I'm in pretty much the same boat. I decided right away that would not even try to get it running otherwise I would be tempted to start driving it and never restore it the way I really want it in the end. After two years of occasional putzing around with it, I have it down to the frame and have a good number of parts blasted, chemically stripped and ready for paint. I started out by renting time on a large industrial sand blast cabinet to do the parts that would fit then got talking with a guy at work who introduced me to a "Metal Cleaner" company that does a lot of parts for restorations. It is the greatest thing I have ever seen. You bring them a rusty old door and they give it back the next day without the rust and old paint. All said and done it is almost cheaper than renting time on the blast cabinet and there is no physical damage that is caused by the blast media. Check your phone books or ask, ask, ask and keep asking people that work or live in your area. I drive over an hour to bring my parts to this place. I will have my frame sand blasted and zero rust it, but I have to wait until spring as I don't have a heated garage that would allow me to paint.
Just in tearing it down I have found soooo much that I never would have found had I done a frame on restore. It's ok to do them but mine sat so long (30 years) it would have been tough to get it to being a daily driver or even where I wold trust driving it to a show more than a few miles away and I would have spent WAY more time in the long run getting it to where I really want it.
I go in spurts and have recently made huge progress. What keeps me going is picking small/mini projects that I work on to completion. It's great to see before and after pictures.
Speaking of pictures. You mentioned you need to wait to get your pictures developed. Toss the film camera and spend a couple hundred bucks on a digital camera with at least 2.0 megapixels. it will pay for itself over and over just in the savings on film and development.
Good luck...I think the link to my home page/pictures above finally works. My on-line pictures represent only about 10% of the pictures I have taken.
photo page
