Brian;

Welcome!

Shannon has covered it pretty well...if I had the opportunity to buy a clean, straight shell with a frozen engine or even a hole where the engine normally would be, I'd jump on it...which translates into: Always go by the condition of sheetmetal...if it is within your confort zone, then OK, if it is more than you can handle or are prepared to pay to have made solid, then pass...sheetmetal certainly does not get better by itself, and it takes special skill, tools, and a facility to repair (or $$$), whereas mechanical components can be repaired, replaced, renewed a lot more easily...(by you!)

The fact that it's not running can be due to any number of things from a simple (inexpenive to fix) to complex (more expensive to fix) so that is no help...so as Shannon suggests, it would be good to find out when it last ran, and if anything broke, was changed, or non-running condition is just due to storage...dead bat and stale fuel in rusted tank (for drive home, run car on fresh fuel from jug in passenger compartment footwell connected to fuelpump with 4 ft of 5/16 ID fuel line...and make sure not to have an accident which might ruin your day!)

Suggested reading: http://sw-em.com/Reviving%20a%20'decomissioned'%20Volvo.htm

Cheers