Be sure to check the frame for rust just in front of rear wheel and the #3 body mount which is behind the access plate there.

 

I was looking at that as a basis of how low one can reasonably go for. I would take my uncle with me no matter what I got - he has a nice looking 1976. I'm looking for a new daily driver too, so I'm gonna be broke after all this. Lol

 

IMO, if you buy one too cheaply, your gonna have to pay in the long run.
You either pay now or later. I suggest that you pay now, get one in better conditioninstead ofgetting one to completely restore. But if you want to restore one, there are a few good deals out there.

I bought a POS and have dumped around 6 g's in 'er so far, but that's what I wanted, a car to build, my way.

 

I have always looked at it this way buy the car for the car- body,frame/ no rust or rot, major wreck damage!!
most of the time sellers either dont know what the motor really is or has in it or they just flat out lie, so your better off paying for a nice body and frame and installing your own drive train that way you know what is in it!!
For example when i bought my 71 malibu it was an excellent clean straight arizona car, owner told me it had a 307 in it that smoked a little (bad valve guides) it turned out to be a 350 4 bolt main??
When i bought an 80 Z/28 was supposed to have a 350 in it turned out to be a 305 with 2 different sized heads?? But i got descent cars for a very fair price and had new motors waiting to install so i never got burned!!

 

One way you can go is get a car that is being restored and the owner doesn't want to continue restoring it for whaterver reason. You can usually get a car like this reasonably. You will probably get some new parts thrown in in the deal. I purchased an Arizona vette this way. I just made sure the frame was rust free, as it was truly an Arizona car the frame was like new. The suspension had been completed. The only drawback was the car had not motor which was ok with me as I wasn't after Bloomington Gold. I wanted a car that had guts so I had a motor built up the way I wanted and dropped it in. The interior was a little rough, but I like working on that so it was no big deal. You might want to look at this as another possibility. There are alot of rough late 70's out there don't fall in love with this one if you have any doubts walk away.

 

I changed my mind about an old one and am now the happy owner of a 2001 c5.