Yeah, a little confusing...I should have said I'm being as frugal as possible in every move. I'm still reasonable and won't compromise safety, or integrity.
For the suspension, I bought an S10 for parts, used the front brakes, kept the rearend for a spare and sold off the rest to break even. Instead of buying the ball joint spacers, I redrilled the upper a-arms to accept new S10 BJs and wrapped a reinforcement strap around the a-arm to regain the meat that was lost. For the lowers, I did the unthinkable....I grafted the S10 a-arm onto the vega's and re-gusseted it so it's very strong. Bought the Monza V6 springs, new BJs and rebuilt calipers with new brake hoses. This set me back a whopping $150 but that money was recouped in the sale of the S10 stuff.
For the body, I've been using some products I usually wouldn't chance on other projects and have been very pleased. Again, the goal is low budget without compromise. UPOL's high build is less than $100 a gallon, Omni base with SPI's universal clear, SPI's epoxy and the white is also Omni. I'm betting I can keep the entire cost of paint/bodywork under $1000 and that's no easy feat with today's products.