"Buying your first classic or collector
car?"
By David Grainger
If you are taking the plunge into the hobby and have reached
the stage where you are getting ready to make your purchase, there
are a lot of things you should know before you blow the wad.
Once you have figured out what kind of car you want to buy,
you are going to have to do a little research. It is always a
good idea to determine what a car’s weak points are, whether
those weak points are original design flaws or regular abuses
that some cars such as Corvettes are subject to by their owners,
i.e.. continuous Jack rabbiting, excessive braking etc. In most
cases a seller is not about to offer up a list of things that
are wrong with the car unless he is trying to cover up a large
flaw by admitting to a few small ones. This leaves the responsibility
for determining the car’s fitness to you. If you know nothing
about mechanics and body, you can get counsel from a professional
in the field like a mechanic or dealer, but beware the well intentioned
friend. I have seen situations where friends' advice to prospective
buyers has implemented their purchase of a very bad car and indeed
the reverse, where a really good car has been passed over because
the friend was more interested in showing off just how much expertise
they had rather than being objective about the car. You also have
to be aware that not everybody who works with cars has the expertise
to help you select a classic. Joe down the road who services your
Honda may be just great, but what does he actually know about
a 1959 Oldsmobile or a 1934 Buick. In that situation he may be
just as lost in the wilderness as you. He may never have even
seen under the hood of one of these cars, never mind knowing about
carrier bearings on the drive line, torque tubes, or cast exhaust
manifolds that have expansion joints that are prone to seizing
and cracking. You may end up putting Joe in a very bad position,
especially if you are paying him to make the call. If he calls
it wrong, and it costs you a ton of money, you might lose a guy
who's great at fixing your Honda, and he might lose a good and
valued customer.
If a seller is willing and you have a reputable antique car dealer
or restoration shop near you, it is best to take the car to where
it can be properly inspected. If that is not possible, then you
are going to have to rely on yourself and your own common sense.
Never let your excitement about a car blind you to its warts.
Always remember that there are lots of other cars out there.
The first thing to look at is the body and paint. Walk around
the car and look at all of the door, trunk and hood fits. Let
your eyes track down each crack, making sure it is even and that
there is no pinching or opening of the gaps. They should also
be even all around the car. The gaps on either side of the hood
or on the left and right front doors should be the same. If this
is not the case then they could be telling you that the car may
have been in an accident which has been inexpertly repaired, or
that it has been through a poor restoration, and might be an indicator
of many more problems under the surface. Any competent restorer
knows how to fit the hood and doors. If they are wrong then it
can show either an incompetent restoration or worse, that there
is a serious problem with the car that can not be corrected with
adjustments.
Next, check the rocker panels and inside the fender wells and
inside the doors. These are areas prone to rust and often glossed
over in a quick fix by just stuffing with bondo and covering with
gravel guard. If you find that the lower rockers are covered in
gravel guard or wavy and apparently stuffed then it may be a good
idea to look no further and take a pass on the car right at that
point. The only thing worse than rust is badly repaired rust damage.
It is usually harder to fix and as a result costs a lot more money.
Open the doors and see if they drop a little as you open them.
Lift up and down gently and see if there are hinge problems. If
they are rigid, that's good, if there is a lot of movement, take
a good look at the area around the hinges and inside the back
of the front fender as revealed by the open door. If it doesn’t
look right, it probably isn’t.
The door skin wraps just over the edge of the door and is crimped
and spot welded on most cars. This edge should be crisp and straight.
If it isn't there or disappears under bondo, it shows a bad
repair and also indicates the level of incompetence of the restorer
or body man. Check the door sills as well. A lot of mudslingers
(another name for a bad body man) are too lazy to sand and finish
these areas properly and bondo may be very apparent. The same
can be said for the rockers. A lot of poor body men can’t
be bothered to get far enough down to finish these areas properly.
The same can be said of bad painters not wanting to bend down
far enough to get paint under the rockers. If you get down and
take a look under you might see unsanded bondo, unpainted surfaces
and even patch panels with rivets in them. It’s really worth
the bend.
You should also take a good look at the paint. If it appears that
the car has just been painted be suspicious. Fresh paint can often
hide problems that will literally surface within months or sometimes
even weeks of your purchase. Paint will often hide temporarily
rust which has just been painted over. Be warned. You should also
check to see if the colour is even all around the car. Patches
of colour which are a little different may indicate blow ins,
which are localized repairs in which the entire car is not painted
but just damaged areas. There is nothing wrong with a good blow
in, but if it is a good one, you probably won’t see it.
Bad ones can, once again, indicate a quick repair which has just
been done to sell a damaged car.
Paint quality can be judged by the shine and the amount of orange
peel in the paint surface. Orange peel is a condition that exists
when paint has either been shot with too much air pressure and
lays on to dry or has too much solvent in it which causes it too
dry too rapidly. It actually resembles the surface texture of
an orange, and if it is really bad, it ruins the appearance of
the car. Believe it or not, new cars are often covered in orange
peel because modern production techniques demand that paints dry
very fast, so production paints often contain accelerators which
cause peel. In order to match this appearance many modern paint
codes actually replicate this look and if a 1996 Chevy is the
subject of the paint job, that’s fine, but bad or inconsistent
orange peel looks bad on a classic. If the paint on the car is
good, it should show a crisp light return. If it is fuzzy or dull
it could be orange peeled.
Another little visual test is to sight down the sides of the
car examining the reflections. Bad bodywork under the paint is
often revealed by reflections that are distorted.
Once you have had a good look at the body and paintwork, and
if you are still interested in the car, it’s time to get
down and get a good look under the car. For this you really should
have a flashlight. Look first at the frame and body mounts. The
body mounts are usually on arms that stick away from the frame.
Check to see if the rubber mounts are in good shape and the supports
are not rotted. On most frames, some rust, especially surface
rust, is the norm, but you should, using a screwdriver or similar
tool, just tap suspicious areas on the frame with the point. Soft
areas are easily detected doing this. Look at the bottom of the
floorboards and the rest of the passenger compartment including
the base of the firewall and the areas around the gas tank at
the back of the car. You should also look in the trunk at this
time and check under the carpets and side covers. Stick your hand
down into the well on each side of the trunk and feel around for
rust or other problems. The flashlight may come in handy here
as well.
If when you are looking under the car all you can see is layers
of tar guard and spray on under coat on everything, it is time
to reconsider how much you want the car. It is amazing how much
damage can be concealed by this stuff. You should feel happiest
about the bottom if what you are looking at is old, even worn
factory under paint and frame paint with perhaps some surface
rust. Don’t let yourself be fooled by spray on tar.
Checking the paint and body work, aside from a few tips, is common
sense. The further the car appears to be from correct, the less
desirable it should be to you. A few faults may be all right.
It depends on what you want and how fussy you want to be, but
if there are a lot of things wrong, unless you have deep pockets
or are a masochist, take a pass.
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