I drove out and found the place where the little PV544 is sitting. It looks a LOT better in person than the pictures show. There's a lot of dust and dirt, and some surface rust (not as much as the pictures would lead you to believe) so an in-person inspection was needed to get the right info about this car.

There are some smallish problems, of course, but there are a lot of good things going on here.

The engine is a Buick Grand National V6 (about 1985 I think) and it looks very good, despite the dust you see in the pictures. The installation looks very professional and complete. They even swapped in the Buick radiator and TH350 transmission. The seller swears he can start it any time with a battery and some gasoline.

The rear end was changed over to a front-wheel-drive axle setup, with the wheels reversed so they didn't have to chop the axles. I looked underneath, and it all looks well engineered, although I suspect a Ford Ranger rear would have been a better choice.

The stock Volvo steering column was swapped for the Buick unit, and except for a crappy steering wheel, looks very nice.

The body (under the crud and surface rust) is as straight as any PV I've seen. I dug pretty deep into the sills, floorboards, and frame horns, and all I could find was a small bubble on the left front side just in front of the driver's door. In the cowl.

The other rust spot was the ever-popular spare tire well. It has a hole about 4 inches by 3 inches, and the remaining metal is solid, so that would be an easy repair.

The interior doesn't look like the pictures at all. Someone used a woven Herculon sofa fabric to cover the dash, and it has sun-rotted and is hanging down. Looks bad, but it's a very easy thing to clean up. With a stock upholstery kit it would look like new inside in very short order.

The main drawbacks I could see all dealt with chrome; the front bumper was traded for a square aluminum bumper The headlight rings and grill frame are rusty and must be replaced or replated. I didn't see all the fender spears, but the ones on the car are in very fine condition. The rear bumper is very rusty, too, so there is another chunk to be replaced.

Over all, I'd say this a a great deal on a project for someone who wants to build a hotrod without having to do all the scut work.

I got the sum of $2,500 as the reserve price, but that may be flexible. Seems like a heck of a deal to me, and if I didn't already have more projects than I'll ever complete in this lifetime I'd snap it up in a heartbeat.

It goes off Friday, so get out your un-spent Christmas money (riiiight!) and put in a bid.

The car has a clear title and is 'non-op' for registration in California, so you can get the title changed over without costing you an arm and a leg.

Steve