[ihc] John's 800 shopping

["Jim Grammer" <jgrammer@xxxxxxxxxx>]

I could use some advice on a potential purchase. There's a 67 800 for sale
in my neighborhood, and I'm more than tempted... I've plenty of work on the
Travelall yet, and not a lot of spare time, but... Let me just ask if you
think it's a reasonable price: He wants $800. Odo reads 35K, so likely 135K.
It's mechanically sound, but the body is rough. It has the 196, 3 speed
manual, Dana 44 rear, 30 front, unknown ratios, dual tanks. Runs great,
drives well, everything works. He has the "pickup" style (halfcab?) top on
it, but it's from a Scout 80, and doesn't fit properly. He also has the full
size 800 top, in the yard under snow. There's rust (floors and fender
wells), and bondo, and primer, but no major dents or crumples in the body.

Sounds like a $500 truck to me, sight unseen. The real clincher for 80/800's
is the rust you *can't* see, and the killer is in the cowl underneath the
trailing edge of the front fenders. The leading edge of the rockers can get
involved as well. Usually the front fenders have to be off to see the full
scope of the damage. It is fixable, but no fun. I walked away from an
running/driving $500 800 after driving 5 hours with the trailer to it,
because the front fenders were off and I could see the gory details.

FWIW, there have been a coupe 80/800's for sale locally recently that the
owners think they're going to get over $3k for. Both are in reasonably
original unrestored condition, far from creampuff. The world needs dreamers
:)

Jim