I believe my Corsair came back from Honduras in 1984 so it was there for quite some time.
I had the same discussion with my dad in 1974. There was a P-51 for sale at Oshkosh for 64,000 and my dad just had the family home appraised for the same amount. I tried to get him to sell the house and buy the Mustang.
He finally sold that house for 130,000 in 1999 while the P-51 would of been worth over a million by then. He should of listened to me, but he did want me to explain where the seven of us would live if we had the airplane instead of the house.
There has been a lot of questionable characters in the early Warbird industry especially when some of those South American Countries (and Israel) desired some of our recently surplussed fighters. I have heard stories of DC-6's flying south very low with 4 fighters tucked in just below them. I have been told some of it was with approval from the government and some not. Once again could be just stories.
My Corsair is very original with a working gun sight and mostly complete gun bays, only missing the guns and the trays they mounted to. Mustang has the guns in the bays with fake ammo and even the solenoids for the guns work when I pull the trigger.
Checked on the GT again yesterday and we are getting real close. The front and rear glass should be done Monday (installer was injured so minor delay), then the fenders can go back on.
I just emailed Andrew for mats, switch blade key and seat inserts. I have been promised next week by my painter.
So far still on budget.