You know, it sounds like this plane has a lot going for it. Your mechanic says it checks out, it's got good avionics. 800 SMOH leaves you w/ at least 1000 hrs or more if you make TBO. So if you buy it now for $20,500 and a couple years from now sell it for $17 or 17.5 are you really that much worse off? You will have gotten years of fun flying from it after all.
I bought mine relatively cheap. It has also been wrecked. But like Gremlin says, it's got a bunch of new parts/pieces and it still flies great (OK, it flies a little crooked, but hey, I can live w/ that!).
OTOH, if that crease is talking to you at night, then listen to your gut. Back burner it, and keep looking for that sweetheart plane and be prepared to buy it. Obviously, at the ages we're talking about, many if not most of our planes have damage history.
Good luck, welcome back and please let us know if we can help.
Greg
