More advice for first-time restorers......

Everyone wants something cool and unique, but often in this pursuit we get sidetracked and allow emotion to over-rule common sense. When restoring a classic car this can be a disaster, both emotionally and financially. Here's some more good advice to keep people from making costly mistakes.  A rare or special car missing major components is not a deal at any price. Obvious examples would be a Hemi powered Chrysler vehicle without the Hemi engine or a Boss 302 or 429 Mustang sans the "Boss" engine. You find an engineless Road Runner or Charger and check the VIN and discover it was originally a Hemi car. OK-now what do you do? You could slap a Mopar Perfromance 426 crate Hemi into it, but they cost 15 grand, just for the engine. You'd still have to chase down all the accessories-alternator,water pump,power steering pump, fuel pump, exhaust manifolds or headers, all the brackets. And after that-the car's still not numbers-matching, which will decrease it's resale value. You could try to chase down a date-correct Hemi engine-but good luck with that. Even if you can find a running or at least rebuildable 426 Hemi with 1968 or whatever year you need date codes-the seller is going to want blood and a first-born child for it. By the time it's in the car and running you'll have more in it than you would if you went the new crate Hemi route. Sure now, if you sell the car you can say the motor is "Correct" but that's still not numbers-matching. And do you want to invest 50 grand+ and countless man hours building this car just so you can sell it and make a small profit? I say small because someone may be willing to pay 60K for a non-numbers-matching Hemi Challenger or whatever, but their not going to pay 100K+ like "Real" Hemi cars bring. The same goes for the Boss Mustangs. Pristine Boss 302s usually bring around 80K. Sure you can build a "Mock Boss" 302 engine with Edelbrock or Trick Flow heads and Intake, but it's still not the real deal. As for a Boss 429, with only 1359 ever built you'll never, ever find a Boss-Nine motor for sale at any price. I saw a '70 Mustang on the internet that someone had stuffed a Jon Kaase built 600 inch Boss Nine into. The ad said the car dyno'd at 912 hp and 826 lbs ft of torque. I believe it. Especially since they admitted that the engine alone cost 36K!!  These are obvious "DUH!" examples but I hope they drive the point home for other stuff. For example a fuel-injected '57 Bonneville or Corvette without the fuel-injection system is not a bargain. A Thunderbolt Fairlane without the side-oiler 427 is not a deal. Those too, bring the "DUH!" response. Ok, let's say you find an engineless '67 Plymouth GTX-not a Hemi, or a '67 Impala SS. Where are you going to find a 440 Mopar or 427 Chevy with 1967 date codes? If your not trying to sell it for a zillion dollars and you just want to drive it, and maybe race it at classic drag events, sure you could grab a 440 out of a '74 Imperial or '78 Sport Fury or a 454 out of an '80's truck and build a badass engine that looks correct. I'm saying you'll play hell finding a Chevy or Mopar engine that was plentiful back in the day. What if your trying to find a 390 AMC for an AMX?  You might get a 360 out of an '80's Grand Waggoneer and have the look-but actually finding a 390?  Good luck. Or a 428 CJ Ford for that engineless Fairlane or Cougar Eliminator that's "such" a deal?  Again-390 Fords are plentiful and look the same-but 428's are scarce. See the point I'm making?  So think hard before you lay out hard-earned cash for some screaming "deal" that's missing a major component. Mastermind