"I think only about 30% of the metal is original to the car"
IEarlyA, If it's that easy that you can tell all that metal work has been done,
you will be wanting to buy that car at a price that you car live with, "CHEAP"
.
The big giveaway is the places that panels have been welded. The welds look good. But, they don't look correct. For instance, they didn't attempt to replicate the factory spotwelds and instead welded around the edges where a brace is welded to a panel or things like that. Or, where they patched the floor. Same deal. The welds look good. But, they didn't grind them at all. They appear to have just wire brushed them and painted the floor.
I really need to get back to the guy this weekend so he doesn't think I am blowing him off. But, I don't have any idea what to say.
On the one hand, I grew up in a bodyshop, so I have a pretty good idea what is required to clean up/correct just the things I can see. Additionally, as mentioned earlier in the thread, the radiator needs checked out, the console is broke(may be repairable for a car I'm going to drive), the tail light bezels are somewhat bumpy, and the tires are very probably getting up there in age as this owner and the previous one only put a few thousand miles total on the car(it sounds like). Between these items and the fact that the drivetrain is not numbers matching, I'd be inclined to offer 13k, maybe 14k. But, the other side is that I see these cars that need much more advertised for almost that much and(based on the cars that I have sold) because it looks nice from the top side a lot of people probably wouldn't look close enough to see some of these things until after they already owned it.