My thoughts were that you seem to want to find something on the cheap for a driver and there is always a reason why a vehicle gets parked. Maybe you will get lucky and be able to just swap a motor into the best car but my experience is it rarely works out that way. I have found that it is usually much easier to find something that is currently on the road that way you can rule out many of the potential gremlins that always seem to move right into those backyard finds. Not saying it can't be done and believe me I have done it the way you are hoping to as well but usually with much more down time and extra parts.

I wish we were getting top dollar out here as I might be trying to take advantage of that. Something about the 6 months of road salt I imagine kind of makes it a buyers market up here for anything pre 2000.

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1982 240D auto
1978 300CD auto
1985 300D auto
1983 300TD auto
1984 Porsche 944 5 speed
1973 Opel GT 1900 4 speed
1967 Chevy C30 350 Sm420
1973 Mustang Grande Convertible 302 C4
1981 VW Pickup 1.6D Turbo 5 speed
1983 Rabbit 1.6D Factory Turbo 5 speed
Plus parts vehicles...