I've got a similar situation with a big bolt, a flatbed COE that belongs to a neighbor about half a mile down the road from my farm. I know it's been in his barn for at least 25 years, maybe longer, with the cylinder head off. I'm trying to work up a package deal for the truck and a D-4 Cat dozer that's sitting beside it. He's gone from an outrageous asking price to "make me an offer", so we're making progress.

I'm also looking at three mid-40's 1-ton Cornbinders at another farm down the road. They've been decorating a fencerow for at least as long as we've been in the neighborhood, (since 1983), and probably much longer.
Jerry

"It is better to be silent and be thought a fool than to speak and eliminate all doubt!" - Abraham Lincoln
Cringe and wail in fear, Eloi- - - - -we Morlocks are on the hunt!
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. - Ernest Hemingway
Love your enemies and drive 'em nuts!