I went to look at this 2500 this morning. The car piqued my interest in February but I already had too many cars and this one had enough question marks to where I decided it probably wasn't for me. Price dropped and I ended up checking it out for a friend.
Talking with Eddie, the "owner" (more on this later), over the phone, the story of the car is that it was a one-owner car and the guy died. One of this guy's family members does estate sales, so they got the car. After three years or so, he was able to get it from them and he got it for his 16-year-old daughter to drive. She didn't like it (I was shocked! Eyes bulging, jaw dropped, the whole bit). So, he must sell it to be able to buy her a VW or something. I was clear that I was going to check it out for a friend. I had talked to him about how the car ran and he said unless I'm going to buy the car, I'm not going to test drive it. Fine. I'll know in 30 seconds if a test drive is even necessary.
The car looked okay in the photos, so the hour-long drive seemed worth it. I pulled onto the guy's property, saw the car and thought about just backing out and taking off, all with him sitting on the porch. It would certainly send a clear message, but in the interest of science, I decided to persevere.
I gave the car a once-over on the exterior and it had a two-stage respray at some point, I'd say at least 20 years ago. It was a scuff and shoot job with no block sanding or anything. Some trim was removed, most wasn't. There's a large chunk of paint on the left front of the hood that's missing. It does have the correct hood for an early car with the single hole for the windshield squirter, but the leading edge was showing some rust. The left rear door is loaded with dings and missing paint, so it likely sat on one side of a garage for a while. It had wing mirrors fitted at one point, though the original trapezoid mirror is still on the driver door. Eddie was excited to tell me the mirrors were in the trunk. The front grilles were painted black at some point, but where they are chipping, you can see they were grey. The right one has a couple broken slats.
Eddie opened the hood and this car did not start out Taiga. It was Tundra originally, which definitely makes more sense for the tan interior. It had a very thorough color change, but lots of stuff was in the way like the wiper linkage, horns, strut mounts, door latches and more. Of course, there aren't a lot of cars out there that haven't had some sort of paint work done. The right front has some rust perforation around the shock tower and where the fender attaches. There are also holes in the rockers and the under-hood structure up front is showing plenty of rust.
The battery was dead but he charged it for a bit and it fired right up. Minimal smoke on start up. It was clear that he hadn't started it before I got there.
I didn't bother pulling back the trunk carpet or panels since the car has enough rust. It doesn't have a sunroof, headliner looks okay for the vintage - not too much staining on the C-pillar, so it was probably garaged a good part of it's life. The seats have absolutely been redone, but we knew that going in. Driver's footwell carpet has a hole in the heel pad. There are a few cracks in the dash, but I've seen much worse. It has a stock-looking AM/FM radio and also has a TEAC 8-track unit under the drivers seat which Eddie insists is a factory part and it works. I asked if he has any 8-tracks. He said no.
He's dead set that the car has 25k miles on it. I think the odometer is on it's second time around. He showed me a flap from an oil filter box from 1981 which showed 15k and change on the odo. I'm sure that was 115k miles (11 years) I decided not to argue with him. No point. He cites the wear on the pedal pads as his evidence of mileage. To me, they look like they have 225k miles and that PO heel-toed his automatic.
He brought me "the title." Back in the 1970s and until the mid 1980s, Arizona used a system where they printed a certificate that had a reduced copy of your hand or type-written application for title on it. Well, what he has is a copy of that. Not the real thing. It's tough to read and almost looks like a ditto. There's no place for a notary or even a signature since the back side of this is completely blank. It's not a legit title, so unfortunately, this car essentially has no title. I didn't get into it with him since it's a non-issue for me and while he was insisting I make him an offer today, I reiterated the fact that I'm not an interested party. Only checking it out for a friend.
He does have the pair of license plates that were on the car. They're the green/yellow Arizona 73 plates which they used until 1980 and made people replace them in 1990. I have to try to read my picture of the "title" to see when it was issued. The PO was in the Air Force, so it's possible that the car didn't start out here.
