|
Just figured I would update this thread and wanted to thank those who took the time to reply and offer insight on properly looking the car over.
I went to see above vehicle and well...quite honestly, I was more then dissapointed in the car. Ill give you a brief walk around of what I found during my inspection and hopefully it helps another noob at some point that may be looking to pick one of these cars up.
For starters the car was a 93 and not a 91. It was certainly repainted however I would be willing to guess it was just sprayed in a garage or shop and not in a proper paint booth. There was dust and runs in the paint/clear. Paint didn't even make it into lip of fender wells or even all the way onto bottom of rocker panels. Lots of small dings and dents that a paintless dent guy coulda removed no problem before painting. And the over spray was just bad.
Opened drivers door and it sagged roughly a half inch, at a closer inspection of the jams and sills there was clear evidence of bondo in the sills which was beginning to crack. I was told the jams were "blacked" however the "paint" used had a brownish tint such of that color used in under coating.
Moving on, as I looked at the l/r rear quarter it just didn't look right to me, as I looked at trunk the body lines were horribly off. The drivers side trunk to quarter line is so tight that the trunk lid is hitting the quarter when closing it and chipping clear/paint. Upon inspecting inside of the trunk there were non factory spot/tack welds and non factory seam sealer. Clear evidence that the car had a quarter hung on it at some point. Also, the battery was relocated to trunk and was not done "cleanly" or to my expectations...there was a random ground wire spliced off of the existing ground just hanging in the breeze and it was just kinda tossed in the middle of the trunk.
As I moved to passenger side of car I was inspecting floors and rails for rust and the entire floor is rotting out in front of right rear wheel, also entire underside of car was sprayed with what looked like very recent undercoating.
Starting the car up it purred like a kitten and sounded healthy, no smoke at all so one would believe that valve stems seals and turbo seal were in good shape however soon as idle came down and it started to warm up the car did what I like to call the infamous honda idle surge (CTS problem? Low on coolant?) when it started doing that I was informed it was just needed coolant topped off.
All in all the car wasn't what I was hoping it would be, there were a few other quirks like the wipers didn't work and other random stuff. I didn't even get into the brakes and hub conversion because with all the other issues it just didn't even seem worth it.
I am looking for a daily driver and I wasnt expecting a show car but when someone says "no rust" I expect there to be no rust.
At the end of the day it wasn't worth it's hefty price tag, especially with cars that have equal parts in the western part of country selling for 6-6500 and with quotes for a 1100$ shipping (which I had my 83 hilux shipped from CA last year) I would still be 1500$ ahead of the game.
So now my search continues, what I am looking for seems to be hard to find, s13 couples with silvia clips don't exactly seem to be dime a dozen on this coast and a kouki is hard to find as well because I need it to be able to pass the NYS obd II inspection (no MIL/CEL can be on). Ideally a 95 converted would be perfect.
Just wanted to say thanks again for info
Mike
|