Well the proverbial trigger was pulled, couldn't pass up on the deal. She ain't a looker and needs some help but that is kinda what I was looking for.
Made the 200+ mile trek from MI to OH safely if not soundly.
Seller disclosed that the wipers moved a bit wonky and they unfortunately got a lot of use, rained pretty hard most of the way back...in the dark...yes I peed a little. Visibility was not stellar but again, back safely.
Seller also disclosed a CEL that pops up when the car is ran at a constant speed for 10+ minutes, which popped up right on schedule. He said if you accelerate and then decelerate or just decelerate the CEL goes away for another 10 or so minutes...yep that happened...a lot. I played around with constantly changing speeds and the CEL doesn't come on, my first thought is TPS but need to read the code to know more.
Brought an ALDL scanner to plug into the car but unfortunately the cigarette lighter doesn't work so I don't have juice to run the scanner, strike one.
I do need a set of tires for it before a big trip, the rears are pretty used up and all four corners need to be balanced, strike two.
Seller said the car was gone over by a mechanic and gave the car a clean bill of health. I poked around and noticed the ATF was a bit low, oil a bit low, coolant a bit low, washer fluid empty, brakes a bit squishy. Meh minor stuff, but then I saw that the oil service sticker was from 01/15/15...yep over a year since the last OC. Sticker did show that the car had < 2k miles since the OC, but not encouraging. I won't call it a strike but definitely a foul ball, hanging in there.
Being the exploratory type I wanted to glance at the brake fluid to see if it looked all icky or if it was okay. The fill line on the side was impossible to see through so I popped the top...and realized the system was still under pressure as fluid started seeping out around the lid immediately. I snapped the lid back in place but in the process must've cracked an old seal because now it is slowly weeping fluid, strike three. I'm out.
Fortunately in this game I get as many at bats as my wallet can handle, so having the car picked up / shipped this week. I'll be flying home and ready to piss off the wife with my new toy. Overall I'm very pleased with the car, has all the crappiness I was hoping for. I was really looking forward to a road trip but with no working ALDL I'm flying blind and would need at least two days to do the necessary maintenance to feel safe driving it across country.
Thanks for all the tips and well wishes folks, I'll likely start a build thread when I'm back in town.
-Tyler