Whats affordable now a days ?

Depends on your locality. I can get pretty decent 2 wheel drive mid eighties dodge trucks for less than $2000, with a little ingenuity, they can make fun projects.

Thats a huge part of my issue. in good old rusty CT nothing is cheap. I've even been looking at Fox body Mustangs and nearly choked when I saw people asking 7K for a steaming pile of junk.