My first question would be, "What are your skill levels when it comes to mechanical, metal work, and welding?" Then, I would ask, "How bad do you want this and how far are you willing to go (time, patience, and money) toward restoring this particular car?" And finally, "How well adapted is your facility toward doing the work you need to do (as in, do you have the right tools, can you get them, do you have enough room, etc.?)?"
If you have decent or better skills, this won't be too difficult to tackle. If this is the car you simply must have, then you'll need lots of all three: time, patience, and money. If you have a good place to work with access to the tools you need, you can do this.
But first - and foremost - you need to find out what you have. Again, if that is all just surface rust, once you eliminate it, you can go forward to putting the car back together. If it's more than just surface rust, you might need to weigh your options and start looking at the car as a parts donor and maybe look around for a better specimen to restore.
Yes, mine also was a disaster from the get-go... possibly even one of the biggest disasters ever seen to date. When I started out, I honestly had no idea what I was in for... but I had lots of time, lots of patience, and I knew I would be spending a big chunk of change to see it through. I also had lots of determination, since I had so many haters telling me I couldn't do it - that can be a big motivator... trust me. My skills were decent enough, but improved greatly after I began, and my confidence shot through the roof after I finished swapping the entire front clip. A lot of the haters got real quiet real fast after that, and most have since eaten their words.
For those reasons, based on my own personal circumstances, I can't tell you to simply junk the car without first finding out what you have to work with. As Dan mentioned, the major components of the front clip can be deal-breakers, especially since they are not reproduced. If you have to go to another car for major replacement parts, you might consider jumping ship to that car instead, depending on its issues. I tried to buy my donor car, but the salvage yard wouldn't sell it to me (title issues) - which would've been a helluva lot quicker... but then I would've had a "Mach 1 Clone," not a real Mach 1 since the donor car was a '72 Sportsroof.
At the very least, you need to pull the hood, fenders, engine & transmission, front suspension & steering, and dig into the front clip with some rust removal tools/methods. If you find that it's just surface rust, count yourself lucky, finish stripping the car, and get it media blasted, dipped, et al., so you can start fresh with the rust abatement/metal replacement. If it's bad or worse, you'll have a decision to make, as to whether to continue with the hard work, or go find another car.
Hope this helps!
