For you guys that have done or are in the process of a restoration or restification, what is your opinion of the work on these high-priced rigs? Is the work generally good enough that the price is commensurate with what you are getting, or is it a bunch of bondo holding the doors together painted nice and shiny?
Unfortunately, having dealt with enough people on Craigslist, I'm extremely untrusting of "work" other people claim to have done, or worth of parts used, if you can't see them. Like engine internals, etc.
Kind of a random question I suppose, but like the '73 even for ~23K, all I can think about is "what did they cut corners on"?
The "in process" photos tell the tale....IMHO.
Show me an expensive truck for sale that has a detailed photo gallery of the entire teardown, metal work as it happened, and all of the "uglies" that were exorcized from the truck during that process, and I'm a lot more comfortable moving forward to an in-person inspection.
Shiny paint is great at hiding bondo.....Rhinoliner is great at hiding really bad patchwork on the floors or underneath. Without the in-process photos of the restoration work, those both become huge red flags for me.
Other flags are dealers that park trucks on "checkerboard" floor tiles with flattering lighting for the photos.... or a truck where some of the major cosmetic items are done, but millions of smaller items were ignored (old trim and rubber, missing knobs, broken gauges, missing seatbelts, etc). Those are not the signs of someone who is meticulous.... they are the signs of a "big picture" guy who is probably trying to flip a truck for some quick cash and was never emotionally invested in the project anyway.
Even shiny paint will bug me when they don't bother to tape off the door strikers or VIN tags. That sort of hastiness in the prep process tells me they were trying to get it into the paintbooth as quickly as possible.... not necessarily trying to do things right.
Engine bays that look "old" while the rest of the exterior looks "new" are another red flag to me... again, it's a sign that the seller wasn't really thinking about making everything nice....only the easy stuff that most people notice.
Personally, I'd be searching on the 67-72 Board classifieds for a nice truck before I wasted time on AutoTrader or whatever. The seller most likely has a build thread for the truck... at the very least you can read their post history and learn what kind of person they seem to be (detail oriented, corner-cutter, etc).... there's a lot you can learn about a person by reading their last 12,000 posts!!!!
In all seriousness, having that sort of history is great and a lot of the guys there are more critical of their own trucks than most average people would be....
-G
