why do they all have to be finished

I agree.
All the slanty guys may get mad at me for this but my cuda was a slank sick 3 on the tree, bench seat, with manual everything, 9" itty bitty , drums, and small bolt pattern pizza cutter rims. LOL. The only options it had were a vacuum gage and trip odometer. Bought it for the body shell, and clutch pedal setup since im a stick shift junkie. Im building it the way i want. Now maybe if it was a formula S 383 4 speed, id think differently about it.

I want it to be fun, fast, handle and brake well.

Exactly..... If I bought a 68 gts numbers matching original car that car deserves to be left alone, still driven but left alone. My car has had 3 owners my father in law, the guy he sold it to in 73, and me when I bought it last September. It had a "restoration" in the 80's with lots of velvet PUKE, so with the history I had to have the car but all the original stuff minus the drive train is long gone so why not make a sweet driver out of it, the history is still there and it's still a small block 65 dart vert!