Lateral-g Forums - New Member- Project "College Budget" 68 Camaro

Hi, I'm new here from Oklahoma. I've been lurking and doing research on this forum for quite a while but didn't join until I picked up a 1968 camaro roller yesterday. This will be the start of what I'm going to call project "College Budget". I guess I should give you a little more background about myself. I grew up around cars because my dad owns a mechanic shop. He just does general maintenance/repairs mostly on farm trucks but I have worked at his shop a couple summers and gained general mechanical knowledge. I have had the itch to get a first gen camaro since I was in high school. My dad's friend has a very original 1969 camaro RS 350 that was always at his shop and I got to drive that car to prom. After driving that car I was thoroughly disappointed with the performance of what I considered my "dream car". That's when I started doing research and was introduced to the pro-touring scene. Although I pay for all of my college by myself, I have still been able to save up somewhat of a "car fund" by working hard over the summers. About a year ago I bought a stock 1998 firebird formula (ls1/auto) for $1700. It had high miles and needed work. After having a total of $4000 into the car after 6 months I traded it (plus $1,000) for a 1998 firebird formula (ls1/t56) prepped for road racing that came with a ton of spare parts. I put about $1,000 into getting that car running/driving right but I sold 1 of the 3 sets of CCW wheels for $1000 to cover that cost. A week ago I sold that car (without the 2 sets of CCWs I had left and some spare brake parts) for about $8,000. So now I have 7-8k in my car fund to start this project. I don't want to say exactly what I paid for the '68 but it was in the 2-4k range. That doesn't leave me with very much money to put into this project right now, but my hope is to have the car running/driving with decent suspension/brakes and LS motor by the end of the year. The roller I bought is very incomplete and is missing a Ton of parts. Unfortunately that's what you get with first gens for 2-4k. I haven't researched the fisher plate/vin yet but the previous owner claimed it was originally an ash gold car, with an aluminum headed big block (L89), and a 4 speed. The car doesn't have much rust but unfortunately had some hack work done on it. Someone that apparently didn't know how to use a tape measure, plasma cutter, grinder, or welder tried to replace the floor pans and mini tub the rear. I will be properly fixing all of that which is going to be the hardest part of this project since I don't know how to weld. The car already has a 9" rear end partially mocked up so I will be keeping that. Other plans include lowering leafs, good shocks, hotchkis front springs, sway bars, C4 hd 13" brakes, 17" wheels, and 5.3L/4l60e. Since I am on such a tight budget I am going to be looking at swap meets/Craigslist like a hawk and trying to find good condition used parts for a price I can afford. Any donations of time/money/parts are greatly appreciated! Also, I am going to start a build thread in the project update section when I have time. I am having trouble uploading pictures (I need to figure out how to resize them), so I will try to get some uploaded later today.