[DangerMan]

I think we have to remember the starting points here.

This was a set that would most likely have been raided for a few bits and scrapped. The actual outcome is a set that preserves the work of its creators as well as possible without the inevitable continuing decline had the rust not been treated and the excellent restoration carried out.
Much the same for Hugo's HMV of which we have both before and after photographs, and his Andrea.

I have to register an interest here as I restored a Murphy SAD94L which had been a home to mice for many years, and had a chassis which was half red-rusty and half intact. In fact it was scrap.
The rust removal and subsequent re-spray removed all the old ink stamps and all traces of Murphy workers' personal involvement but now the set still exists many years later.
Yes, I could have scrapped it or found another chassis but then even less of the original would exist, as I still sought to keep as much as I could of the actual original, despite it being easier not to do so.

Had I cleaned it up and "got it working" it would be impossible or even gone beyond hope by now. The only comment it has elicited from those that that have seen it was that I'd painted the chassis the wrong colour... although I actually had it matched with the surviving original paint - which wasn't actually any shade of blue.

We do what we do and what we think best to the best of our individual abilities, and if it gives personal satisfaction and pride while saving stuff from oblivion by putting it back whole, why not?

It's our hobby, after all.

So why did I spend so much time on a run of the mill set?... because I wanted to.

Pete