I found an FD for sale, 95 Base 28k miles however it is an auto. I am thinking of purchasing it and swapping for a manual however there are a couple strange issues I have noticed.

Around the lower portion of the body, there is orange peel, which leads me to believe the car has been repainted. Did any FD come with orange peel on the lower sections? Any obvious ways to tell if the car has been repainted? Kind of strange that the car would be repainted with only 28k miles.

Another issue I noticed was a quite large gap between the tailights and hatch. The gap was even all the way across, however it was a good 1/4 inch. I never noticed on any other FD is that was normal. The rest of the body panels lined up with even gaps.

The muffler, expecially the tips were extremely rusted. This again is unusual as the car only has 28k miles on it.

Besides the vin on the doors and firewall, are there any on the bumper covers or other areas I could check? Just trying to see if the car has been involved in an accident.

Any input would be appreciated!
Thanks
George

 

Thats normal.

 

THe " orange peel" was done intentionally by mazda. It serves as a protectant against rock chips. Im guessing the gap in the lights is normal also but would have to see to say.

David Jerome

 

what im thinking is maybe it got some saltwater treatment.
Which would line up with your story about rusted muffler and paint starting to peel
if it was infact submerged in salt water you will have nothing but problems

 

The orange peel is rock guard and all US FDs got it, don't know about overseas models.

A rusty muffler is no surprise, 10yr old car with low mileage. It hasn't been driven much, likely shorter trips. The exhaust doesn't get hot enough to "burn off" the condensation that is a normal part of the combustion process.

The gap between the hatch and taillights sounds like it is on the large side of normal. That is probably one of the bigger gaps on the car and might be there to help you get your fingers in to open the hatch (useful on non-spoiler equipped cars).

 

Thanks for all the help everyone!

On the muffler however, the tips were completely rusted away, while the canister was not as bad. Are the stock mufflers that subceptible to rust?

Thanks again!

George

 

I have seen the tips actually fall off on relatively low mile cars 60-70k miles. Nothing too strange.

 

I need that gap to open the hatch on mine since I don't have a spoiler.

 

He never said anything about the paint peeling, he was talking about the texturing from the factory on the lower portion of the car.