Ah, good old Victorian RWC.. I had a list about that long for a 5-year old Barina with about 120,000km on the clock, when I brought it from NSW into Mexico, even from a place with annual roadworthies (blue/pink slip) after 3 years.... the standard one is usually a new windscreen as a minimum.
The problems sound endless, but in reality, as others have said, aren't that bad, and with some decent tools, the appropriate parts, some elbow grease, a workshop manual, and maybe some advice from someone with experience working on them, a few days would see you right.
One suggestion - maybe see if there's another car of the same make and model floating around for a cheap price, and use that as a wreck for parts, assuming that it's good enough to do so. Scrapyards, wreckers, Trading Post, e-bay, look for something that's been written off (particularly in a side-on or rear-ender, or with a lot of rust, since most of the parts that are needed are electrical or engine/mechanical), that should give you most of the parts you need, and probably a lot cheaper than buying them all individually.
Also see if there's some good parts places around the area - not the SuperCheap etc, but at least somewhere with a bit more of a reputation for knowledge and info - like Burson or Repco. There used to be a good private shop on Burwood Hwy near Dorset Road, which if they didn't have it, they could get it ordered in within a few days. In general, if you walk into a shop, and it looks like a supermarket, it's probably not too crash hot - if you walk in, and it looks like a general store, with a warehouse at the back and shelves stacked from floor to ceiling, and has a light smell of grease and oil, you're probably in the right sort of place.
Finally, offer to lay on a slab or two, and see what sort of offers you get to assist (it helps if the beers wait until after the repairs are done).
I cut my teeth pulling trailbikes apart, and have slowly evolved into ride-on mowers, HQ etc Holdens, Austin-Healeys (engine & gearbox out and reinstalled with my brother in 3 hours.. after we'd installed it without a clutch plate.. see aforementioned comment about beers), trailers (bearings and lights.. why don't trailer electrics follow Ohm's Law?? ), etc, etc.
In my case, I'm not sure what led to what - whether being interested in mechanical things led to me becoming an engineer, or whether becoming an engineer made me more adventurous in working on cars.
MY08 Passat 2.0 TDI Wagon
Trialling golf ball aerodynamics theory - random pattern, administered about 1550 on Christmas Day, 2011.
Bookmarks