Sounds like it's in about the same shape that my
1956 karmann ghia was in. These can be the most frustrating types of projects to take on because it can be hard to tell if you have everything.
I've restored a few cars, and while it can be rewarding, it can also be frustrating.
There are some things that you need to make sure you will have available before you commit.
- time - lots of it
- space - a dismembered car takes up 4x the room of an assembled one
- money - lots of it. While the aquisition price of the project is fundamentally irrelevant in the Big Picture, most sellers want to price-in the value of the finished product.
Using my '56 ghia as an example
- I paid $1800 for a shell with a lot of parts in boxes
- new interior is $2500
- my chrome bill will be north of $2k
- all new seals and knick-nacks were around $1k.
- Paint & body materials (finish paint, primer, sandpaper, body filler, etc) were over $1500.
- I'm doing all the work myself, with the exception of stitching together the interior bits.
- I've spent over $2k on various bits that were incorrect or outright missing
- the car came with some extra parts, which I've sold for a grandiose sum of ~$50.
- I still need to get odds and ends like tires ($500)
- I still need to go through the motor ($500-$1k)
- Misc running gear like brakes, clutch, muffler, etc has run ~$1500
- I have probably 300 hours into the car since May, and I'm single with no kids.
- The misc parts removed from the car currently consume 8 of those stackable storage bins - and that's just the stuff that actually fits in the bins. Some of the other parts are stashed in my double cab pickup.