Buy it for $25K put $100K into it and you will have a $75K airplane.

Wow! Those numbers tell almost the exact story of my 1966 Turbo Aztec.

The subject line of this story caught my eye because that's the amount
of the first check we wrote for our plane (as "salvage - for parts
only"). We've often said it would have still been a bad deal if we'd
gotten it for nothing, but it's a great plane and I have a hard time
imagining anything else working so well for our typical trips.

If I saw a deal like this, I'd be inclined to work something out with
the owner to get the plane through a decent annual inspection and into
airworthiness before writing a check for it. I'd be happy to pay for
the repairs (up to some limit) to be able to purchase a *flying* plane
instead of just one with potential. If you have a mechanic friend and
the plane is already in your backyard, it's a little different, but I
wouldn't want to go through driving two hours each way to work on
restoration again.

Good luck.

--kyler