How far will a PO go to hide rust?, Somehow, I was surprised... Options

[Pnambic]

I know that the rule is buyer-beware when it comes to buying 30 yr old cars especially from individuals, but it seems to me like this guy almost went to more trouble to hide the rust than it would have taken to repair it.
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Ah well....here are the pictures.

After I pulled off the passenger side rocker, I grabbed the screwdeiver and decided to start poking around. I hit under the jackplate and to my surprise and consternation, the screwdriver drove right into the material just like it was foam....and ya know why? BECAUSE IT WAS FOAM.

I took a picture to document the fun and started picking away. Almost the entire jack plate had been formed out of foam, smoothed out and then painted to make it look just like a real one. Shouldn't be a real tough fix, which is kinda what perplexed me. Why go to such trouble to hide a relatively easy fix? Intentionally concealing something like this seems almost criminal.
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Oh yeah....found a similar, but far smaller occurance on the driver side but not at the jack plate.

Maybe we've had a post on this before, but do you have any Perplexing PO Puzzles you'd like to post about?

[TheCabinetmaker]

Where did you purchase this car?