The three of us are within days of making our yearly migration to Las Vegas, Nevada, to perform our duties at the 2017 SEMA show. There will be photo galleries by the ton as we analyze what’s new, what’s hot, and what’s trending in the automotive aftermarket world. And for the next week, that’s going to be our lives…which kind of bites, because the American Southwest is awash in project-car fodder at reasonable prices. Seriously…nearly rust-free cars priced in approachable territory, ranging from clapped daily drivers to auction candidates roam the roads down there like it’s nothing. So, in the spirit of the upcoming week, I applied the Rough Start rules to the Las Vegas Craigslist. $5,000 maximum price, 1997 or older, within a shot of being drivable, and went and chose one for Brian, one for Chad, and one for myself. How’d we do? Let us know below, but for now, check out the picks:

McTaggart: 1972 Plymouth Fury station wagon

I’m not going to get into the technical rules about where the car actually has to be sitting, but the Inland Empire area of California is close enough to count. Honestly, the Fury is the second choice I came up with…I nearly went for a 1980 Camaro Z28 until I realized that it would have been an all-Chevrolet field. But the Fury made the list for two reasons: SUV alternative, and old wagon. The old wagon deal has flared up again after getting up close and personal with the 1966 Chevy wagon we know around here as Ethyl. That car rules, period. So what’s wrong with taking a big old Mopar C-body and doing the same thing? Not a damn thing. Give it grunt, brakes, and make sure everything works as it should and make it reliable enough that driving it across the country isn’t an exercise in fear. $3,800 buys a lot of metal here, and we suspect that some gas down the carb and a fresh battery would have this thing on the road. Score!

Lohnes: 1954 Chevrolet 6400 stakebed

This was like Ken Griffey, Jr. hitting a pitch thrown by a middle-school softball team’s benchwarmer: way too easy. Let’s count the ways: older work truck? Yep. Utility based, mostly original? Check that box too. Standard powertrain that would struggle to keep up with Strip traffic, let alone I-15? Ab-So-Freaking-Loutely. Lohnes’ kink for big old work trucks is so well documented that I really don’t need to push any further. As long as the 266ci six fires up and he can find at least one forward gear that works, the man will be over the moon. His wife…well, not so much, we suspect. Hey, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas, right? For $3,000, anything can go at least once.

Chad: 1976 Chevrolet C-30 3+3 Silverado

Now this one is a bit unfair. It’s known that the Bearded One is on the hunt for a square-body, four-door two-wheel-drive dually. And that’s where this GMC…er, Chevrolet comes in. While the seller is a bit vague about details, there’s no floor shifter for a transfer case, there is the original 454 backed by a 5,000 mile old 4L80E, and there are dual fuel tanks. Yeah, it could use a hood, paint, some spit-and-polish and a trip through the LMC catalog, and it’s the most expensive out of our selections at the maximum purchase price of $5,000, but have you seen where prices for these square-body trucks have gone? The cleanup work alone will pay dividends later on!