Been to see a prospective purchase recently and, on checking the car over, I found a few things I could do with some advise on?
Firstly the oil pressure, it was constantly around the 38 ? 40 psi mark which is good, but never went below that even on idle. I remember my last car used to drop down to around 10-15 when hot and assumed this was normal ? why would this one stay high?
Secondly, there were various places on the body that had aluminium plates attached ? underneath the pedal box was a 12? square plate and where the steering column is bolted inside the car was a ?? thick plate that the bolts went through. Why would anyone do this?
They owner told me he gets an up and down wobble from the steering wheel at around 70mph, what could cause this?
Now the big question? Should I buy it?
Chassis changed in 1999, looks in very clean condition. Can?t find any receipts for an engine rebuild but mileage reads 60,000 and could be genuine as the oldest MOT with the car dates from 1986 when the mileage was 35k. Engine sounds good (although it was warm when I arrived), bit of a leak around the front timing cover.
Suspension looks good, clean, bushes ok but have a bit of paint on them from respray?..
Which was done last month! I know it?s a big no-no to buy a glassfibre car with a recent respray, especially as it was done by someone I?ve never heard of (and it does worry me a little), but the paint finish is excellent, cost ?3800.00 and had 16 coats of primer filler, undercoat, topcoat. I spoke with the bodyshop and they said it was sound before they started just needing the roof stripping down to gel as there was some blistering in the lacquer (it?s a JPS). I enquired about cracks and/or crazing and was told that being fibreglass the bodies tend to move around a little and you get stresses here and there, but nothing major was found and no glassing was done, only a small amount of filler. Am I looking too much on the bad side or should I run away at this point?
I have seen photos of how it was before the respray as it was bought 18 months ago from a well-known dealer in Canterbury and they kindly sent me some pictures from that time. It looked very good then, and the current owner says he only had it resprayed because he didn?t like the gold roof and wanted a few scratches fixed, to which the spray guy said ?you may as well have the whole car done?. The bill was a bit of a shock apparently
Interior has been re-trimmed in leather, although not quite in the original style on the door cards. It looks immaculate although not really to my taste so I would probably change it all back to original vinyl.
The only things I can find that need immediate attention are the rear wishbones need replacing as someone has jacked under them and they are now slightly bent. Needs a couple of doughnuts, fuel gauge never reads above ? full and someone has carpeted over the heater outlets because the underdash trims are missing (the ignition switch and trip reset are exposed and the map light is missing). It also needs a horn, as it doesn?t have one at all.
Price a very firm ?8000.00.
If you are still reading this, thanks, sorry it?s so long and could you please offer your opinions