going over my new 300z and really admiring it and how clean she was. Noticed a bit of surface rust on the rear cill near the bottom so thought Id get a bit of G3 and clean it off................... then came the gut wrenching sight :scared:........................... filler and loads of it and not even shaped correctly, then I noticed it wasn't even stonechipped on that side before he painted it. Spoke to the guy I bought her off and he insists he paid £400 3 years ago for the repair and the guy told him he had cut out the rust and plated it.. he must have used a bean can if its gone that fast........ great finish to weekend.

 

time to reconsider these cars..... :thumbdown:

Bad times! Gutted for you :-(

Not great news, but if the rest of the car is really good then its not the end of the world to get the rust bit sorted, i think these days you are going to be really lucky to find a second hand zed with no rust whatsoever unless its been cared for or refurbished by a member here in the club, ive seen a few on ebay now that ive never seen in the club, it seems people that have had one stored or left to rot are suddenly deciding to sell and not being truly honest in the description.

Hard to get a perfect one Derek infact its near impossible 99% have some flaw so hope its not to bad mate.

If that's your only problem then I'd get it welded. At least then you know it's solid.

just have to get a few opinions of how bad it is as I don't intend to put much more money into it. think karma is telling me to avoid z's. anyway I'll decide by next weekend her fate. really didn't want the bodyshop route, missus is fuming, so getting it all now, I hate dishonest people(the guy I bought it off). Think I'll go fix the mr2 and get the throttle bodies cleaned up to be put back on the road and clear the head

Edited April 3, 201411 yr by derek

I think some people are under the impression that a zed is a normal car you can just run with no investment or tlc, a zed can be a money pit or can be a good purchase after investing a few hundred quid, its a labour of love and not just an everyday run of the mill wagon lol

Biggest problem is that most people expect a nice shiny new zx for peanuts.

How many cars can you go out and buy that are 20+yrs old and have no rust on them cos I can assure anyone that unless they have been repaired(with proof) then it's simply not gonna happen regardless of which car you choose.

If you want a car with no problems and no rust on them the only answer is to go out and buy a new car.

2-5k for a zx and 3k fixing it is about the right figures for one being realistic.

Ask yourself what other car with a zx performance that can you buy that would require no work at all for 6-8k cos it really would be hard to find. This is all just my opinion tho of course.

Edited March 23, 201411 yr by davezx

Don't give up derek mate. With time and some general repair work you will be more than happy with the end result and the pleasure driving a zx brings you.

How many cars can you go out and buy that are 20+yrs old and have no rust on them cos I can assure anyone that unless they have been repaired(with proof) then it's simply not gonna happen regardless of which car you choose.

 

My car has no rust what so ever. :)

My car has no rust what so ever. :)

 

Very true si, but you have spent a fortune maintaining it to a very high degree.

If you hadn't then it would of surely ended up with all the common rust the others have.

My car has no rust what so ever. :)

 

Bet you wouldn't sell it for how much Derek bought his for.

No, but the point I am trying to make is that there are good rust free cars out there. They're old cars and should be treated as such. A lot of people run these cars on a shoestring and it can show.

 

The fact is, I garage and keep it clean and shipshape. But you don't need to throw thousands in doing that.

 

I can't comment on this car and won't as I don't know the car or its history.

 

:)

Edited March 23, 201411 yr by Funkysi

Mine has no rust whatsoever too, Lee dent can confirm this as hes worked on it recently. I did get mine from a guy who had kept it in a centrally heated garage since its import.

I am so sorry to hear this, when both Ian and I checked this car out, we noticed the little patch of rust, but that is all it was a little patch of surface rust about 1 inch long. We tapped all around that little patch, and all we hit was metal, no dull thud sounds that filler would produce, but a good metallic sound. I came to the conclusion that it was just that, a little patch of surface rust, and even told you about it when on the phone to you. I know that filler does not rust, and a magnet stuck to the surface of the sill, a very weak magnet at that, so I made the decision that it was nothing to worry about.

