Funny how relevant this thread is. I'm in a similar boat, and I'm sure all of us 3rd gen owners have these conversations with ourselves dealing with 20+ year old vehicles. I love mine, it does everything I want it to without costing me a car payment, so its a pretty simple decision.

State inspection time, the guys at the garage are being especially picky this year it seems, but oh well. I knew most of these were on the horizon, thought I'd skate through another year. Tie rods, leaking rear axle seal, brakes, leaking valve cover gaskets, and now a starter that is recently acting up. They want $2000+ to fix it all.

I'll do some myself, use it as a chance to do a few other things I've been putting off, mainly LBJ's. So throw in LBJ's and UBJ's, all inner and outer tie rods, a starter rebuild kit - do half the work myself and let the shop handle a few things for time sake. I'll still cost run me between $1200 and $1500 but well worth it.