I'm still new myself, but I just picked up an 85 Chevy Dolphin for $5500, and even then, it might have been a little much. There is no water damage, and I just took it to the mechanic down the road for a complete check over. So far, I am looking at around $2K just for stuff like flushing/replacing filter on the tranny, front wheel bearings, rear pinion seal, plus even though they look good, they highly recommended new tires due to seperation starting. Out of all of the Class C's we looked at in our area this one was the cleanest of all...And boy did we look. Still looking into putting a roof coating on the original roof (metal roof)just to be on the safe side. There aren't any leaks so far, but I dont want to temp fate on a 30 year old rig.
I think you did best by passing. Just because you put a bunch of upgrades on a pinto, it is still a pinto.....
J
