I'm working on a PV544 that looks like it has a hard life and been neglected for a long, long time. I actually bought that car because of its looks, but that's a story of its own. But while you can neglect cosmetic aspects, even the crappiest car needs to have healty metal, good brakes, and good steering/front end components. Since the Volvo has a unibody, the floor pans are structurally important. If you want to save money, cut out everything that's not healthy, clean everything up, then pay an experienced welder to butt-weld everything in. Check out my car's Web page to get the idea, as I just went through the process and took lots of photos along the way:

http://www.californiaclassix.com/Bernard/PV544.html

Bernard