MaxBURNOUT

I have a 87 Crx that was given to me.. by my grandfather. he said that it ran but hasnt been run in like 2 years. Now I have it and it needs some body work and the engine wont run, infact when I did get it to finaly try to stay running the carborator caught fire. Im just wondering if I should just scrap the project or get it running. I was going to chop it and make a perminat convertable. but im not really sure what Im going to do with it yet.. any suggestion welcome.. thank
J