Trying to finally get my first Muscle Car - I’m nervous

You are getting a lot of good advice here. If you have limited skills by all means take advantage of the offers of help from your local members. Rust is a deal killer and if you find some no matter how little you think there is, in general there is lots more you don't know about. I would absolutely get a complete good running car as a first step. There is always something you can tinker with to build your skills as you go. I got my first classic Mopar (66 Valiant) and it is a super clean driver. I would daily this car in a heartbeat. All I had to do with it was fix all the leaks and it was ready to go. I'm a moderately skilled soul so buying a more ambitious project (69 Dart) was OK with me but I'm retired and have plenty of time, space, tools, and so forth to work on it. Especially at your stage of life, a serious project can easily turn into a 20 years later still parked in the garage and it's gone nowhere ever kind of deal.