ugly car
 

Ok, some background.
I have a great running and driving 6spd Rx8 that has never been in road salt, but it has a lot of scratches and small dents(every panel has at least one dent or scratch). the rear bumper skin also needs replaced. The interior is a bit scratched up as well. It looks bad closer than 50 ft.
So, it's a great car under the skin. I purchased this car for about 1 weeks worth of wages, and I drive it about one or twice a week. It's the most pleasurable car to drive that I have ever owned so far.

I want to make the body look better or buy a better body.

locally there is an AT rx8 that has low miles and has an unblemished appearance for sale cheap. It's cheap because the motor is junk. problem is it's an auto trans.

from a financial and time perspective would I be better off:
1. fixing the body on current car and respray.
2. swapping all the good bits from great but ugly car(MT) into the pretty but dead car(AT). I read the sticky on this.
3. wait for a unblemished 6spd that may never happened.
4. do nothing and enjoy the ticking time bomb of an rotary and save money.

What would you all do?

I think that from a time perspective you're better off waiting for a manual car in good shape. Swapping engines around is easy compared to swapping all the manual trans, engine, ecu, gauge cluster, clutch hydraulics, driveshaft, interior bits, oil coolers, etc. Etc. Etc. Etc. Into an automatic car. It will be an endless project.

auto vs standard.
 

Personally I prefer the auto in tip tonic for one is much faster shifting than anyone can shift a manual and it holds boost much better. But as far as your concern I would just fix the body you have. Keeping in mind I restore cars for a living so it's fairly easy for me to fix or respray one myself

The paddles aren't terribly quick, but more importantly, in what way does it "hold boost much better"?

Paddles are in general faster shifting than a standard and that's been proven for years. Second and auto Trans vs a standard when you peas the clutch the Trans sends the engine into a low rpm stage wether you realize it or not. Now with an auto you have a tv cable along with torque converter that keep the speed stable there for holding boost. I know it's an odd concept but keep in mind I also own the world's only 3 time record setter and it's in an 87 mk3 supra turbo running the salt flats at 326 mph on 54 pounds of boost with over 4400 rhp and have been building performance race cars for 20 years on turbos

Where can I find more details on this 4400 hp Supra and 3 world records?

This is absolute nonsense! I can shift at least 3 to 4 times faster then my Rx8 auto, it pisses me off so bad it's so slow my boys will both tell you I can shift my Golf GTi manual multiples quicker without pressure and power delays then the auto Rx8 or any other tip-tronic style shifter like it. Maybe high end cars such as Ferrari's and such but never a common place tip-tronic style shifter.

And on the down shift there is no comparison whatsoever, it is way too finicky about what gear it wants to go into and what RPM's to be even considered. Keep in mind I hold real track records, fastest laps, championships and race wins for real shifting tracks multiple times per lap and not just straight line speed records where you mostly just hold on.

WOW! I've always been am MT person myself, but I don't hold any records at anything, just absolutely loved the drive I got with my MT RX8.

For the actual question, I'd vote for using the opportunity to learn or grow your bodywork skills if the dents you mention aren't too bad. If the cars already ugly, what do you have to lose to take it scratch by scratch panel by panel & just seal it up as you move along the car until it's ready for that final prep & killer paint job. If you happen to come across that unblemished 6sp at a price you can't pass up jump on it. Personally I'd rather deal with doing the body work, you can find youtube videos on anything these days to help you along. It give me a headache swapping out all the parts & hope it all comes together the way I wanted in the end.

+1 on doing the body work