That almost looks too nice to be a project gun! My first project gun was an old Dan Wesson Panther I bought in a pawn shop for $500. Or at least I thought it was going to be a project gun. It didn't need "improving." That's when I saw the light and was converted to an "Enlightened Pistolero".
So my project gun was a used Colt Series-80 that cost $200 more than the Dan Wesson. That one took two years of TLC to get it working right.