The best way to start a project car, budget or no, is to find the nicest starting point you can and work from there. But let’s say you aren’t willing to compromise: It must be rare, it must be desirable, and there has to be potential. And of course, it still must be cheap. For this round of Rough Start, we’re going to focus more on the “rough” side of things. The car we’ve chosen is certainly rough, but it is complete, appears to be drivable, and is desirable, as it is one of about 1,377, give or take a few, and is one of the last gasps of old Pontiac muscle.

This Cameo White Pontiac might say “Can Am”, but the intention was geared towards “GTO Judge”. Jim Wagners, one of the big names in Pontiac in the 1970s, envisioned the car as the second coming of the mid-size muscle car, but Pontiac brass shot that down quickly, so the Can Am name, meant to allude to the Can-Am Racing series, was applied instead. Of course, anyone reading between the lines could pick this one up. Pontiac was a corporation suffering from bi-polar disorder at the time: the big sellers were personal luxury coupes like the Grand Prix, but with the Trans Am, they had managed to weather the performance downturn quite well, and in 1977 they were riding high on the success that the movie Smokey and the Bandit brought them.

Now, let’s take a look at our current prospect. At 38 years old, this Can Am has seen some better days. Rust has taken over a lot of the car in the typical locations for Colonnade GMs. The doors, quarters and the area around the rear glass all need some attention, and we’re willing to bet that the rear bumper isn’t fairing too well, either. But it is complete: the shaker scoop on the 6.6L Pontiac mill (which we know by the “T/A 6.6” script on the scoop) is there, and so is the ducktail spoiler, the signature trait (and downfall) of the Can Am. The interior sports a similar rough-but-useable quality, and the owner is selling with some extra parts.

The days of locating a barn-find, low-price piece of rolling muscle are over. The Internet and Barrett-Jackson killed that right off. But does $4,500 for a rusty but rare Pontiac qualify as a bargain? You tell us!

eBay Link: 1977 Pontiac Can Am