For the potential purchaser though and regardless of the story of the car, at least the work being carried out at AV Engineering will have been carried out well. For the 360 model in particular you'll struggle to find a more capable workshop. I would absolutely take the opportunity to have a chat with Aldous.
I probably wasn’t too clear but the proof of significant work by AV was a massive positive to me. The history after (engine swap / rebuild) put me off entirely though!
AV have been incredibly generous with their time to me as I’ve been looking and learning, including letting me poke around their workshop for an afternoon last summer. Hugely grateful to them.
The whole story makes no sense to me, if you loved the engine in the Modena enough and can live with big bills, why not do the same work to the spider rather than devaluing both with an engine swap. My experience to date has been that if something smells odd, you should move on. That includes being told by a car dealer who is at the centre of a debate on pistonheads about a ropey Ferrari FF, that I’d misunderstood when his sales agent told me I couldn’t get the car inspected. I hadn’t misunderstood, one of them wasn’t telling the truth and I walked away. Ferrari buying seems rife with peril!!