Aluckyguess wrote:

All in all the owner will not sell it for what I want to pay for a plane
with no logs. I would have no problem flying it with a good pre-buy.

The price is the real problem! With an airplane, I think you've got to
think about when YOU are going to sell it as you negotiate a price. G

My co-owner and I just went through the same issue. We're looking to
move from the Sundowner to a faster craft. The subject of our interest
had lost logs in 1986, with an owner who's lost his medical. Based on
the details, and the overhaul date of the engine, we're quite sure it
was gear-upped. We really didn't have a huge problem with the log
restart, as it's been through 19-20 annuals. We figured by now any
shoddy repairs should have shown themselves.

Our problem was that the current owner did not take a lost log hit off
the price when he bought it several years ago, so he can't sell it for
what it's really worth. We felt that the fact the airplane had not sold
for a what our research shows was a very good to downright cheap price,
if it had complete logs, was real proof that we'd have a problem later on.