I will be honest with you, I'm not a huge MOPAR fan, but a few of their cars are pretty neat.  I almost pulled down a 1965 Plymouth Belvedere 4 door at a swap meet  for a measy $800 about 2 months ago.  Even the 4 door models look good, and this one was straight as an arrow, and crying for a hemi crate engine.  The interrior was trashed, but the rest of it was solid - all glass was good.  Can you say bracket racer?  My wife had to pull me and my cousin off the thing caus we were talking shop for real.  Our friend Brad has a full roll cage that would have gone into this thing pretty easily (minimal modification), and the rest was silly putty to us.  We have been doing cars for years.  I got smaked and put back into reality, but like I told you, you never know what will turn.  I am an Olds guy, and my cousin eats and breaths Chevy. 

Most of the time we make fun of the MOPAR guys (I sit accross from one at work and it's war!).  But here we were making plans on not just a vintage MOPAR, but seriously racing the thing.  It was a perfect body - it was cheap - had new tires and wheels on it - no holes in the floors - paint wasn't bad - had no engine or transmission but what the hey the price was right.  Would have needed brakes and probably suspension work - did have one door that might have needed replacing, but you could have welded it up and it would have looked ok.  It was honestly the only flaw on the car. 

Aside from that, we are both into major projects already, but if I had been of the mind and done with everything, that would have been in my garage. 

So keep looking - at this point if you are homing in on MOPARs, great.  Again, the California and Nevada markets are good sources for clean rust free cars, or buildable shells.  Hit the online stuff.  You will be surprised at what's being offered.

Bowser

You want to keep it simple? SBC crate motor in an S-10. Mopar?--How about an A-body & almost anything (even an early Hemi if you scrounge around). Ford? --Fox chassis Mustang or how about an early Maverick? AMC?-- V-8 Gremlin or for the REALLY weird & ugly-- A mid 70's Matador done up like a NASCAR racer. With $11,000 you could probably build most any kind of driver, just not a "high-end" show car.  

Hey - I kind of like the Matador idea.  You hardly ever see those and they definitely have lines that are out of the norm.  The other one - early Maverick.  My wife had a '72 (?) - yea I think it was a '72.  It had a straight 6 and a 3 speed on the floor.  I was really impressed with it.  It got good gas mileage, was easy to work on, and totally reliable.  I wanted to keep it and trick it out, but we were in college at the time, had our son and needed a bigger car.  I will never forget it.  I am normally a GM man, but that goofy little Maveric k was basic, clean, and well designed transportation. 

You could make either one of these cars real nice.  I think the Matador would be a true crowd pleaser.  I bet that many young people have never even seen one.

Bowser