For me, beauty is only skin deep.
I bought a 1720 10 years ago.
There was no grill or side screens, the hood had been smashed and beaten back out so many times the headlights were non-existant, even the brackets for the headlights were gone.
The FEL bucket was fish mouthed and had so many patches on it that I eventually threw it away. The tractor came from coastal FL originally so the salt did a number on the fenders too. Holes had rusted through both fenders in many places.
After I got it home and got it washed I also found that the bottom ears of the engine block, where it bolts to the transmission had been broken and welded back. I looked it over good before I bought it and except for the broken block ears, I knew what I was buying. I wasn't rooked. I had been told it had lived a rough life up to that point.
But it ran and worked SWEET. Hydraulics, engine, transmission, PTO, everything worked just as it should. It had ~1400 hrs when I bought it.
So I paid the guy $5500 ten years ago and brought it home.
It will reach the 3000 hr mark in a month or so. I've put ~1600 hrs on it in the 10 years I've owned it and it has NEVER let me down. It's done everything I asked of it, even when I asked more than I should. I've done minor repairs and normal maintainence and it has served me well.
Since it will be 25 years old and reach that 3000 hr mark this year, I've started to work on the cosmetics. I hope by the end of the year that it will look almost new again.
But it's up to you really. If you can look beyond the 'skin' and find what's in the heart of that machine, you may have a real gem on your hands like I did.
Mark