Dan ..... not going to get into a crazy debate on this one but I feel I have to say that I ran my 1380 as a daily driver on the 200 mile round trip daily commute to London for work when I was doing that crazy journey for about 18 months without a niggle, it has never been welded or painted since it left the factory in 1989.
My better halfs MPi is 8 years old and is only just begining to show it's age a little but far from rusty!
I will say though that they do require much more preventative maintainance than a modern car but hell ... that is half the fun.
I think it is true to say with any "classic car" your have to buy the best example you can find or get a specialist to do the work and anything to do with the body should be bare metal job all over.
My two current projects ('78 Candice's turbo-to-be & '65 pickup) have both been back to bare metal before I even though about buying panels.
Each to their own I say.
Another car to throw in is the good old Golf ..... practical, reliable and still much more fun than most cars could ever hope to be.
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