limiting factor

[hawkeye]

other than a solid body, what parts do you need to get with a car so it can be rebuilt at a reasonable cost.  not a numbers or show car.  i'm thinking that there may some parts that are unavailable or too costly to make a rebuild possible on a budget. thanks

[Budnicks]

Running engine, good trans, good rear axle/diff, #'s matching would be nice, but not a necessity, you can get the project cheaper if it's not #'s matching & trying to save money, having good/decent brakes, good/decent interior, good/decent rubber, decent paint/body, decent wiring/electronics, also having those parts doesn't hurt, even if not assembled or running... You could do a piece of the project at a time, if your not into all out restorations, especially if you start with a decent body, all the little stuff, really can add up though, get as much of the parts as you can with the purchase, especially trim pieces...

[six-tee-nine]

Depends on what you call a budget in the first place.

A rolling shell with no engine but complete for the rest would be ok.... however if it was stripped 30 years ago the everythin else on the car will need attention. the brakes need a rebuilt, wiring wil be shot and so on and so on.
What makes it expensive on these cars is the little stuff like the grill the chrome parts and the small interor stuff.

I personally bought a rolling shell as a full project. The car was stripped and then dropped in a field for like +20years, But i would not feel safe in that car if I dropped an engine/gearbox and a driver seat in it. Almost everything on that car is gone just because it sat so long.

And another thing..... "complete rebuild from a shell" and "budget" cant be found in the same scentence in the real world. If you wnat a driver on a budget then search for a beat up scratched up base car with ugly seat covers and go from there.

[Mike DC]

The list of gold-plated parts for these cars is not all that long.  The problem is that practically every ounce of the car is getting to be at least bronze-plated.  

The only stuff that is still cheap is the stuff that can be pulled from a RWD 1980s Chrysler product in the junkyard.  This covers some smallblock drivetrain parts, but absolutely nothing on the body or interior of a muscle-era car.

[Scaregrabber]

For me the powertrain absolutely does not matter. I have enough of that stuff laying around that it isn't a problem. What is a problem and costs huge $$$ is stuff like grilles, instrument clusters, upper door pads and the like.

Sheldon