I just purchased a 74 Cardinal with two previous damage incidents. As with yours, properly documented and it would appear properly repaired. The airplane does have a heavy wing (dealt with by some trim tab), but flies to book numbers and neutral ball on a 1700 hour engine. Rather than pay a 20K premium for a "no-damage history" airplane (which doesn't necessarily mean no damage history) I opted for one that was fixed 20 years ago and flies grant, and now that 20K saved is held back for the major.
Oh...and this airplane had a prop strike with a documented tear down and inspection (same time as the repair). I happened to talk to the shop (still around today) at GXY. Nice guy, assured me that at that time they did all their own engine work and he would not allow a tear down without all new internals (i.e. bearings, safteys, bolts, gaskets etc). So in essence, while my engine is 1770 TTSN, it was "practically" majored 500 hours ago. He's even going to his storage to look for the work order and send it to me. Sounds like a shop with nothing to hide.
