Who were the garage save others the heartache.
As for box was there not a prob with the 5 speed classic boxes whereby the nut on the end of the shaft with fith and reverse on coming losse and and so unaligning the gears causing a jam.
Think Arch knows bout this if hes on here still
Either way that box has to come out.
i had bad experience from ace tyres took chunks out sidewall on my landrover tyres when changing over tyres to new wheels,
place seemed a carry on ill never go back or tell anyone to go there.
that seems a hell of a bill for doing the head gaskets, there are loads of threads on Snet bout hawkeye HG going and the guys were paying around 800-900 for the job maybe get a second quote from another garage.