Old car buying: Questions to ask
 

Lets say you were looking at on older, ~68 era fbod, and it was located far away. You want to ask the seller as many questions you can before taking a drive to check out the car and potentially buy it.

I assume seller could video areas etc, so any problem areas to look for?
Questions that would be wise to ask?

Thanks

Pretty much any and all of the sheet metal. Depends on your concerns.

If you look at some of the threads on pro-touring or lat g. Or remember wildbillys old car. You will know that it may not even matter. Solid looking cars can be basket cases once you get into them...

Where is the far away place it lives now

I think its down in SC, so a drive isn't the end of the world.

Basically, the car runs/drives and looking to see if I can pick up any issues prior to committing to any journey down.

it depends on what the seller is claiming it is, and what pictures he already provided... if they are saying its numbers matching yada yada i want date codes, and the whole nine. if hes saying its rust free but shows no pics of front/rear winshield mouldings, trunk etc then i want that too. what do you know about the car already?

Its not numbers matching I would guess and frankly, do not care if it isn't.

Just looking at old cars for a summer daily driver for the old man. He found this car and wants me to think of questions to ask the seller. Seller claims it's daily driver status, but that can vary drastically from person to person.

eyes on the car >> anything else.

title title title. pics of vin, cowl tag, title.

Is it going to be an ls swap immediately? But ya, you have to really check EVERYWHERE for rust. Not just looking at the surface but digging deep and far to find any and all rust. Like mentioned, the windshields can get nasty. I'm sure you can look around and find other areas that are very common as well.

going to have to look over it with a fine toothed comb in person unfortunately. No way you'd be able to judge the car over the internets. Like bonzo said, those 3 are very important, and eyes are the most.

A lot of **** can happen in almost 50 years.

You can have him take pics of every angle of the car and every section of the undercarriage. Maybe a video of it running, if the engine is supposedly a high dollar build. Get a picture of the VIN, the trim tag, and the title IN HIS OR HER NAME.

If/when you decide to go look at the car, post up as there's a bunch of stuff you can do to prevent yourself from getting screwed. I got burned on the '69 Camaro however things were the opposite with the Nova. I could not give less of a **** about the drivetrain that it had. Body damage will kill you.

Pictures can only help so far. I recall a story of a 1st gen Camaro bought from "down south" via pics. The pics showed the car very well. Car arrived and still looked nice. Further investigation found 1 inch of bondo on the doors (and other places). You have to be able to poke, prod and put a magnet to the car :)

Car starts and runs, has video of this.

I told my dad to ask for more specific videos, wanna verify car gauges work and when hot the motor doesn't clank, trans shifts cleanly etc. Drivetrain is stock AFAIK.

Again, fairly certain he won't buy this one, but come summer I am sure he will get more serious about looking so info like this is good to know.

Is the engine/trans combo pretty much stock?

AFAIK, its 100% lame 1960s stock stuff.

It's cool that it runs and drives but for the most part that's not nearly as big a deal as body and rear rail issues.

You could probably score a driver quality 350/TH350 setup for not that much money ($1000?) if you had to start from ground zero. Having to replace, say, a quarter panel will run you a lot more than that.

I have stressed that point many a time to him. I am sure I fix or replace any drive-train related issue for much cheaper than sourcing body work.

Ask about the title in detail, not just if it exists or not but if it is in the name of the person you are buying it from or someone else. If it is an older title that was signed over and dated years ago but never transferred NJDMV can be ball busters about it. To protect yourself there should be a DMV affidavit that you can have the seller sign and notarize to avoid some of the potential hassle.

Aren't floor and trunk pans common rust areas on 1st gens?

cowl by the windshield and down by the rockers

vinyl top?

Its a 'vert I think, its about the ugliest combo you could get.

In any 45+ year old car the car is the area prone to rust. lol

EVERY area in a 1st gen is prone to rust :D I think I have seen rust in every body panel there is (in the case of Bill's car, every panel on 1 car! :))

LOL.

You saw the abomination firsthand.

im sad I missed it :(

Me too

My dads was almost as bad too, luckily mine is the opposite

What do you mean?