eBay is pretty much the ultimate source for anything you can't find at wal mart or the grocery store. It isn't like you can walk into your local Napa and say " Hey, I need that funky peice of sheet metal that is near the front of a 1996 Thunderbird's fender " Surprisingly, you can find a lot of parts at your neighber autoparts store, but the Ford FE was such a popular engine I imagine it wil be a long time before parts for those get scarce.
I have won about 90% of the parts I need on eBay over the last few days. I am still looking for a bumper and some odds and ends, but over all I am happy with my shopping results. Some of these parts are in pretty rough shape and will need some work before I can bolt them one, but such is the way with classic cars. There are some companies around that still sell OEM, remanufactored, and NOS parts - but the cost of conviences for picking up the phone and having shiney new parts arive is hard pill to swallow. I have to imainge that if you are the kind of car guy that can order parts through these catalog companies, you are the type that can afford to have someone else call and install the parts for you. I reserve the right to be completely wrong about that, and feel free to comment here or Tool Kingdom threads if I am miss guided on that.
When the parts arrive I will break down some of the cost and and outline the project a little better here. The first stage will be to get the motor running so I can move her around a bit. The second will be gettin the front end put back together and all those mangled parts straigtend out. Third stage will be fixing some minor rust spots and prepping the entire body for some fresh paint. I am sure there will be about 6 or 10 more stages thereafter, and about dozen inbetween stages as I dive in and find other issues and problems.