I've had it work out incredibly well. If you look at as a project that you are just getting a wild discount on the aftermarket parts, and it's had a bunch of somebody else's money spent on it, just plan on un-berkleying all the labor and fabrication stuff because people are dumb. Be educated enough to know when to walk away and when to jump on a deal that saves you 10s of thousands of dollars. I actually prefer a car that has been built to the hilt and then neglected enough to make it worthless, that way I steal the thing and can go through the restoration and re-do any fab stuff, routing of plumbing, nut and bolt everything etc. In the process I make it my own and ensure the work is done properly. A while back, I bought a project car that you couldnt duplicate the build for $35, for 6k because it had a blown headgasket (as a result of poorly routed hoses melting), and was tagged with a racial slur. I wetsanded the spraypaint off, buffed it and went through the whole car (stripped it to a shell and rebuilt it and now have a fantastic car for <$10, all because some guy had great taste in cars/ mods, but poor ability to actually build a car, or maintain it properly. Ultimately weather you have a good experience or not is dependent on you and your ability to determine if it's the right car, and your ability to repair and modify the car yourself.
