Great progress and great history GT!
I just re-read your account of collecting your car... and the demise of your car's engine cover.
I had my car imported from the US and when it arrived at Southampton docks the engine cover was totally smashed to pieces and had been bodge-taped in place... I too was similarly gutted: it had survived all those years, then ends up torn to pieces!
Funnily enough, this got me thinking and I checked the photograph sent to me of the car as it was collected on a low loader to be taken to the docks in the US.
Yep! it was pulled up backwards with the engine cover facing the wind!
Until now I had thought that somebody had been tearing away at the panel and broke it, now I am convinced that my car was also a victim of being towed backwards!
Mark