[mrennie]

CAN you do it? It depends on how persistent you are, what kind of results you are expecting, and if you have the $$$ and time to actually get it back together after you start cutting.

SHOULD you do it? That is a really tough question only you can answer. If you lose interest quick when things go wrong, then this is not a good project for you. Based on the pictures, I predict there will be much more metal work than you expect once you start stripping to bare metal.

Your welder will be fine for body panels, that is one plus.

Financially, it will probably not make sense to farm all the work out, so I think you need to decide what level of restoration you want and either pass (and drive it as-is or sell it), or sink the $ into it and do some or most of it yourself.

If you want do it yourself and enjoy learning new skills (and have the aptitude to learn from reading or watching videos), you may surprise yourself. Expect to spend twice what you think it will cost and take twice as long to get it completed, as there are so many unexpected problems that pop up with rusty cars.

Are you still working or retired? This will make a HUGE difference on how long this could take. If you are able to spend 20-30 hours a week on the project, you could have the metal work done in a few months. If you are only able to work on weekends, this will slow things down considerably and will result in lots of lost time getting back to where you were when you pick up where you left off.

I am a hobbiest with no formal body work or paint training. My day job was a telecom tech and now management. I have a mechanical aptitude but am very fortunate to be able to see something being done or read how to do something and then go try it and make it work out the majority of the time. I had never touched a paint gun before and my welding experience was "hobbiest average", based on one semester of Grade 10 welding class. Over years of working on this car I have learnt how to successfully butt weld panels, use a hammer and dolly, block sand, handle a paint gun, cut and buff, etc. This required hundreds and hundreds of hours of reading & watching videos to get a grasp on how to do things, and even then I made a TON of very costly mistakes and spent $$$ to get to this point. Which is all to say, a hobbiest can pull this off with the right tools, time, money, and mindset.

One thing for sure, it is MUCH easier to take it apart than it is to put back together. It takes serious perseverance and stubbornness to keep going when things go wrong or are worse than expected.