Not that I'm some old wise person with infinite wisdom, (maybe a wise ass if you ask Charger Fan) but I've been in your position once & learned the hard way. I had to have a '69 Charger when I was 19 years old, (I'm 42 now) & scraped up every cent I had to buy it. I even sold the car I was driving to add to the money I had, & dove right into it. It was a nice car that needed only "minor" work. It had a 383 Magnum, SE trim, factory mag wheels & it was ticket me red with a black roof.
I figured I could drive it & finish restoring it at the same time, & not drive some kind of econobox that wasn't cool. I was out of high school & in college, but only had a part time job. It was enough money to put gas into it & maintain it, but that was it. My friends sure didn't have cool cars like the VW beetle with faded white paint, or the Maroon Vega wagon that couldn't pass a bicycle, or the 3 shades of green, 318 4 door Coronet with ripped seats.
Tires? Nope, the ones I had were still holding air so I didn't care if there was tread on them.
Brakes? Nope, I could still pump them & if I didn't tail gate I'd have enough room to stop.
Loose steering? Nope, it wasn't that loose & I could still make turns.
I ran the heck out of it, had a lot of fun & it broke. A lot. I mean a real lot! I bought it in the early 1980's for $1600, but sunk $3000 into it for all kinds of repairs during the couple of years I had it on the road like transmission, brakes, tires, front end, etc. & never had the money to restore it the way I wanted to. When the timing chain finally went, it took the rest of the motor with it & there was no way I was going to spend whatever it took to get it rebuilt & still need rust repairs & paint on top of that.
I sold it for a huge loss as a project, or maybe even a parts car to someone for $600 & moved on. I bought a cheap, $100 4 door Coronet with a slant 6 that got me around & never left me stranded. All my friends still had their "uncool" cars, but they managed to save up some serious money for down payments on new cars while I was still driving $100 clunkers for a while. My point is, is that you can't really do the Challenger the way you'd want to & drive it as a daily driver.
If you can afford to save it & be able to store it someplace dry & safe, do it. If not, then maybe sell it & wait until later on to find another one. True, they will likely be more money later, but hopefully you will have moved up the food chain some & be making more money too. Look for a dependable car that wasn't abused by someone else, & save your money to fix the Challenger the way you want when time permits.
I had a cool Charger while my friends drove their embarrassing things, but their cars were on the road more than mine & it wasn't as cool having a red & black driveway ornament.
