Your basic 'God Damn it'

[agaidos at got.net]

 I sent my wife's '91 200q 20vt to a local shop to fix the ignition switch and
parking brake. I could fix this stuff myself but I've got enough on my plate.
So the guy calls me and tells me he would have a very difficult time with the
parking brake because the adjuster is rusted beyond repair as are the cables.
Furthermore, to replace these things requires dropping the exhaust and 
(finishing the sentence for him) it is too rusty to remove.
 Knowing after the fact of buying it that it is from New York none of this 
surprised me in the least. From there he recommended, after finding a 
suspension mounting point corroded to the point of near failure he spend an 
hour writing up a safety inspection.
 I am good with all this because having been under the car I know the basic God 
Damn it he is alluding to. What we haven't determind is the car worth fixing at 
all. For all intents and purposes it is a beautiful looking car inside and out. 
It runs well and is a pleasure to drive. It's just every frickin' piece of 
exposed metal under the car is rusted shit.
 This is a shop I haven't taken any of my cars there before. However, they have 
a great rep and the mechanics are certified Audi wrenches. It should prove 
interesting to see there list of recommendations and try to prioritize the 
things to fix and the shop owner has not written the car off. He still thinks 
with replacing stuff it can still be a long term car.
 Forgive me for this thought but I'm thinking it's time to do that 20vt 
conversion on my 90q20v and buying the old wifey something else.
 Any thoughts from those east coaster that deal with this stuff as a fact of 
life?
Anton