I went for the fixer - upper / investment option. I figure that by the time I have $40,000 invested in the Princess, she will be worth $40,000

The only piece of good advice I have not seen posted is the observation that the sale price of any restored car is about the same whether it has been repaired cheaply or expensively. Someone who has taken the time to restore / repair a classic collectable correctly is likely to document it. Lots of good advice - I think all the points have been discussed.

While we are on the subject, I'll use this thread to let you guys know that Princess 27 is about to move to long term storage in Sarasota from her first rest stop in Tampa. I have collected all the sheet metal I need except a driver's fender.

Nathan I like what everyone here has said so far I think everyone has this dilemna . As you know I had the 73 240z that was shell wise a great car(except the battery tray). However it just sat there and became nothing good looking back I could really have done a good job welding it and had I known my mate Costa then it would have been completed more or less by now. Not to mention she had nearly all the original bits infact I will be trying to buy her back soon enough .

I think you should go with what your budget permits. I bought my current 72 because in order for me to get a $2000 pile of junk into the state mine is in already i would have been at alot more money than I am now. Having said that I'll still be pulling it down and spraying it and cleaning and polishing and replacing and etc. etc. etc.

However I plan to have a full time job and I think my future budget will support it much easier. I think if you could find a Z similar to mine you would do the same am I right?

The thing is your not going to buy a turn key car and not have to do anything to it for under 12k maybe even higher. There is always something, and just tonight I took great satisfaction in blowing away an Rx7 series 3 pretty sure it was turbo . The best part was knowing I had got her to run that well and hard myself .

The hardest part of a project is getting started and staying motivated along the way. If you can get into it you'll have it done quickly otherwise it could take years!

and years....especially if you change base cars half way