The Cuda I'm currently restoring is a very similar situation.
I started with a car that is solid, but had many areas of concern to head off future problems.
To start, I have a 2-1/2 car garage, and boy I could still use more room, but I have gotten through the tough part by moving stuff around. I bagged, labeled and took a picture of EVERYTHING, and that was the biggest help by far. While you are taking things apart you think "of course I'll remember" but after enough time you will need the help.
I could fill a single garage alone with seats,panels,counsel,bumpers,brackets,boxes of smaller stuff like trim,wipers, you get the idea.
As I started the car, and you mentioned doing a '70 clone, I too decided to alter my car as well. This was going to help me in a couple of ways. 1, I went with relacement front fenders, valances, deck lid - this not only saved me a LOT of bodywork, but also 2 insured I had "clean" steel and didn't have to worry about rust being eliminated completey from those panels.
I much like 99% of everyone on this board has done some kind of "body repair", but this is truly a whole new level to do a car and not get sea sick looking at the waves. The #1 biggest saving grace for me was I had a friend who works for a PPG dealer and also does a lot of bodywork for hobby that was my guide. He advised me on what to treat the bare metal with to ensure a rust free base, what type of 2 part epoxy primer to use, and what body filler and finaly skim coat to use. And after that was all said and done, would come over, look at the car and based on my color choice would tell me on what would show up, what had to be re-done and what was OK.
Knowing that this was still not enough I was very fortunate to have the same friend dirrect me to a painter. I was also told many painters will not be happy to just paint a car, as if there is a problem that occurs to bad body prep, sometimes the customer will come back and hard time the painter. I was lucky enough to find a painter who after sitting down with him a and his shop manager and discussing what prep was done, he took the car, did another high build primer coat, final sand, dissasemble the car, paint the parts, reasemble, and buff the car. I also let him know to make my car "filler" work for a better rate, as the real money for most shops is done with collision work, and If you don't have a dealine can save you a few bucks.
The car turned out great, but it taught me a few things....
This project was VERY expensive - I could never sell the car for what I have in it, and I did 90% of the work.
Some of this is due to the fact that it was my first effort and needed a lot of tools.
I used compressed air for most of this, and thought I had a big compressor, only to find I could still use more.
I bought things like a DA sander, air file, and a gun for the primer was lent to me.
It's kind of a nickel and dime process as well, stuff like new screws, tape, lots of sandpaper in varying grits, man I made a lot of trips to the store.
When the car gets back, and everything looks great, all of the sudden other things that were OK now look like junk.
It's hard to bolt on a dinged faded bumber to a beauty car or faded nasty carpeting being left in a car that is that far apart. I found myself cleaning and painting what I could, but could not bring myself to using a lot of items that now would look like junk on a new car body.
I could go on and on, and if you have any more specific questions I could answer of even pics as I went along I would be happy to share.
My best advice is to find a friend with lots of experience to even just advise you as you go along.
Good luck, keep us up to date!
