I understand you may not have the tools and experience...
My main problem with most of the jobs you are telling me to do is that I'm lacking the tools, knowhow, and confidence to do them. Especially the timing belt since that is super critical and I've never even attempted to change one. I'm sure all of that would be good to have done but I'm simply too terrified of making things worse than they are to try myself... not that it isn't tempting since I'm always trying to expand my skill set... hell since I'm definitely not going to make Autocross next week I might just try and tow it to a mechanic if I fail... this car is turning into way more of a project than I was hoping it would be when I bought it.
that you would like to have. But to check the valve clearance requires a feeler gauge and a 10mm socket or wrench, and that's about it. Lots of people on this forum could walk you through it, or even better, find someone in your area willing to come over and walk you through it. Like someone else posted, there's only one way to get the confidence to tackle the larger jobs, and that's to build it by doing smaller jobs.
Checking the valve clearance is a small and fairly easy job. The basic steps are this:
1. Mark and remove any hoses or wires that will be in the way of removing the valve cover (the plate with the oil cap on it held down by 10mm bolts at it's perimiter). As I recall you have to disconnect the throttle linkage and maybe some vacuum hoses and some ground wires.
2. Remove the 10mm bolts holding the valve cover down, and remove the valve cover.
3. The camshaft will now be exposed. Below it are these barrel shaped things about 1.5 inches in diameter. On top of the barrels, in between the cam and the barrel, are the valve adjusting shims. They are kind of shaped like silver dollars.
4. Find a valve lobe where the "nose" of the cam is pointing up. This means the valve is closed because it is not being pushed open by the nose. Slide bigger and bigger feeler gauges in one at a time until you can't get one to slide in. Now you know how big the clearance is. Record it, along with the number of the valve (assign them 1 thru 8, doesn't matter which end you assign as 1).
5. Some of the valves will be on the nose of the cam and open, so you have to rotate the engine several times to get the nose off so you can check that valve. This can be done one of several ways. 1) use a large socket and breaker bar to rotate the engine at the crank pulley. Make sure you turn it clockwise. 2) Tap the starter with the coil disconnected so it won't start. This is kind of imprecise and may take a lot of tries. 3) With the car on level ground, put it in 5th and push the car with the e-brake off.
6. When you have measured all the clearances, compare them to the stated specifications (there are "hot" and "cold" measurements, I find it easier to do the "cold" so you don't burn yourself). If any are too tight (doubtful) or too loose, then you will have to remove that shim, measure it, add in the required amount of clearance, and find a new shim that fits. Lots of people around here have collections of the things and will trade.
Now, if you find you need to change some of them, then it gets to be a little bigger of a job, but not much. We'll cross that bridge when you get there.
Pete