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I'm in the business of dealing in collector cars (www.calforniaclassix.com) for a vey long time and it's not only providing me with a comfortable living, but I absolutely love what I do.
In May 2008 I've bought a PV544 for $1,000 and put another $7,500 in it so far, all with connections in the business, mind you, and mostly my own labor. The car still looks like a $1,000 car today http://www.californiaclassix.com/Bernard/PV544-1.html), and it will look like it when I'm "done" with it, probably when I have reached the $12K plateau.
Restoring a car is a lost proposition, unless the car is worth close to 6 figures when done. Alanauto (www.alanauto.com) has shown that it is possible to spend $100K on restoring a 544, and people who commission a job like that don't care abaout the money: They have it and want "that" car for sentimental reasons.
Back to your 444.
People like barn finds. The fact that you polished the fantstically patinated paint is a turn off for me like kissing a girl and finding out it's a frog with morning breath. While I liked the car as found, very much so, now it's a dead fish for me. I don't have 25 years to wait until it looks cool again, as I'm alread 51. Next thing is the rocker rust. Not having seen the car, I can tell it's fairly rusty. A bad welding job (wanting to sell the car) is worse than no job. My advise: leave the car alone. Get it running, vaccum it, and then it should sell for about $1,500, give or take a few hundred bucks. Shipping it across the country is too expensive, so advertise it locally.
Good luck!
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