Hi,

I think you are refunding most of his money to rebuilding the engine and the seller is throwing in the body for free.

Yep, $900 will get you a project car but are the tires like brand new and how about the interior?
It will take Lots of time to get a good car out of a possible diamond in the rough, that’s at roughly clocked 300 K on the other working parts.
Need to know if changed and How old are they with paper dates, if possible.
How severe is the tail gate damage or is or was there more underneath?

You might have a problem getting it registered in California. There is supposedly a new law cracking down on cars with salvaged titles and possibly parts without receipts from salvage yards. It’s gotten heavier on the CHP to do inspections with the car on a rack!

This is where did the engine comes in to being a bigger deal without some traceability.
Power trains are being swapped out of flooded cars and so forth. I believe this is even a bigger deal, of lately, due to the 150,000 freshly flooded cars sneaking on the used car market across many state lines.

You need to know if there is any kind of lien or involvement with serial numbers, insurance companies and such!
Buying his unproven engine rebuild and tossing the rest might be the option he is now doing.
Ask yourself these questions.

Since He is late on smog registration, the tags are late. Yes!
Are there fines to get it clear for resale? Most likely!
Can a not operational fee apply to get more time! You might need it get that!
Then if so, this brings back around to the salvage issue in California, come title time? Almost assuredly and your ducks being in a row!

Does he have the turbo accessories and the A/C hose, where is it is going? Is a working compressor down in there on the end of it?

Do you want to be where he is with his investment, plus hauling it from where ever it is?

What does it cost to rebuild these engines anyway?

A Big question, from my stand point, is why he doesn’t finish it?

Phil