My advise, and I give it to everybody that asks...." Do everything you can for free first"!! You can turn wrenches, do do things like remove the seats, clean them up, vacuum out the entire interior, make a list of parts that need replaced, take all of the ratty stuff out like carpet that's trashed and such, reinstall the cleaned up seats and move on to another area! Keep your eye out here and on the FB Mopar sites for good deals on parts you need! Things
like nice wheels and tires needn't be expensive, and will bring up the value of the car, and your enthusiasm level on the car by leaps and bounds!!
Don't concentrate on areas you know little about until you learn about them! Why buy a 4 bbl intake and carb when you don't know much about carbeurators?? If you need to have someone come help tuning one just to get it running, you are spending time and money needlessly! You need to get it running and driving first, but spending money under the hood should start with tune up parts, wear items like belts and hoses if it needs them, and study up on carbeurators while you work on those things! Again, make a list of items you NEED to buy first, and another list of items or areas you need to address!!
The biggest thing I can offer is to be patient!!! Good deals come along all the time, you just gotta be patient! You already spent the money to buy the car, don't look at it as money spent, that's past now, look forward with a solid plan as to what to spend your hard earned money on to get it running and driving!! It's a neat little car, don't let it become a bad experience by getting ahead of yourself, and don't get too far into an area you're not familiar with, you don't want to end up with boxes full of parts and no fun little car to work on!!!
Oh, and make use of this site, there are tons of great people here willing to help, lots of parts and information to be had, and bartering for stuff you need with stuff you have is a great way to turn unneeded parts into useable stuff!! I'd be interested in the Ld4 intake if you decide to sell it!! Good luck young lady, I have great Confidence that with your schooling and common sense that you will come out on top of this!! Geof
