If you paint the engine and tidy up the wires a bit, it will look one hundred times better. Just a suggestion.
Yup, these jobs are on the cards :) I've not chosen a route for the engine yet but probably a swap for an uprated A-Series, which I absolutely intend to paint. As for the wiring- the fusebox and all the fuses behind the air cleaner are destined to be moved inside the car to one larger box.