That is a great candidate. I pulled an old panasonic out of the trash. All you really need to do it strip and clean it. Since you don't want to drop that much money get a rear wheel of Ebay...there is a cheap one that runs about $55.
HarrisCyclery has a cheap crank set for $65 (shimano Sora) or just get a cheap crankset on ebay.

You should be able to salvage the bars and brakes...you only need the front one to work.