What happened to the reasonably priced project car?

I was fortunate to have met a friend who was really into restoring mopars before I bought mine. I had been out of olds cars for so long I had no idea of the cost of parts and services. If he hadn’t wised me up, I would have likely bought a project car expecting to spend $5k repairing it and wound up at 30 or 40. I think this happens to a lot of folks.