Shopping for Parts....

I was just reading about a well-known English musician( John Porter) who put together a parts guitar (parts is parts)....then he played it, and basically set it up to his liking. It had a route for a humbucker, missing frets...and a broken pickguard... all the things that are meant to say 'stay away' today... but this was a long time ago. It ended up sounding so good, that all sorts of well-known people played it on their albums... Clapton and many more... So how come HE can assemble a lot of parts, and make this wonderful instrument? I see a lot of tele parts on EBay... like a 1953 Tele Bridge with serial number on it, for two thousand dollars. I ask myself "Will this money pay off in some special mojo for MY parts guitar?". I think metal is metal. The brass saddles MIGHT make a difference, but do I have to spend two thousand dollars on the bridge? NO! Next up... a 1950's era Esquire BODY only, covered in what looks like nice thick clear coat of Poly paint (I have had one of these myself, a 1952 Tele, sealed in Clear Poly, like a Diploma). If I strip it all off, and get someone to shoot Nitro on it, will it make a great parts guitar? I doubt it, sorry, I do ... unfortunately, if you had hand-assembled a parts guitar yourself in the sixties (like Clapton did with Blackie), you would at least be getting a guitar with original paint, un-soaked wood (no stripping), and a bridge from the time. Remember... when Leo painted his guitars in the mid fifties, MANY steps were involved... first a filler coat, then sanding, then a color coat and sanding, then a final coat, then more sanding... and if the color coat was accidentally sanded through, it was stripped down again, and repainted all over again... what does all this add up to? A parts guitar that starts off with potential to begin with. I have bought parts on EBay (61 Strat Neck, 63 SB Body, 61 Pickups, Green Guard... everything original). I took it to my Luthier who is Japanese (and a whiz)... and it was a 9/10 guitar... but I didn't mess with the original paint. And I kept everything original... so I DID do it the way they did back in the day... if you want to do it, do it that way. Now... to the Christmas list... Grandma has the pickups, Dad the neck...er, sorry, Uncle Leo buys me the neck...