton 5, the car is almost silent!) and i reply that I do it all myself.
The look of abject horror and disbelief from some is hilarious to behold when they learned that I spent the last weekend under the bonnet servicing and tuning it. "What - you open the bonnet?"
At the rolls-Royce events there are some serious chequebook jobs that came out of the workshop the day before and were entered in the concours. They are amazing restoration jobs - absolutely fabulous. I find it a bit sad really, folks lining up to see what the next £300k rebuild is like - I like to earn it through hard work rather than pay for it and expect it.
It's about the engineering, and doing it yourself.
Anyway, keep up the thread - it makes my stage 3 4.6 RV8 defender 90 rebuild seem somewhat puny in comparison!