Thanks Nick. Beginning to get a feel for the market now. Good cars with proven history and details of work are 'real money' in the thousands.
Everything else is a 'project' where I start assuming the engine might be ruined so worth hundreds of pounds. Basically the price of the car broken for parts.
Seen the same happen to Alfa 166 in the past, which is not pleasant. Wish I had kept my 3.0 V6 manual car but hey ho.