Originally Posted by leperboy

I agree. I learned this with a Ford Falcon and my Galaxie. Paint, body work, rust will eat up a budget way faster than mechanical problems, especially on domestics where replacement mechanical parts are dirt cheap. If you need to paint, though, and take it down to metal and find massive amounts of bondo, fiberglass and rivets holding the body together, get rid of it fast.

I paid about $10k for paint, chrome and rubber on my Galaxie - it was rust-free. $850 for the car and about $2.5k for a blueprinted, rebuilt engine installed. My Falcon's frame was crumbling with rust and the fenders were bubbling over bad bondo work, so I dumped it before I sunk any real money in.

Rust in the suspension and frame, or corroding everything also scare the crap out of me from a cost and complexity perspective.

Of course, my 86.5 will get painted in the next couple of years...

Matt