I bought mine out of the blue
I have been struggling with these very issues. I was supposed to build a muscle car when I retired, or so I figured it would go. Then the opportunity arose and I bought my cat (20 years early and I am glad I did). I didn't have a plan for how to pay for the restoration and we all know what happened to the economy. Bye bye overtime. I did the first necessary project on my car and dropped nearly $900 of "family" funds rebuilding the cooling system. Bye Bye good will from my wife. I could see I was going to have to figure something out, or by the time (long time away) it was finished, I would be retired, my wife would hate the car and me a little bit too.
It came with a few boxes of parts I didn't need. I started selling the extra parts on ebay. Those parts alone got me half of the $3000 purchase price. I was shopping ebay everyday for my car, looking for a stock shifter cheap etc. and I would see a good deal. Maybe someone described an item poorly, misidentified it by the wrong year, overestimated shipping driving away bidders, took bad pictures of items that hold up well, etc. I would buy it clean it up, take a decent picture and sell it for more. I bought some lots of Cougar parts off of craigslist because I needed one particular part and sold the rest on ebay. I did this for a while and eventually bought some large lots.
Now my car project is trudging along and picking up steam. I do spend about an hour a day on the computer and shipping etc. Point is, you can make a little coin for your project selling your extra parts, knowing what things are worth and looking for deals on craigslist or at swapmeets when the vendors are packing up. There are a lot of guys here that do it. I know it can seem like a lot of work but I still feel like I am working on my ride albeit indirect work.
I have gone back and forth dreaming about 4 speeds, 9 inch rears, aod transmissions, the new crate boss 302, you name it. But now I guess I feel like you do, I am making a push to get this baby on the road because that is the goal. Craigslist is full of cars that broke their owner slowly, I don't want to be in that sad but real situation. We have all read this one "I have over $25,000 worth of new parts with receipts ready to go on the car but unfortunately, the economy, the divorce, the kids got into college (didn't see that one coming), the mother in law has glaucoma and a $100 a day weed habit" Meanwhile the picture is of a car that couldn't be worth $5k.
And lets face it, these cars were super cool in the base model and they still are today!
I sat down and wrote out a plan. I looked at my original notes and ideas. It was clear they had mushroomed out of control. I made a list with 3 columns. Must, should, want.
What MUST you do to get this car on the road in a way you will be proud to drive it? Fix the cooling problems, mechanical, get decent wheels, paint etc
What SHOULD you do when you can so you don't end up with problems? This is things like wiring while the car is apart, etc. Might not be necessary but nice to do before I button everything up. Who wants to track a power draw or some other electrical gremlins in the lot of the local Dairy Queen.
WANT = can wait! Power windows, transmissions swaps, crate motors, Nasa developed sound deadeners, etc.
Here is the rule, MUST has to be completed/paid for before SHOULD and SHOULD before WANT. I realized the WANT column was friggin paralyzing my project from the neck down. I kept dipping into the WANT list buying those parts first. WANTS don't get you any closer to rolling out.
Who am I, friggin Chip Foose? Barry White? Nope, but this car will still be cool.
This was a tough process but I trimmed or postponed about $12-15k of fat from the project. What is that in time, a year? probably more!
I am not out of the woods yet, but I keep looking at the fine cars here for inspiration and plugging away. It will be a one of a kind muscle car. Maybe not a feat of modern engineering laden with the best money has to offer but it will ride again.