I bought a donor car, and would probably do it again. My main reason was that I am very new to cars in general, not even doing any of my own maintenance work on personal cars. My thinking was that the donor tear down would be good for building up experience prior to the build. I have also seen a lot of value in just seeing how the car is laid out and how the systems tie together, especially the wiring. I think the ability to label all of the wires as I take them off will save me a lot of time down the road.