I got absolutely hosed on the purchase of a 1970 SS 454 Chevelle out of Pennsylvania. I bought it through one of those shopper magazines and paid a substantial down payment to hold the car as there was "other buyers".... The 454 was supposed to be the original engine and freshly rebuilt.
When I got there my 454 was a 402, the car had SS stripes and was green and white, but not the light metallic green in the ad. The dash was tach free with no other instruments but fuel, loaded with idiot lights.
The left quarter panel had a huge dent in it where he failed to mention that a table had fallen over on it. The car had SS emblems, but not the correct ones. It was an automatic on the floor with a console, but the column shifter was still there as well.
I loaded it up as he said he spent the money on dental work, refused to pay anymore and headed home with a thankfully clean title.
When I backed it off the trailer, the right front wheel went cock-eyed. The spindle was stripped and all that held the spindle nut on was a cotter key. The exhaust was glass pack header mufflers with no tail pipes attached directly to a nice set of Hooker Headers.
The rear axle was an open ten bolt with a 3.07 axle. He had the original interior and stapled to the back of the driver's door panel was the truth, a 307 coupe with a bench seat, power steering, air conditioning, and power drum brakes...
Yep, a fine prize, one of the few 1970 SS 454s around with front drums.
I fixed the car enough to drive it and ran it for about a year. The engine was actually a Chevelle 402 for a 1971 car. I put it in a 1970 Chevrolet C-10. I sold a lot of the junk I did not care for, like the Mallory Ignition, tires, wheels, headers (they were great, but did not fit my pickup) etc...
The engine was either very low mileage or had been rebuilt, it ran perfect, once I got the distributor hooked to the rpoper vacuum source and got rid of those trashy yellow Accel wires and small block spark plugs. I ran the valves and got them opening and closing like they should. I put about 150,000 miles on that pickup with the 402 in it.
A local guy had a 1971 Chevelle SS 402 with a rod hanging out of the side of the block. I sold him my engine and he rebuilt it, again, even though everything was in pretty good shape.
I put a small block in the pickup and gave it to my oldest son, he is still running the 400 transmission. It is probably a 1971 Chevelle transmission as well.
I sold the car to a guy that rebuilds them and sells them. He gave me 2000 for the coupe body and when he got done, it really looked like a 1970 SS Chevelle. He sold it as a clone for 22,000. It was really beautiful, black with white stripes and super, super straight.
Anyway, I figure I broke even, or close to it, but it was a lot of work. I never pursued the guy legally, I should have though.
Anyway, a long post to tell you I would have done the same that you did. One has to wonder if it is worth the legal fees to pursue and if somebody like that has anything to get after the legal fees. It sounds like you are going to recover much faster than I did. Glen
I included a photo of the old POS Chevelle and the 1970 C-10 when it had the 402 in it.
- I'm not a liar - oops - LAWYER)
i blame the aliens.. they took the original truck for sure... 
It's the ALIENS - They have collected enough radioactive fuel from those Deuce Gauges and can now ship the best trucks back to their home planet
and mechanics 
soon too
