How to get a cool musclecar and NOT spend 50 or 100K.....

I talk to a lot of people who lament how you can't get a decent musclecar for under 50 grand, or that people want $10,000 or more for junk. That's not true-I recently saw on the Internet a nice 1978 400 , 4-speed, WS6 Trans-Am with 44,000 original miles that sold for $17,900!!  I saw a 1973 Mustang Mach 1 with a Q-code 351CJ for $12,000. I saw a 1970 4-speed, SS396 Nova for $25,000. These were all great-looking, numbers-matching cars in great condition, at reasonable prices. There's plenty of deals out there-you just have to look. Anyhow-here's some good advice on how to find your dream car and not have to mortgage your house to fund the project. # 1. A "Basket Case" is not a deal at any price. A car with major body or frame damage, rust issues, or is missing the engine and transmission or the interior is a money pit that you should avoid like the plague. I'll give you a perfect example-a few years ago a friend wanted to build a Firebird or Trans-Am project car. We looked at two cars. One was a T/A that had been a roundy-round race car. It had no engine or trans, and the interior was gutted and had an 8-point roll cage. The guy was selling it for $500. The other one was an Esprit with a 350 / TH350 drivetrain. It was a decent car-it ran good and all it really needed was a paint job, a new vynil top and the front bucket seats recovered. Otherwise it was all there. The asking price was $2,500. I told him to buy that one-that even at 5 times the price-a complete, running car was a much better deal than the engineless, transmissionless,radiatorless,headlightless, taillightless, interiorless hulk. Forget the cover of Hot Rod magazine-By the time he chased down even a junkyard engine & tranny, all the accessories and all the interior parts, lights, trim pieces, etc to get it in at least street-legal, drivable condition-which the other one already was-he'd have WAY more than $2,500 invested-and the car would still need a lot of work. 99% of the time when your looking at a basket case-your just better off both financially and in terms of less grief-by just spending more money and getting a better car to start with.  # 2. A rare or special car missing key components is not a deal at any price. Obvious examples would be any Chrysler Hemi vehicle missing the Hemi engine, A Boss 302 or 429 Mustang missing the "Boss" engine, a fuel-injected '57 'Vette missing the  fuel-injection system / engine-even if you had an unlimited bankroll-the cost of finding a replacement original engine would be so prohibitive that you'd probably be better off just looking for another, finished car. Right now your going-"Well duh, everyone knows that"-because those are such obvious examples. But people attempt it on less-obvious stuff and get bogged down. They either can't find what they need or can't afford it and usually end up abandoning the project unfinished and selling it for a huge loss. Think about it-where are you going to find a complete, numbers-matching W30 455 or W31 350 Olds engine for any price? Or a 421 SD Pontiac?  Scoff if you want-"Well those are pretty much moon rocks too" "I know better than that." Really-do you think it's going to be either cheap or easy to find a K-Code, solid-lifter 271 Hp 289 and a Top-Loader 4-speed with 1965 date codes for that Mustang GT, or a 327 V8 and a Powerglide or T10 with 1962 or '63 date codes for that "engineless & transmissionless" Mustang or Impala SS that you "Stole?"  Sure you can go the junkyard 302 / C4 or 350 / TH350 route-but then it's not worth nearly as much when your done is it?  # 3. A friend of mine used to say "A rare turd is still a turd." Truer words were never spoken. Two-speed automatics, 3-speed sticks,column-shifted bucket seat cars, floor shift bench seat cars, two-barrel step-down engines, radio and heater-delete cars,cars with no power steering or power brakes etc, aren't valuable or collectible, their just weird. And just because the idiot that's selling it thinks it's worth major bucks, doesn't mean it's worth squat. In 1967-68 some GM marketing genius thought that by replacing the standard 350 hp 400 4bbl engines in the Olds 442 and Pontiac GTO with a 265 hp 2bbl version and calling them "Turnpike Specials" would really sell. The public was not amused. Their not worth anything today other than the fact that you may find a nicely preserved GTO or 442 body. But does anybody really want a GTO or 442 that can't outrun a Honda Accord from a light?  In early 1980 Chevrolet had trouble certifying the L48 and L82 350 engines for California. For a short time the only engine available in a Corvette in the sunshine state that year was a 305 that wheezed out 145 hp backed by a TH350!! No manual trans was offered either!!  Customers and the Buff mags howled to the high heavens about the great disturbance in the Force-and GM quickly responded certifying the L48 with a 4-speed or a TH350 and the L82 with the TH350 only-and order was restored. However-every once in a while on the Internet or in Hemmings I see some moron advertising an "Ultra-Rare" 1980 305 'Vette for a ridiculous price-and he's genuinely shocked when he gets no offers. # 4. Nothing with a Salvage title is a deal. That means at some point, some insurance company totalled the car, and some idiot thought he was getting a deal buying this wrecked car from a junkyard and rebuilding it. They almost never have a numbers-matching powertrain, they usually have problems like rust issues, or water or fire damage, or major electrical gremlins etc. 99% of the time their more trouble than their worth. And even if a first-class rebuild was done-their still not worth as much at resale time because everyone knows that a salvage title means it was totalled at some point in it's lifetime-and that scares away 99% of potential buyers. # 5. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it." Here's where most people screw themselves. They replace every nut and bolt on the car whether it needs it or not. This drives your restoration cost WAY up and you rarely recoup the money at resale time. I'm not talking about bodywork or paint or rebuilding the engine. I'm talking about replacing things that don't need to be replaced. I know a guy who was restoring a Road Runner that did this. He replaced the radiator even though the car ran fine and didn't overheat, and the radiator wasn't leaking. He replaced the power steering pump even though the one on the car worked perfectly,didn't make any noise and wasn't leaking. He replaced the alternator and starter even though the car started perfectly and the battery was always charged. Even though the car stopped perfectly fine and the condition of the pads and shoes were good, and it had good pedal and no vacuum or fluid leaks, he replaced the calipers, rotors,pads, drums, shoes, hardware, wheel cylinders, and master cylinder and booster. Why??  When he was done he had almost 40 grand in the car and had almost a brand-new old car-but when he had to sell it a few years later he got less than 25K for it. If he hadn't replaced every nut and bolt whether it needed it or not-he probably would have broke even or maybe made a few bucks instead of taking a $15,000 bath. Hope these tips help save somebody from making a big mistake. Mastermind