Vintage Guitar Gear - To update or to leave ft. Watkins Rapier & Dallas Scala

When I was younger I inherited my granddad's electric guitar and amplifier - a Watkins Rapier guitar and a Dallas 6 watt combo. Both the guitar and the amp look great - the guitar is finished in scarlet red, with a black pick guard which just about has the remnants of gold script writing on it, three mini humbucker shaped pickups (I'm not sure if they are actually humbuckers or not) and an interesting pickup selection method. The amp is housed in a mottled grey casing which angles the speaker slightly upwards. The front frame of the amp is a turquoise-blue colour, and the grill cloth is again a mottled grey colour. Whilst they look great, neither the guitar or the amplifier work very well, however I do not know whether to get both repaired (which might involve replacing parts which are original), to leave them both as they are and not use them, or to upgrade them with new, modern pickups, new pots and new wiring.

The guitar has on/off switches for the bridge and neck pickups, allowing the standard two-pickup type guitar combinations with the extra both-off position. There is then a separate on/off switch for the middle pickup. There is also three control pots although these are very temperamental. Unfortunately the high E string is very close to the edge of the neck, meaning that whilst fretting a note on this string it is likely you will slip off the edge of the fretboard. The tuning pegs vary from being very stiff to very loose, and the pickups themselves rattle around a bit in the body. In use, the tuning would rarely return to correct pitch after using the tremolo bar, so I have since blocked it off using a piece of wood.

I doubt this guitar could be brought up to a playable standard using 100% the original parts. The nut seems to be the reason why you tend to slip off the fretboard, so would almost certainly need replacing. The wiring would need to be repaired and the pots cleaned or replaced, and the tuning pegs looked at, but after all these repairs would it be playable and would the quality be good?

Being a gigging guitarist rather than a guitar collector, I'd love to be able to play this guitar live, but to do that it would need some serious work. Starting at the top, I'd get the tuning pegs replaced with something a lot more stable like a set go Gotohs, maybe even locking ones. I'd definitely get the nut replaced and the guitar refretted, maybe get the fingerboard edges rolled but that's just personal preference. I'd replace the pickups with a set of mini humbuckers like the Seymour Duncan Antiquity Firebird set or the vintage mini humbuckers, although I'd have to measure the cavities to ensure they'd fit. I'm almost certain all the wiring would need replacing, with switches and pots being cleaned and replaced if needed. I'd also like to replace the bridge with something more stable and probably no vibrato.

All these improvements and modifications could turn the guitar into one which would be gigable, however there would be little of the original guitar left. The other option is keeping it as original as possible and maybe not use it as much. It's a difficult dilemma, and one I don't yet know the answer to!

Have you ever upgraded an old guitar? Do you think I should spec this one out with new parts or try and get it repaired? Let me know in the comments and on social media.