Yeah if this was remotely local it would already be at my shop and I'd be working on making it run, drive, stop and a good clean up to make it more appealing to properly rehome it.
good on you chief. admirable skill and willingness to take it on.
I admit I could be (likely am) a product of my age. thirty years ago, this polara would be standing tall in about two years. I would have done it and 4-5 other cars at the same time. We'd be working a TEN cars, with five good ones at the end, 30 years ago.
Hindsight? I would have preferred to have put some of that money in my IRA.
But something to consider. Dunno everyone's circumstances, but even the cohort I am STILL running with 30 years later are ALSO "old men" and friends too.
Working on this old stuff - mechanicals, interiors, sheet metal - they have 50 years of that experience, 30 years with me. BUT, THEY don't wanna do all that work. And, no matter WHAT i pay them, some stuff they WONT do for me .. they think its stupid.
Crazy old men like me? Maybe, yeah. Wisdom of the years? Certainly.
Their apprentices? Useful as teets on a bull. Nice guys/gals but stay the f*** away from my car. No skill, no interest in learning it seems. Not all, but some of them. Cant plug it in and get a digital readout? They are otherwise lost.
Moral of that story? I
will not take on a giant project anymore. my GUYS won't do it either. While I too see interest in our beloved C's to be "higher" since a decade ago, the group of people WORKING on them does NOT appear to be getting bigger.
In fact the opposite (anecdotally). AND, iF one has NO skill like me, it wont only be electrics/emissions potentially putting the hobby on the sidelines. Qualified and interested craftspeople has slowed the work I want to do, let alone stuff in the queue i WANT to finish.
I do/did it ALL cuz I like them, wanna drive them, wanna look at em, don't care as much about resale (although OLD people should keep that in mind when they are YOUNG people).
