Well, on the stuff I bought, I did my brakes, too, and bought the vacuum pump to bleed and drain them-I had the epoxy from this "radiator pre-failure repair kit" I bought from a guy on eBay (this is a copper pipe you mount inside the radiator neck with epoxy so that it is stronger and doesn't break catastrophically when you are driving - can very badly overheat the engine even if you stop right away). Overpriced, but still possibly worth it. I went nuts and bought the tool and enough diaphragms to do all my vacuum actuators, which ran about $60. I've invested quite a bit in tools recently (I had my tools stolen some time ago and figured that I'd never be working on cars again at my age), but, between doing the brakes, shocks,tuneup, all fluids+filters, (best filters,plugs,cap, rotor, wires, brake rotors, pads, rebuilt calipers (3), and new brake fluid) - I'm still incredibly money ahead, and I now have the knowledge and the tools that I need to fix other things as they come along. I plan on owning this car for a long (>10 years) time. I guess it depends on what you think that you can do, and how much you value your free time vs how much money you make. I'm a high tech worker who actually still has a job; I could have afforded to pay someone else to do this stuff, but it KILLS me to pay someone to do something I can do myself, even if isn't the best use of my time. This may be a character flaw, or it could be that I am a cheap a**.

BTW, this car SEEMED like a "creampuff" when I bought it...God!!!