I think the joy of restorations are in the bringing back to life & good useful service an engine that looked so far gone as to not be salvageable , I see them as abandoned puppies that are in desperate need of help....that I can offer them 😊
One of the early ones I did was also a cast based non-reversing riveted boiler Jensen #25 , I picked it up off of Craig's list for $50 , as recall it was $60 ,but the gentleman took $10 off because I had driven so far to get it 😁