Seaching for a Donor

Trying to find the perfect donor vehicle sucks.  What was that a smart man once said?  "Waiting is the hardest part"?  Well, he speaks no lies. 

Ideally, the perfect donor would be something like a Mazda Miata, with low mileage and ran really strong. Sadly, for doing something on a budget you can't just go out and get a $3000-$15000 car only to tear it apart. So, lets say you set your donor vehicle budget at $1000, like moi. This leaves you to scour every nook and cranny of the we web and your local area for a late 70's/early 80's car. Something like an RX-7 or 280zx that more than likely barely runs and looks like it went through a hurricane or two. And when you DO find a descent one, its either been sold (after it was posted like an hour ago) or its got an automatic transmission. Why would I want to spend another 400-500 bucks on a manual transmission. I am on a budget here people! Thankfully one of my good friends from the great white north (I'm talking about Canada for you ig'nint folks) who hauls cars for a living, offered to haul any car I can find on the Eastern seaboard straight to my house. (Thanks, Chris!) This exponentially increased my search radius, though sadly the story up North is the same as it is down here, except all of their cars are rusted on the bottom, too. *sigh* Maybe I'll start trying to find the steel tubing for the frame instead and work on a donor later.