A friend and neighbor I grew up with had a 55 Pontiac 2dr siting in his yard. I walked by this car nearly everyday on my way to school or loafing in the summer. I always thought it was cool. It had sat for years, me and my friend one day decided to fool with the old car. We were probably 14 and 15 and had limited knowledge on getting an old car going. we aired the tires up with a bicycle pump. Tinkered around under the hood but we didn't know what we were doing, eventually walked away. We must have sparked some interest with another neighbor as it was sold a couple weeks later. An old man came over and spent about 20min under the hood and had it running. Shortly thereafter it pulled out of the yard under it's own power. I had a grudge against that man for a long time as he had possibly bought my first car ( in my fantasies ) right out from under me for the large sum of $400 bucks. (50 to 60 yards worth of mowing in the neighborhood at the time). Never see one of these cars without thinking of that car.
Good luck with it, I hope it's a great project for you.