Food for thought

Yesterday during one of Max's all-you-can-eat lactation buffets I snuck out to the garage to document my '55 Thunderbird parts to see exactly what I had and what I would need to try to find at Clubmans. I knew I had a few incorrect parts, like a unit head, but wasn't sure what else. I had Troop take a look. And pretty much to my dismay a lot of the motor isn't correct for pre-unit let alone a '53 motor. This is what happens when you aren't a walking encyclodpedia and let your heart control your wallet. The chassis and tins are '55 swingarm, the motor cases, primary covers, and gearbox are '53, but pretty much everything else is unit. The head and rocker boxes are unit, the clutch is unit, the carb is some oddball, the steering damper knob is some weird unknown alloy part, the fork lowers are for a rigid, etc etc. I feel like I'm at a turning point. Do I even want to "restore" this bike? Even if I did, the motor would be for a rigid model, which I don't specifically mind, but will be a lot of effort to build up for the wrong year. Perhaps I should just try to find a correct intact motor, gear box, and set of forks for the chassis and put the motor cases and fork lowers aside for my imaginary future rigid project. Or sell them to fund parts for the '55? Or do I say hell with restoring and just use what I got and build another custom? I guess I'll see what Clubman's has to offer this year and try to make up my mind. I should just put this one out of my mind until I finish the '62 and the CB750, but Clubmans comes once a year and I don't want to waste it. Each year these parts getter harder to find and more expensive.