[jyl]

You should always try to buy a minty original, or failing that, the car someone else has restored.

Restoring a car yourself hardly ever makes economic sense, unless it is a genuinely valuable car. May make sentimental sense, or maybe you just plain like restoring cars. But not economic sense.

Supposing this car needs minor rust repair, full prep and paint, some interior, general mechanical freshening, no major mechanical components - basically a best-case scenario - you could be looking at $5K I would think. Plus your time, considering your profession it is worth quite a lot, anyway wouldn't you rather be driving than scraping rust?

What would $4K + $5K = $9K get you? I'd think it would get you a beautiful cherry 914 that someone else has dumped $12K into.

If this was a car potentially worth $50K or $100K when restored, that might be different. But it is a 914 and they made bazillions of them.