Is it possible that all the affordable project cars are now taken?

part of the problem is that everybody is concerned with ROI and a lot have a "what's it worth when i'm done" attitude.

that's where you get bread & butter 4-dr slant cars listed up at 12~15K. some dill hole bought a clean straight 66 val 4dr slant for a reasonable amount (say 3K), threw brakes, tires and a battery at it (2K), did a tune up and maybe some other BS for a G, and put exhaust on it for another 1K, so now they're 7K into a car that runs and drives pretty good and looks alright.

they're over it and wanna sell, figure they gotta make a profit. so it goes up at 10~12K
or they run the comps and can't discern the difference of a well sorted 66 val 2dr 360 w 8.75 and BBP discs at 19K being miles away from their wheezy clapped out /6 with a slip n slide juice box trans and 9" drums that you'd be scared to take out of town; but they price it at 15K

gone are the days of 1K drivers. there's still decent projects out there, it's just now they're in the upper price range: 10K for a car that's got the mechanicals sorted but needs paint and body and interior, or 15K for 68 dart that's ready for paint and everything else is done, but in exploded view.