 

Both Ian and myself went right around the car to make sure it was a good one, as we knew you had had a bad experience already, and that little patch of surface rust was all we could find on the car, plus the silly little things like steering wheel horn being a button on the side, one chock missing from tool kit, and was a little dirty and could do with a valet, the seller pointed out some of these himself and seemed very genuine, and I relayed all these things to you on the telephone. I am not a dishonest person, and would not recommend a purchase if I didn't think the car was up to the way it was described, and indeed inspected. I could have recommended the one in Wigan to you, but that had filler in the rear arches and had had a quick blow over to try and disguise it, magnet did not stick to the arches, the car you purchased seemed very much different to that, or I would have never recommended it to you.

 

Both Ian and myself feel really bad now, and I just hope that it is not us that you are referring to as dishonest. We gave a very honest and detailed description of the car to you from what we could see and inspect, plus the test run was faultless to be honest.

 

The seller said he would put 12 months MOT on it for you, did he do that?

I am sure Derek is not blaming you Ian or Jnr its was not your Z so there is no way you would know it inside out like the owner. You guys took time out to give it the once over and you cant be expected to see eveyrthing. So dont fret over it mate.

Cheers Gary, we really did give it a thorough inspection and told Derek that it had a small patch of surface rust.

Cheers Gary, we really did give it a thorough inspection and told Derek that it had a small patch of surface rust.

 

You could do no more than that mate and Derek will know that.:yes:

Bugger. My experience of these cars is that any rust visible from the outside of the sill is a serious problem showing itself, 99.9% of the time it's come from the inside out and will be a terrible mess inside!

I would personally not consider buying a zed unless I have looked inside the sill sections even if no rust was evident externally. This is one of the most important inspections to carry out on a targa top z32 structurally IMO.

Simon's car was a fresh import and he has not used it in the winter uk climate. Unfortunately, imports have declined to very small numbers and most imports have been used during the uk winters, slowly being eaten away from the inside!

Hi Ian, Sorry hope I have offended you or Ian jr its Gary I'm annoyed with. Once I confronted him yesterday about it, he admitted that he had got it repaired by an unknown garage repair shop and paid £400 for the repair. He'd thought it was welded but suspected different when he found wire mesh in the car. So I think it was a hole wire meshed and a filer applied over it. Its a cheap repair and is a short term measure. Going to get her up on my mates life and poke at it so see how much falls out. Directly under the cill, they didn't even rub the filer down correctly and its full of pin holes and has an awful edge.

 

Ian please accept my apologises if this has annoyed you. You have been nothing but helpful and a true gentleman and under no circumstances would I say or insinuate anything different.

 

It was well hidden from the side but my eye just caught it yesterday and doing bodywork for 5 years for a very fussy guy, the under side line just looked wrong from the distance, So once I lay down beside her, the gut sank. its not the worst but when your not expecting to see it, its annoying.

lol he paid £400 for wire mesh and filler? smells like a mystery to me.

 

as others have said these are old cars now and the majority havent been kept up to scratch. but when they are, they looks sweet!

It's still sounds like a good 300zx Derek get it sorted and start enjoying it mate. Plus I would like to point out the " Gary" posted above is not me but must be the last owner of Dereks Z :)

I have just cut out the rear sill on my car. the car is super clean all over but had a little rot in the rear sills when I sanded all the paint back on the rear sill some one had patched over the rust with some very very thin sheet metal and then filled over that I have not cut all the crap out and have welded in new metal. the car came with full sh only 2 owner and ton of paper work runs great and has been looked after but some clown had just put a patch over the rust on the sill just like your some one had taken a short cut shame as the car is rot free every were else I bet the owner before went the a garage and said fix this and thay just plated over the rust the owner would have picked up the car thinking great its all sorted and have no idea that the garage had just done in half arsed so the owner could have not know this atall so you cant really blame him as he mite have had now idea.