hey hey hey... nooby here!!!

I was walking home from the bike shop today and intentionally made a detour to check up on a 1st gen on a neighbouring street. Timing was perfect as the owner was there loading his old Jeep.

Anyways it's a 79, silver, 160000 original kms, 1st owner, original bill of sale, all manuals and receipts, very minor surface rust, rotor #2 not firing (needs new coil), muffler leaks, rear wheel bearing shot, headlights stay up... just needs some TLC as it hasn't been cleaned. It starts too (hard, but attributed to the coil problem). Even recommended victoriabritish.com for parts. Stored indoors winters, outside during the summer.

My only concern is at the base of both a-pillars where there's a decent amount of rust (hidden by the doors). Is this a common problem? I know it can be fixed, but is it worth it?

He's asking $1000 CDN (firm), as is... which I consider fair and I only have to drive it 3 blocks to get it home. I'm not one to shy away from projects. I'm going on 3 years of the FSAE thing at Univ, been armpit deep in a 2000 Passat engine bay, blah blah blah...

 

A coil will not cause only the rear rotor to not fire.

Do a compresson check on the engine, Cheep stye is to pull one plug and listen for three strong phuts, only one phut will mean the engine is dead.

 

$1000 CDN is about $780 US. A little high I'm thinking.

For example, I paid $500 US for a 1980 paint and interior faded. It had light surface only rust. But it was in good running condition with good compression, only needed a tuneup. I have replaced/refunished the interior and I am saving up for a new paint job.

I would look under the car for rust and under the carpet in the back. The storage bin location pannels are removable and I just threw mine out. Lots of good wasted storage space there on the eairly models that don't have the storage bins like mine.

If it is only surface rust and if the interior and paint are good, it could be worth the engine work but if everything needs work I would think that it's too high.

 

Everything is solid except for the rough engine and pillars. Just needs cleaning and TLC. I'd probably strip the mechanicals and repaint it anyways.

Now defining dead engine... would it be blown seals/gaskets leading to a full-on rebuild?

 

I think $1,000 is pretty steep, how many miles? The only reason it might be worth a grand is the fact it's a 79, but also be prepared to have a hard time locating parts you need for it. As for the A pillars, I dont know how common that is. Take the storage units out of the back (where the rear seat would be) and check the floor pan, that's a pretty common place for 1st gens to rust out. I would wait a while and then offer them $500. I paid $500 for my 82 and it runs good but is in serious need of body work and a coat or two of paint. Plus it has a rotary engineering intake and dual carb setup which I am told is worth almost what I paid for the car. Let us know how it turns out

 

160000 kms = 100000 miles

 

Dead would be it eat an apex seal. The housing and rotor would need replaced and a rebuild done.

 

That's what I figured... thanks.