I will offer an alternate opinion from Tech, Dave and Kenny. In as much as they are all well skilled and experienced, their position of wanting to start fresh is understandable. You on the other hand have said that you do not have a lot of skills (yet).

Looking at the pictures it is hard to tell if it is primer or that is intended as the finished product. There are a lot of people who are leaving them that way right now.

If you really like the car, find a good pro who does custom body work and fabrication. Pay him an hours labor to thoroughly go over the car and evaluate the work that has been done and point out what else would need to be done. You should be able to do that for $75-100. That is cheap compared finding out bad news later.

Buying a partially complete project can sometimes be a less expensive way to get into a hot rod. We all know that you seldom will be able to recover the cost of parts and labor that we invest in our cars. I think the key is not going in blind and understanding what is left to be done.

As you consider this, please take the signature phrase under my name into consideration! Good luck!

Pat