Sorry. I should clarify. The last active owner is not the seller. The car came out of a lien sale. Which is why I’m looking for background on it. Thanks again for any assistance.
I don't see any history for it anywhere. I was initially hung up on what seemed to be a depression, but that is an illusion created by the crooked door handle.
My uninformed but seemingly logical perspective on the "bow"
The bow could be from years of filler from paint job to paint job. Plenty of members have shown the "tree rings" of paint and filler during a bare metal restoration. That area of the car seems to get a lot of filler. My rear arches had 1/4" of filler on them from the shop rebuilding the bent arches with bondo instead of addressing. I can say that the area in question doesn't see a lot of rust.
Check the tail panel for excessive filler near the trunk lock. From the side, glance at the alignment of the aluminum tail panel respective to the tail lights. Check to see if it bows in or if the tails are out of alignment. Look at the trunk for for visible kinks in the floor. If the tail cover is off, you can also check for signs of damange fromt he backside of the panel. One thing about the 1974 5mph bumpers is that they will take a heftier hit without damaging the tail. A hit in the '80's that could total a 1968-1973 US coupe could have left a '74 salvageable. The energy has to go somewhere though. If you think about what would happen if you hit the back of the car, the sides will kink in our bow out. The door alignment will get screwed up so check for signs of door fiddling, or funny door gaps (which is a common issue in general).
Feel the 'fins' that protrude from the rear well down to the trunk floor. They are on the outer edge of the trunk. Feel for bends or kinks. They tend to be covered in a trunk liner, if they are off or easily removed then check them out. I haven't messed with '74 trunk wheel well liners in a year but I recall that they don't come off easily. To the point where I didn't want to pull/break them. If the fin portion comes off easily, take a look. Honestly, if I was spending this much on the car, I would ask the owner if we could remove the whole trunk liner. Given the bow that you spotted, you could and have a body shop PPI it. You can pull the body measurements from the factory "blue books".
Lastly, you can get to it with a scope from the trunk, and examine the back of the panel for visible dents or kinks in the metal. There is a little access hole at the very top of the fender near the c-pillar emblem. It's probably pretty tricky with a '74 given the aforementioned fins that come down from the wheel wells.
Also, you could always just live with it but once you see it you can't unsee it.
quarter panel? There’s bondo there, although not gooped on. The magnet still sticks. Can’t tell if it’s just sloppy body work, or there’s something more serious going on. Thanks in advance for the help.
