Hum, I am no expert on Classic Maserati, but have done a full resto on an 1969 Opel GT and here is my advice:
1. Completeness. This is the number one thing I would go for in a classic car. Mine was not, and it took so much time and money to find and replace all the non genuine and missing parts. If it is just the seats and the ashtray, then fine.
2. Rust, dont really need to say much here, all classic cars will be bought based on this major factor, and if its too far gone, walk away.
3. Accident damage. You dont know the full history of the car, you are going on what you are being told by the vendor and would not take his word for it.
4. Source the missing parts. Something Loz taught me, when doing cat cars, source all the major parts you are going to need like the seats, ash tray etc. You might find that there is no way you can get the seats and maybe why they were sold from the car in the first place, unlikely, but it could happen. Get the wiring looms source too before you start along with the diagrams. Rubber is notoriously hard to find, so you have to bare in mind that all the screen rubbers will need replacing, and loads of silly minor bits. There will also be many cases of when you are assembling, you look at this rusty old part and look at your clean body and say "I cant put that on there!" and there starts the massive parts list you will have to buy.
5. Who is going to do the work? If it you with the body being send of for pro respray then that method works the best. If you are going to pay for a full resto service, you might find it cheaper and less agro just to buy an up together car.
6. Budget. Basically from the point above, get your budget sorted from the off and add a 25% contingency to it.
7. Build. If you are doing it yourself, the correct way to do a resto is to build the car back up fully, then when complete, tear it down and send for paint. There is nothing worse than getting your freshly painted body back to find nothing fits or you are missing bit. What you will do is end up marking the bodywork during this agro process.
In summary, this is a significant project that will demand a lot of time, and to be honest, if it were me, I feel it does warrant a flight over to view it upon winning the auction. If the guy is of any stature, he will pick you up from the airport and put you up for the night. That way you can agree the deal and most importantly package the whole car up for shipment, which basically includes, nosing round his garage and finding all the odds and sods that get easily forgotten. Once he sells the car, he will just bin anything he finds later.
The last thing is you are entering into a very frustration journey, try and enjoy it, especially all the front end research and doing the deal, as there will be many a time you will want to just set light to the bl00dy thing usually after days of doing something to find its all wrong or you end up scratching the bodywork.
