Build vs buy, which will make me less poor?

[Nickanator8]

Ok guys, I've driven the car around a bit and I have some new issues that need to be addressed beyond what I've already mentioned.

Sometimes, the 4th gear light and drive light on the dashboard will flash in an alternating pattern. I've found another thread here that discusses the issue but I'm not quite sure what the best course of action is to address it, or if it is even an issue at all.

The fuel gauge only goes up to about half full. I bought it with a basically empty tank, put 14.5 gallons in, and the needle is only showing about half a tank. It's not a major issue as it clearly works fine on the part of the half that matters, but still something I would want to address.

On startup there seems to be a bit of white smoke that comes out of the exhaust. It only happens right at the beginning of starting up the car and dissipates quickly. I have not done any research on this issue yet but plan on doing so soon.

There seems to be an occasional fuel smell on startup or on shutoff, again, I haven't really dug into this issue much yet and it seems intermittent. I'm not seeing any obvious leaks under the car so that's nice.

Finally, I gave the car a wash and it actually looks really good for the age, and way better than I thought it would. It turns out that much of what I thought was hail damage, scratches, or scrapes was just dust and debris! The body is not free of issues though, as every single panel has some kind of paint damage. It's mostly rock chips and from 5-10 feet it looks fine, especially with a fresh coat of wax. Not a show car by any means, but I think the guy who sold it to me could have asked for more if it had just been clean.

Last little update, the MoF is warming up to the car quite a bit. She is still concerned about the fuel smell and some of the other issues but we went on a top-down cruise during the golden hour last night at a local wildlife refuge and it was wonderful. No photos because we were mostly doing it to warm up the car and hopefully identify the fuel smell issue but we both are thinking I got a pretty damn good deal.