to restore or not to restore.
 

well now that i have a job(and to keep hopefully). i'm considering having my car restored professionally. here's my issue. for the most part, the car is absolutely clean, no rust or any serious concerns of rust except two places. rear passenger wheel well, and near where the car lift area is in the driver side.

the passenger side is easily dealt with, nothing to make you want to consider scrapping the car. the drivers side otoh, is a pretty big hole, 2x2.5ish maybe.

there's also some rust on the front behind the wheels(typical area where rust shows up in the rust belt) and i want that removed as well.

but i'd also like a full up, from the ground up, resto, replacing any broken parts(vents, switches, trim, carpet) with new or if need be, NOS.

i'm no pro at this, i know nothing litterally. but as its a perfectly clean, stock(two performance parts, FCD and racing beat exhaust) and low milage(77k now) TII, outside of said troubles(and clearcoat, some hail damage). and that i live in one of the more northern parts of the states, and that its a major hassle to find, and have it brought to me. is it worth it? i'd love to keep it, and keep it going since its such low milage. but if its going to cost like 5-10x more than to just buy a clean one from somewhere else. should i just do that. or keep this one going.

any suggestions anyone?

Since you asked, I'll give it a try. If I were in your shoes with the new job, I'd save as much money as possible and put a lot of thought in to weather the car should be a priority right now. This will also give you a chance to think about the type of modes or restoration you might want.

Take it to a body shop, get an estimate. At least then you'll know what kind of a figure you are looking at to get the work done. Actually, take it to three body shops. Get quotes, see if the other shops will match or beat the price of the lowest quote. By shopping around you can usually get a better deal.