Oh, man! When I first bought my car, it was pretty much a SHELL!! It didn't even have a steering wheel (Someone had a pair of visegrips locked down on the steering shaft so you could turn the wheels of the car as you pushed it where you wanted when moving it from spot to spot). No engine, no tranny, no interior and the wiring in the dash looked like a rats nest (Actually did find a rats nest in the car with baby rats included). My dad just shook his head as I had it towed into the driveway. lol... I "Half @55ed" did the interior and bodywork enough to make it driveable, took out a running 455 I had in another car and was lowering the engine in when the chain snapped! Dropped the 455 on the front of the car and busted the back of the block.
This was the first year I had my car by the way. I searched all over the place locally for another 455 with no luck, but did find an old 72' Catalina with a virgin 400, so I bought the car for $100 cash, yanked the engine and tranny and gave the body away. I guess I spent another year or two buying parts to build the engine. I took the engine to a local "Builder" to have it assembled. I fired it up, broke in the cam and it ate every bearing in the engine after about 30 minutes of run time (Still never drove it, just watched it sit there in the driveway and destroy itself).
About another year or so later I built it myself and it stayed together this time. I think it was about 3-4 years total from the time I bought the car before I FINALLY got to drive it for the first time (Then I figured out the brakes needed fixed)
