Dollar deduction for door rust?

$0.

Almost all the early cars have rust there. If it's a good car, has good service records (or at least recent service) then buy it. Don't haggle over little **** like that.

 

$500 - 800 for painting the panel below the belt line at a good body shop.
Panel repair/fitting additional.
(BTDT).

 

I would deduct a bunch if I could. If you are buying, I would MAKE it a big deal.

Basically, when I buy cars like this ("toy cars to be used after work/on weekends) I want them perfect. I want to buy it with a pretty good assurance that it was maintained by an anal retentive, obsessive compulsive, personality that would wash it after every drive and completely fusses over the engine and internals (the most important part of these cars obviously), etc.....

Obviously, the odds of ALL of that happening are slim but you get my point. Anyway, the feeling I would get by buying a car with rust is that

A. The guy drove it in snow.
B. The guy drove it in rain.
C. The guy did not take care of the rust when it started forming.

Either way, NONE of these things give me the feeling that he was the meticulous owner I am dreaming about. If he doesn't really care about the APPEARANCE of the car, he is probably the type of guy doesn't care much about the issues you CAN'T see. Just my opinion, of course.

Also, I might drive it in the snow and the rain and might not take care of the rust. But when BUYING a car, I don't want the previous owner to have done those things!! ;-) It's like I always have said, you might fart in your "new" car the first time you drive it; but you want to LOOK for a car you are certain has smelled nothing but air fresheners!!!

Anyway, there IS rust on a lot of cars of this age. But NOT on ANY car I would be interested in. And by being the buyer in this golden age of the internet, it allows you to be VERY picky.

It is kind of like that 308 that was for sale in Houston on the net a few weeks ago. It was the one with the amber tape over the front turn signal that was broken. It also had the prancing horse on wrong on the back. THis is what i am talking about. The type of owner that could care less about things like that........is THIS the kind of guy that will do regular maintenance?? Or is it the kind of owner that is just happy the thing RUNS at all.

I have waited for the right car in the past and have ALWAYS been happier on my drive home. My last car (911) I waited for 3 months (and 911s are plentiful) but KNEW as I drove it home 14 hours from Virginia that it was EXACTLY what I was looking for.

 

There are enough 308s out there that you should be able to find a rust-free example,

Dan

 

Bill,

My suggestion would be to worry more about the mechanicals. If all that checks out and the rust is relatively minor, try to get some money off the sale price and buy it. If you need someone to check the car out you have a lot of resources right in your back yard! Is it a local car? If so there may be someone on here that knows some of the history behind it. Post a question in the Nothwest section to see.

This is a pretty small community and the local group around Seattle/Tacoma is very good. By the way, if you haven't already, you should think about joining the FCA. Lot of good events to attend even if you don't get the car right away.

Also Superperformance is great but I think the repair panels you saw are for 308GT4 not GTS.

If I can help drop me a PM, I don't know that much but I've learned a LOT in the last year!

 

A. The guy drove it in snow.
B. The guy drove it in rain.
C. The guy did not take care of the rust when it started forming.

Bill unfortunately this is not the case. If you do not store the car in a T&H garage the early cars rust on the bottom inside of the doors. So I would not say the person drove the car in the rain or snow. I would say all of us in the northeast store their cars for the winter months and unless you have the doors redone and rust proofed you will get this door problem. I would look at the overall car and judge it from there. I would suspect as time goes by you will see this in the earlier cars and if fixed correctly then it should not be a problem.

 

I agree that he might NOT have driven it in the snow or rain. BUT I can say with 100% certainty that he did NOT care about the outside appearance of the car (since he did not get the rust taken care of when it first "bubbled" on the inside of the door). And a guy who doesn't bother with the outside probably (90%) of the time does not care about the internals.

And 100% of the time is not the meticulous obsessive freak I am looking for in a "previous owner". ;-)

Bill

 

I agree with Steve. Unless the car spent it's entire life in the desert and was never washed it is going to have, did have or has (but not yet visible) rust. It's as inevitable as wearing out tires.
When searching through the nooks and cranies of my car (1977) I found lots of BARE metal. If it didn't show, it wasn't painted. Moisture in the air will condense on body panel interior surfaces and run down into creavices such as the folded seams on doors and fenders and after a quarter of a century you will have rust. Doors are particularly vulnerable because of water going past the window seals and tracks and then down the inside of the door just from washing the car.
The next question is, was that area rusted before but not correctly repaired?
A quick Bondo and paint is a bad sign.

 

Then you'll not be buying an early 308 anytime soon. They have rust in those locations. 95% of them do. It's not something you can just see. It starts on the inside and works it's way out.


If there is nothing else keeping you from buying this car then don't sweat it. Someone else will get it and you'll keep looking. 6-months from now, after you've seen 3-more that are no where near as nice (but asking the same money and have the same "rust" issue) you'll be kicking yourself b/c instead of looking, you could be driving one.

 

I've just been playing in the insides of the doors of my '78 GTS. It was Ziebarted when new and there's black goop inside the door, but the bottom inch or so on the inside is devoid of goop and, I think, paint. The rust there almost seems thin, like the door got a quick spray of primer but no paint or something, but there's a little. I'll be treating the affected parts with POR-15 before reassembling the doors. Then I can sell my car to Bill!

 

rust is like cancer. it needs to be cut out and replaced with a repair panel. its quite easy if you have the basic tools and a mig welder. if you can get that part done then getting it painted shouldnt cost that much.

 

And I would buy it!! ;-)

You see, by disassembling the doors and DOING something about that "insignificant" rust, you are the type of owner I would be looking for. Just by stripping the door down, you are already ahead of where the PO was!!!

;-)