WARNING: Image heavy!
Seller let me know it will rain tomorrow, so he will reschedule our meeting and my looking over of the car.
Here are several photos he has provided. The interior is a 9/10. Just need to recover the seats...the windshield frame, doors, sills...um...Let me know what you all think. The rust holes in the doors, around the base of the windshield frame, is this car worth it? Salvageable?
I trust the judgement of you all. I just want the best X 1/9 I can find...that isn't $29k and located in Canada. lol
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I wouldn’t discount that car.
I would look very carefully at the rest of the car. You might want to pick up a paint thickness gauge. Bring a strong flashlight, if possible drive the front up on ramps so you can get under the car to look more carefully (yeah I am that guy).
The windshield rust look minor but the repaint could be hiding previous repairs. It looks like they didn’t remove the windshield and its glued on trim to paint the car.
The doors will need repair obviously, hard to say why the rust is that way. Look carefully along the bottom of the door when it is open. The rear valance is repair/replacable, not a big deal. The good thing is the rockers don’t look like they have been massaged/repaired as they still hav the seam line and doesn’t look effed with. Look down into the pocket where the gas fill sits above, the same with the one on the passenger side of the engine compartment, these are real rust areas due to the drain getting clogged.
Dash cracks are what I would expect most of these cars have. Both of mine are that way, a Cali car and a midwest car. Seats are likely just toast but the covers available from Vicks will fix that and in this case will look right.
Look carefully under the car for any terminal rust on brackets or open seams. On some cars an idiot will have closed up the footwell drain and the car will rust the out that area from the interior side (my midwest car suffers this problem grr).
When I look at a car I am looking for metal that is bent which shouldn’t be from accident repair (look at pics of the front and rear trunks to know what they should look like), rust and then mechanical. I always prefer to fix mechanical things, I hate fixing body work or chasing rust.
The car should start easily, accelerate as you would expect 75 rompin stompin horses to do, shift into and stay in each gear under load and stop properly with little drama (expect front locking but it should stop in a straight line) and the ride should be quiet and controlled without banging etc. Listen for bearing noise (though the updated ones from 79 on last a long time, like life of the car long time generally).
So I would look at that car carefully and not write it off. Particularly if you can get it at a reasonable price due to the obvious issues. Be honest with your concerns and why. Let the owner know what your intentions are, as a caretaker I will sell to someone for less who will love the car and care for it and not turn it into a ‘race’ car as in destroy it.
When you drive it don’t be an ass but do run it up to 6k and a bit in the first couple of gears when warm. Bring it down to a stop from 60 plus to zero pretty hard and then accelerate to 60 and do it again (This has bothered some people so I tell them I am doing it before I do it). This gives you an idea of the general health of the car mechanically and what you have ahead of you. When shifting, clutch in fully, pull back (push forward) somewhat slowly to the next gear and then smoothly on the clutch as you bring the revs up. These cars are not for drag racing and no part of the car appreciates a fast, hard shift, it will just damage things and you still won’t get there any faster…
Take lots of pics, note stuff down. It is easy to forget something about the car afterwords due to how much you are taking in.
Keep in mind the car market is not what it was a year or two ago but at the same time these are cars only certain people fit in, only certain people would entertain owning one and only certain people would take such a car on as a personal project. The price will likely be higher than it was last year.
Is this the car from the Keene area between Keene and Peterborough? The owner used to frequent this forum but I have not seen him here in years.
Anyway, I would consider owning that car given what I see.