Bob,
You've opened a can of worms that we beat the hell out of a month or so ago. Damage history is what you make of it. If you're not a mechanic, I'd find one and determine if the repairs were completed as good as new. If it's not as good as new, then you have to determine if the repair is according to the manufacturer's recommendations as specified in their structural repair manual. In the absence of suitable data, does it comply with the structural repair instructions located in AC 43.13 1B. If it is determined to be in airworthy condition by your mechanic, you have to make the determination if the 'damage' or the documentation that infers that the plane was damaged is okay with you.
I feel like as long as it's structurally sound and any repairs conform to approved data, fly the heck out of it. Wayne and Hung went at it (in a friendly way) about a woman with scars. Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes all the way to the bone. Airplanes are usually that same way.
And, just to note, no one that I know would just go out and decide to replace the vertical stab, horizontal leading edge, elevator bellcrank and rudder control horn just cause they were bored. Something happened, and the seller honestly may or may not have a clue as to what it was.
Unlike airline logs that have a discrepancy followed by a corrective action, general aviation logs are blank pages for the mechanics to list what they did. There are no requirements to list the reason. Example: Replaced Rt elevator half. Why?????? Damage? Corrosion? Thievery? No, he needed some money to make ends meet because he was a struggling furloughed airline mechanic and decided to sell the elevator half to help pay the mortgage. Damage history? Not really. Suspicious logs, Certainly.
Inspect it, buy it or not, but if you do buy it, quit looking back and we'll see you in Clinton, IA July 20th, 2006. By the way, nobody goes around looking and says, "Ooh, you have damage history on your plane." Most are treated like a wounded bird, finally finding a caring owner. There are no scarlet letters here.
Good luck with the purchase, and fly, fly, fly.
