Dude....(I can say that, I grew up in S. Ca), I just got lucky.
I was looking for an SC to turn into a track car. He was asking $7500. When I saw it, I want to cry.....mirror hanging off, mirrored tint from the 70's dirty interior, so so paint etc. He had little to no records. I was walking when he offered to PPI it for me. He did and it came back with less than 5% leakdown, mid 150 compression etc. The PPI said a possible clutch was due so I used that to take him from $7500 to $5700.
The clutch ended up needing a cable adjustment
