Right, bit of a delayed update. Last week was busy, but Saturday was a good day. Ill detail below how things went with some photos

Old (faulty) lump was removed along with the gearbox, they were separated and the engine put to one side. The gearbox was fully degreaced and cleaned as best as possible with time constraints, i wasnt happy with the result (above right) so additional time was spent painting.

I'm very happy with how this came out to be honest, the paint is just hammerite smooth silver and black from a rattle can. The whole lot was primed first with etch just to help with adhesion.
With the bay being stripped, it was obvious plenty more brackets needed "tarting up". Without the time to get some of them plated, i went about with more smooth black. They have come up great too.

Besides the brackets, my new loom turned up from Juracingparts just in time for the install on Saturday. Ive swapped the connectors and wire tidy's over to the loom following this photo. The old loom was looking quite tatty in places so this was for peace of mind. My Valeo Volvo clutch also saw the light of day after 6 years of being in the boot.

Onto the engine bay. The bay was removed of anything that could be easily removed, the two large clips on the bulkhead that clip the passenger side brake line too and various other bits, i didnt want to damage trying to remove, they were also quite tatty looking so i was happy to paint these in. The rest of the bay that wasnt in bad condition was masked up and protected, annoyingly, i had to get plenty of overspray from the previous owner from various clips, pipes, wires etc which took hours, i now only have one brake line which still has hints of white, i was about to loose the will to live and didnt have the time to waste.
The panels were all scotched back and keyed, the seam sealer that was removed to leave surface rust was all rubbed back, rust treated and then etch primed to the bare metal only. I then applied the seam sealer, before primer and paint. In hindsight i have put the seam sealer on too thin, but its a much better solution knowing the potential rust issue has been resolved. Being the inner drivers side, it can be fairly easily done again (if needed) down the line. This is how it progressed:

Rust treatment applied and all panels scotched.

All panels cleaned down with Panel Wipe before the first layer of primer (forgot to take a photo of just the seam sealer)
Following morning (as the primer was sprayed on at 2am due to the seam sealer going off) a quick photo taken before work of the primer coat.

It took about 5 coats to cover, the photo above is just one coat, which i could hardly tell was going on. The right photo was taken after removal of the protection. The light shows how the original paint in the bay has tarnished, but a t-cut has made it a lot closer...........see below.

I haven't taken photos of the sub frame and bottom arms etc, but all of these have been cleaned and painted black for protection. Just because everything else was looking better, the driveshafts were also painted and the servo which now looks a lot better with a new master cylinder. My Avo shocks are now the only thing looking worn and i'm looking to replace those too. The engine was in around mid morning, the rest of the afternoon was spent bolting bits back on and reassembling the suspension and brakes. The car has had new track rods and ball joints, and my Hi-Spec's are getting new pads.
A total pain in the ass was finding out my rebuilt engine was from a phase 1 car, hence some of the oil pipes and breather pipes etc are slightly different. Pipes mark had plated for me wouldn't fit so the old ones taken out last weekend were quickly prep'd and painted too.

The engine is now in, turbo on, carb on, last night i spent a few hours cleaning all my silicone hoses ready to head scratch about that tonight. Ryan Price has been a great help with the engine removal and educating me. Once i've watched someone do something, i'm quite happy to give it a go myself so i'm really grateful for his help.
We are aiming to start up this weekend and then providing we have no issues i'll be putting it in for MOT!!! get in!
Edit.................yes yes yes the gold tape is not everyones cup of tea! i wasnt happy with holes left in the bulkhead following removal of some brackets. I like it, i'll wait for it to fall off..............