GSL-SEX2

I'm looking at buying a '85 GSL-SE that has been sitting since 1987!

The current owner bought the car 2 months ago from some charity organization. He says that they have had it in a garage in storage for many years. He said he drained the fuel, put some oil in the spark plug holes, oil change, and replaced the spark plugs. He said that after about 20 tries the car started. It starts fine now. He does say that white smoke will come out when the car is first started. Is this a bad sign? Or is this just from the oil in the plug holes, and burning off 10+ years of crap?

It doesn't sound like he's taken it out and hi-reved it to burn everything out of the engine yet. He also said that the tires road like crap (original Perillis). So I'd probably have to get new tires, or new wheels and tires. He also said the brakes were squeeking pretty badly, but it is getting better (rotors probably corroded). He did say that the car doesn't have any rust tho.

He also said the original owners replaced the engine at 31,000 miles. By the way, the car currently has 47,000 original miles.

Not sure if it was stored properly or driven at all during it's storage.

Anything else I should be looking out for?

The car sounds like it'll be going for cheap, so I'm wondering if I should buy it or not. Is it a time bomb due to the long storage?

Thanks everyone!
Ian

FD Racer

for starters change and bleed the brake system...clutch too, flush the cooling system.

FD Racer

if it's going for cheap, I'd buy it. Make sure to check for rust yourself. You can try doing the whole ATF, MMO thing to try to clean out the inside of the engine, but it might not need it. It definetly needs to have all the crap ran out of it. Was it covered while it was in storage? what does the underside look like?

brianw

I wouldn't worry about hte smoke, it should blow before long.I'd do the MMO/ATF treatment,followed with a tune up,and the brake rotors are just rusted after sitting so long.I dpn't think it's a bomb I'd buit in an instant if the price was right.

GSL-SEX2

OK, how exactly do I do the ATF/MMO thing? And what the heck is ATF/MMO? Automatic Transmission Fluid?

If I get the car, yeah, I'll definately be doing a complete tune-up and fluid change.

The car is about 3 hours away, and I'm trying to find time to go out and check it out. So if I did buy the car, I'd be driving it back. Should I do the ATF/MMO before driving back?

Thanks all,
IJ

FD Racer

do a search for atf and for mmo, or marvel mystery oil. No you can wait to do it when you get back.

MarkPerez

You have to drive the
car first, before you buy ,,anything

slowautoxr

iTrader: (6)

My brother gave me his '81 that's been sitting in his garage since '89. I had to rebuild the carb. There was a bunch of trash in the gas tank so I threw it away and am going to replace it with another used one. New fuel filter of course. I flushed the cooling system and of course changed the oil and filter. I'll rebuild the clutch master and slave cylinders. I'll rebuild the brake master cylinder. I'm going to install a disk brake rear end in it as well as the struts from another car. You'll wanna make sure the wheel bearings and shocks are up to snuff.

If it goes and stops - then you can fix any other problems as they come up.

Rex4Life

In addition to what the others have said, drain the tank and see what kind of crap you get from it. There should be a bolt on the bottom of the tank that you can remove and drain it. May need to have the tank removed and cleaned. If you continue to run it with crap in the gas you risk having to remove and clean all of the fuel injection system.

So check out the tank and replace all the fuel filters.

85gsl2ndtimearound

If u dont get the car pm me I would be intrested.

bliffle

Get the car and do what you need to keep it going and keep enjoying it. Just to be sure you have transportaion when you're working on it, get another. And then, just in case both cars are down with problems, and, say, your wife demands you mow the lawn, etc., get a third car. That's what I did.

B

jimtesla

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...tem=2445303751

Is this the one?

GSL-SEX2

Gee thanks for advertising it to everyone.

Hopefully* we get more bidders to hike the price.

bliffle

Hmm. Too bad it's in WI or i'd bid. Maybe all the old FBS will endup in my stable.

B

jimtesla

Hope you get it..........

Here are some questions he answered me......

I'll try and figure out how to get more pics on line. I drained the gas,
oiled the cyl's and put new plugs in before starting the vehicle.Started
right up but smoked. One of the pics is from behind with hatch open.I did
not know the mirror was broke. I'll look at it. Thanks for looking

GSL-SEX2

Yeah he said someone mentioned the mirror was broken (I didn't notice from the pic). He still hadn't looked at it. I think he's keeping it at his work or something.

I was gonna drive up today and look at it but he had to go to a family reunion or something.

I could sure use some more pictures of the car. It looks like it needs Armor All badly, but he says the interior is perfect. Maybe it was just bad lighting...? Says it has some dents and scratches & stuff. I think it will need a good paint job soon. We'll $ee...

I'm going to try to go up with a buddy hopefully friday (as the auction closes), that way if I decide to get it I can just drive it back.

I was trying to keep quiet about this one, because it wasn't in the regular Ebay Motors/Passenger Vehicles/Mazda/RX-7 site. It was listed under the parts section, so I would think there would be alot less bidders. D'oh!

jimtesla

Hey

Everybody watches in here........There are no secrets.....
I hit gsl-se everyday on e-bay to see whats up......

Dont worry too much on the appearance.........make sure there is no rust.......I bought mine over the computer without ever seeing it prior to or driving it prior to buying it......the exterior had lots of dents......interior leather was shot........after yearly details.........and a couple of appts to the dentless guy.......my exterior is perfect.........my interior I redid.......Leather..........and have repainted most of the green looking red panels...

I work on it every free moment......

Like everybody else in here.....

Good luck.........

Jim

Mills

iTrader: (1)

Looks like a nice car, but with that low of miles, and sitting that long it would be a good idea to have a repair fund at the ready...

Dcrasta

I would buy that car in a quick second. Just go look at it and pull the back wheels off and look in the storage bins (take hte bins out.) Gsl-se's like to rust in the storage bin areas. Another place to look is under the car rear valance, and in the hatch area back where the washer bottle is for the rear wiper, (and behind the driver seat at that seam where the wheel well meets the rear floor.. ) My car got rust man so I am always lusting after rust free FB's, but its hard to believe a chicago car is rust free so look it over carefully, but geeze that mileage is so damn low!!!

GSL-SEX2

If you are bidding on this car, I just called him to check it out and he said the radiator "just got a crack in it" and is leaking.

Mills

iTrader: (1)

So did you get it?

GSL-SEX2

Nope. Didn't want to drive 3 hours with a leaking radiator.
Plus, the paint, interior, and condition of the engine was very questionable and I didn't want to bid on something that may turn out to be crap.

I asked the guy for more pics but he never delivered.