I would scrap it but as the garage owner said - you could buy another car and pay £2k to get it through the MoT..

That's also my attitude; better the devil I know, as long as it isn't suffering from creeping rust. When first semi-retired I used to restore classic MG's but it was chasing crumbling chassis and bodywork that made me pack up. At least mechanical repairs are mostly finite insofar that once they're fixed they're fixed.