Welcome to Macrossworld; there's always room for one more 1/55 scale (a.k.a. Chunky Monkey) lover. I think Skull-1 is volunteering to help you out.
The good news is (and Skull-1 and the others will correct me, if I'm wrong), there are no real "pitfalls-to-avoid" with the Chunky Monkeys. If you can use a screwdriver, you can refurbish one of these. If you post some pictures in this thread of specific areas you want to work on, maybe a few of us can help out.