I never had a 69 el. a couple of 68's, a 73, and a 65. the 68's were my favorites. They still had enough room behind the seats for gear bags, and were still light enough to be able to run with the hotter cars (one came from the factory with a 396 and 4 speed).
So much for hijacking the thread. I wish I could put two likes on what some of the others have already written. My own crf 250 was bought for the price of the forks. The way it sits now I think I have about 1900 in parts in it. It isnt close to stock in most ways. So you can turn out a good rig made the way you want (if you know what you want) for a reasonable price, if you have the patience to wait for deals on what you want.
It would never work out to have a shop do one for you. I think I would have had closer to 4k in mine and you can easily put 2500 into a broken case 400 dollar rig like mine in a shop just putting it back to stock. A dealership type shop is going to replace anything they can think of to benefit them and you. They just have to do that. Whether there is life left in something or not, if it looks like it will give them a bad name, you are buying new at their profit heavy price.
Lastly, if you have to ask the questions you just wisely did, you may want to start on something that is simple. The CRF is not so simple and certainly not cheap to build and build reliably. I rode yesterday, and my newer crf stayed home, my two stroke yz250 and yz125 took up all the space I had, so my third choice ended up at home.