Tech, I usually figure out what I want first then find a car that will go with my thoughts, On my camaro I spent 2 years figuring out what I wanted, finished the whole car in 6 months. But that was also with being able to work on it at least 4 hours a day more on the weekends and being able to bring it up to school when I was taking auto mech in high school. That really helped me get it done fast. All the others were pretty much complete when I started working on them.
I guess 4 months for advancement is a little hard to achieve when the car is this old and hasn't seen the road in 36 years and no ones worked on it in 15yrs.
Now that I talk more about this the better I feel about what I have actually gotten done so far.