In a very rare, unordinary situation, you might find that the A&P who
had been servicing the aircraft all along to be a good one for the
prepurchase. Mine was one of these rare occasions. The story goes that
the A&P's father first bought this airplane learned to fly in it, then
passed it down to his oldest son who learned to fly in it, who then
passed it down to the younger son, who also learned to fly in it and
later became this A&P/IA and the owner of an FBO. He sold the plane to
a local flying club and then was pretty much the exclusive maintainer
of it for the next 13 years after that. I had him do a full
prepurchase/annual inspection and everything seemed good so I bought
it. He showed me every nook and cranny of the plane and explained
every nuance it had to me in detail. The morning I flew it away, he
asked to fly it one more time and I could tell that he was on the
verge of getting emotional to see it fly away from "home" for the last
time. Someday, if my economic situation wouldn't stink so bad, I'd
wish I could give the Checkerbird a new paintjob (same orange and
white checkers, of course) and interior and fly her back up to Iowa
just to show her off.