Looking for an adventure car in the North West (WA/OR/Northern CA)

Hello! Long time lurker and first time subscriber, and I'm looking to do something a little crazy near the end of summer 2021. I wanted to go on and put this out here now in case someone is thinking about selling later on as opposed to right this moment. My father is retired and not getting any younger, and before he starts to have any major health issues I wanted to do this trip and present him with the car at the end (assuming it doesn't completely fail!). Currently we live in the Cincinnati OH area and would like to fly out to the west coast WA, OR, or Norther CA and drive all the way back to Ohio stopping at whatever sights along the way. I'm thinking of doing it the later summer to avoid any major weather issues, most likely in the September time fame.

I'm not interested in a show, rare, or performance car as the experience in itself will make it more valuable to us than the numbers. I would prefer a convertible but if nothing comes up i think a t-top will be ok, it's ultimately to make the trip more exciting. Trans isn't a big deal to me. Preference would lean to a v8 car but a very well sorted v6 would be considered. Heat and AC have got to work, as well as most of the electronics, I'm not going to scoff at the little things. Paint doesn't have to be perfect and I'd like the body to be as rust free as possible. If the tires or weather stripping need replaced (as an example) I'm ok with taking it to the shop on the first day. Depending on any other work that needs done I can have conversation at that point as well.

Sorry for the long post, i just wanted to start getting some feelers out there as I'm terrified to buy one through CL or FB as most of those folks are looking to sell right in the moment and not wait. I'm also figuring i have a better chance at getting a good example from here.

I'd like to keep the over all budget lower than 10k, I think that's higher than what needs to be spent but I honestly don't know these cars nearly as well as I do others when it comes to a value scale.

 

Welcome!

 

No car to sell, but DO NOT miss


https://www.thehenryford.org/


We took 3, 8000 mile "Circle Of America" RV road trips, over the years. Above is about our favorite stop.

 

I traveled to the northwest in October this year. Got caught in a tornado, truck is all dented from hail, got caught in a dust storm where I had to slow to 30 mph, hit probably 100 tumbleweeds, got caught in a record setting snow storm, drove 650 miles on snow packed road.

Maybe next time we can drive through a fire..

 

thanks for the recommendation!! I guess that is the other part of the trip that is needed. Never been through the northern US so any thoughts on stops is very much welcome!