Sounds unfortunate, but like some good progress; at least you know where you stand and have a plan. Can get yourself an awesome engine now, and do a rock solid build. So long as you love what it comes out as in the end it doesn't matter.

A project car always costs a heap more than you paid.

I paid around 10,000 pounds for my Supra. I spent around 10,000 pounds on it. Then I sold it for 10,000 pounds.

Sigh. Bloody cars!

I've given up on project cars. Prefer just to take the massive hit of depreciation these days. Bought my wife an A250 4matic a few months ago. It's quite a lot of fun for what it is and it has shiny wheels.

I'm still driving the same pile of crap Cruze I have been for 7 years. At least it's a manual and I got a discount via my brother who worked at Holden. It's practically worthless now which is really sad since I've only JUST hit 25,000km in it in 7 years (15,000 miles).

I can't justify replacing it.