Making a unicorn out of a dead raccoon

I went out and did another 'once over' on the car when my friend JB came by to check it out.  We walked around the car and looked it over pretty good-always helps to have a second pair of eyes-and discovered a few more 'treasures'.  Over spray from an attempted re-paint of the passenger's side of the car just below the belt trim that runs the length of the car's body.  Also noticed that the rear apron is tack welded to the bottom of the rear fenders (I wonder what's missing that they had to do that...).

Given that I won't be able to just clean it up and drive it around a bit, JB convinced me that it's probably best to just strip it down so I know what I'm working with and try to get the body work completed.  Once I get a body that's straight and painted, the rest should be easy.  I have a decent stash of parts for whatever car they wind up on (probably a mix of the two).

The plan would be to warm up the garage, let it all sit for a little while, and start taking it apart.  The pan will remain intact with the engine/trans but the body will get stripped down and come off before heading to the shop for evaluation.

After JB left, I pulled the ignition column-something didn't seem right with the lack of side markers and the ignition moving around in the column.  The wiring on the ignition is pretty well stripped and pinched against the body of the column-meaning that the car wouldn't have started if I had done all of the top end work to get the engine running because the ignition is grounded out at the column.

In addition to that-the ignition had already been replaced once-the car was wired for side marker lights but the ignition column contact plate was for an American car (no side markers), while the turn signal housing arm/contact plate and ignition were for a car with side markers.  A botched repair job, plain and simple.

So this 'one owner' car with 60,000 original miles had been in at least two front end collisions, has had the engine replaced, managed to dent every panel on the body, a rear apron replacement (a job that was seriously fucked up), and the ignition replaced?

Yep, it's a 'game changer' alright...apparently it was the wrong game and it changed in a way I didn't anticipate.

If nothing else, it'll make for interesting reading as I pull this car apart and attempt to retain my sanity while I piece together a finished product at the same time.  There will be pictures.  And swearing.  Probably a lot of swearing.

Background Tune: "Naive" by The Kooks