Climbing gear to turn the engine?

Loathe to buy a huge socket for a single use, I came up with an alternative method today during a cold, wet, and windy run.  For some reason I was thinking about crevasse rescue and the use of slings, ropes, and pulleys to gain mechanical advantage.  I've not yet rigged up a double-pulley system in my garage, but I did wrap a piece of webbing around the pulley a few times and was able to pull as hard as I could without it slipping off.  The whole car was rocking back and forth so I think I was able to apply quite a bit of rotational force to the pulley.  The engine, unfortunately, did not turn over.  Tomorrow I'll unwrap it and try the other direction.

I've recently traded emails with a car buff from Texas who has advised that I rethink my plans for restoring this thing.  Rather than focus on the mechanical aspects first, as I have planned, he thinks I should pull the engine, interior, trim, etc., and get all the rust out and all the metal primed.  The main reason is that it will continue to degrade until I remove the rust and get the metal sealed back up.  If I spend four years working on the other things first, I will have that much more work to do when I finally get around to the body.

He makes a good point and I'll have to seriously consider it.  It seems kind of overwhelming to do it that way though.  My plan was to sort of dabble at it over the years rather than going all in right at the beginning.  I wonder if there is a middle ground?  Perhaps the rust can be halted without stripping it to bare bones and sand blasting the entire thing.  His advice also seems to conflict with some of his other advice that seems pretty solid: "The big thing with getting into the hobby is not to make your wife feel like you just brought an old girlfriend home to live with you, and making sure you are prudent with what you spend on the car and when you spend it."