VCCA Home Forums TECHNICAL - 1945 AND EARLIER 1937-1945 Possibly purchasing a 1939 Master Deluxe

Hello all I have never posted in this forum, but I have a question or two regarding looking into buying a 39 MD town sedan.
Here is some info:

Original paint with a few imperfections. Original seats/headliner no rips or tears.It has about 37K miles on it and there are some oil leaks, the only thing that worries me is the owner mentioned that there was a crack in the water jacket on the driver's side of the engine,but it does not leak anything from there and has been like that for at least 45 plus years. he is asking 12K for the car...should I run away from this car?

Thanks in advance,

Dave

PS No Charlie, it is not a '41, hope that does not offend.....

I purchased my 1939 MD in 1974 and it had 45,000 miles on it. I overhauled the engine (rings, pins, adjust rods and mains, etc. It was the most sludged up engine I ever saw but in good condition considering. Drove it to Colorado in 1976 and twice after that + to at least 15 other states through the years. In 1981 the block cracked while returning from out east. I found a new bare block and transfered my parts into it a year later. It seeped a littlt bit. After remover I broke a hole in the left side of the block and the water jackets were filled with rust that looed like coofee grounds but it never overheated (1937-1940's always ran a little on the hot side)
The car a an old repaint job that was fairly good and a fairly good original interior.I did install a 3.73 ring gear and pinion in about 2000, should have done it a lot sooner. It had a few thousand $$ worth of rear accessories on it and around 90,000 miles when I sold it to a friend in 2014 for $13,500 which I onssidered a bargin for a great looking proven road car.

If you were to purchase the car I would consider overhauling the engone (not rebuilding) but is it worth rebuilding a cracked block?

Little too much money considering.