I politely told the owner I was backing off due to the rust issues. He emailed me back and asked me to make an offer. I did for $2000. We'll see...

In other news, I also walked away from that '87 300SDL... looked like it had the beginnings of rear window sill rot. It was a nice car with a darn near immaculate interior... owner thinks he can get $6500 on a car that Hagerty's says is only worth $4100. Denial... not just a river in Egypt...