First project buy - can someone help me with some advice and/or opinions?

Yeah, I'd pass. If I paid $4k for a car here in California I'd expect to be able to drive it to Canada without any issues. :-D

I know that north of the border things are harder to find, but $4k will buy you a pretty nice A-body here in California. I paid about $1500 for the butterscotch GT in my signature. While it ended up needing an engine rebuild, it has ZERO, and I mean absolutely no rust whatsoever. And came with a fender tag, build sheet, numbers matching drivetrain, the whole deal.