Cool car. Hard to believe its only got 26K miles looking at it now.

I recall a poll maybe on the PY site on the most popular first gen and it was 67 by a long shot. It surprised me.

There a lot to ways to go on a project like this as your finding out. If you have a tendency to only own them for a short time then you have to consider things like resale. Keeping things the stock color and every thing else is the way to go. Cheaper in many cases too.

As far as what to do with it. My own views have evolved drastically after doing a ground up resto on my 68 bird and now owning a 64 tempest. Many times we don't really know what we want until after the fact. My 68 is really nice and I spent 10 year on it. My 64 is a "looks good from 10 ft away' and guess which one I drive all the time and which one is in the garage most of the time?

I suggest build the car so it fun to drive. onlyy you can determine what fun is. Lot of HP can be fun but a PITA with hard starts heat coming through the floor, load exhaust on going maint, broken part etc.... Cruising can be fun, car shows can be fun, drag racing can be fun, autocross, roadracing...

My 68 bird is a built 455. Loud as hell and I'm afraid to park it anywhere. My 64 is a well worn turd with a 326/2speed/256 gear. I can get the whole family in and cruise all day long.

Figure out what fun means to you and build the car in that direction IMO.