Buying a server on the down low

In both the US and UK, and probably elsewhere, when old sailing warships got past the point of economical maintenance, money for new ships was hard to get, but money to overhaul old ships was available, so they'd strip the old ship down to nothing, reuse one timber from the keel or just a small scrap, build an entirely new ship, and call it an overhaul.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.