Doomed to Failure

During this first period of ownership a number of parts began to fail leading the owners to become disolusioned with the idea of classic car ownership.
The first failure came when the now brother in law took the car out for a spin and to refill with petrol. After filling up and paying for the fuel the car would not start (it later turned out to be the fuel pump which was replaced). Anyway I got a call asking if I could come and tow him home and I drove to the pertol station to either fix the car or tow him home. I expected him to have moved the car from the pump to one of the parking bays so he did not cause a jam at the pumps. But for some reason only known to himself he was too embarassed to push the car the 30feet to the parking bay.
After giving the pump a few taps with the end of a screw driver and failing to get it to run reliably I hitched him up and towed the car to his house.
I left it to him to buy and fit a new pump. This got the car back on the road but only after a delay of a few weeks. Not because of not being able to get the parts but because he took so long to order them.
Next was the sticking needle valve in the carbs, another simple and cheap fix but still took a couple of weeks to sort.
I don't think these faults were too bad for a years worth of motoring. However, the MOT threw up one job that I somehow got lumbered with. I tell a lie I volentered.
The only problems for the MOT were a headlight bulb blowing exhaust and some rust around the jacking point on the drivers side. New bulb fitted = fixed. New Stainless Steel exhaust ordered and fitted = fixed. Jack up car on driveway (mum and dads driveway) clean off loose rust metal weld on a patch job done. Yeh right!
I ended up having to use a weeks holiday off work to replace the three part sill, jacking point and front/rear lower wing sections. I am actually quite pleased with the job and it turned out alright but what a job. The only problem was that I put a little too much heat into the repair and managed to blister and burn some of the paint that I had so carefully measured and cut around so the weld would be hidden by the sill covers. I left the task of touching up the paintwork to the brother in law. This job never got done and to this day you can still see the redoxide used to cover the burnt paint.