To repeat my intro - I've never owned an F-body before, but many A-bodies as in my signature.

I looked at a '67 convertible last weekend that underwhelmed me. "No rust" turned into outer wheel houses with holes big enough to get my entire forearm in... Although I was very surprised that the 1/4's themselves seemed VERY solid.

I'm hoping to look at a different car this weekend that's supposedly a California car. I'll be able to use my A-body experience for the ususal suspects (bottom of front fenders, rockers, rear 1/4's, rear wheel lips, wheel houses and trunk floor), but I realize the F-body is a different beast and apparently much more prone to rot than A-bodies.

So given that can any/all list out other areas to inspect for rust/rot?

And while I'm at it with questions: if parts are missing/non-original what should give me the most concern? (aka: what's the most difficult/expensive parts to replace?) Obviously besides #'s match.

Thanks in advance (again),

John

Common rust areas:

Top of dash at the base of the front windshield. (tough one to repair)
Rear sail panel between rear window and trunk lid.
Floor pans, trunk pan.
Front bottoms of inner fenders.
Rear shock mount areas.
Rear bumper mount areas.
And of course, bottoms of front fenders, doors, and rear quarters.

Most parts are "fairly" easy to find, either from this forum, or many re-pop suppliers. I think the specific ram air parts are tougher, but others on this site will perhaps chime in on that.

When you get into date-matching, that can take a while.

Good luck.

Add to the above list rear window gutters, bottom of cowl/firewall joint, upper part of toe pan, rocker panels, convertible side reinforcements where floor meets inner quarter, front mount area for rear springs, subframe mount areas on floor pans, core support (bolt on), rear window channels, front window channels (especially on a car that originally had a vinyl roof). Also look for stress cracks in the left rear quarter at the corner of the window in coupes, and the front of the roof at the right windshield pillar.

Thanks 68tpls400 & Vikki,

Can I get clarification on where/what the following are:

1. upper part of toe pan

2. convertible side reinforcements where floor meets inner quarter

3. front mount area for rear springs

4. subframe mount areas on floor pans

Thanks again

My car has lived in California all its life and when I got it about 8 years ago, the only places that it had more than service rust were:

1) Above the door windows (the somewhat salty air from the ocean collected there every time the night dusk fell)
2) Bottom of the rear quarters and in back of the rear wheelhouses
3) Under the chrome trim on both the windshield and the back window (both windows leaked)
4) I don’t know how to describe this area, but it's where the leaves and dirt pile up that came through the cowl (it's next to the kick panel vents).

That's it. No rust anywhere else.

Interesting. Did it have a black and yellow CA license plate on it?

My '67 also lived it's entire life in California and had the original license plates prove it. The only place I had any body rust what-so-ever was under the chrome moulding around the rear window. The previous owner had gone to UC Santa Barbara and the sea salt had mixed with all the debris under the mouldings. My front fenders and rear quarters were as clean as a whistle.

During my search in Southern CA I came across cars with blue and yellow license plates that had rust issues. They had actually been purchased out of state and brought into CA later in their life.

Hmmm, interesting because mine has the blue and yellow plates. Although you always had an option in CA to get new plates if desired, so that could be the case here. Also, I know this car was in a collision at one time, so they could have been crunched and received new plates after it was put back together.

Otherwise the info I got from that last owner was bogus. )-:

Maybe I'll do title history search to see what I can find.

I was born and raised in So Cal. My 1st car was a '70 Mustang fastback and it had one of the early blue & yellow plates (909 AVL). My mom's '69 Ford station had one of the last of the black & yellow plates (YOT something) so I know the switch to blue/yellows was in late '69 or early '70.

PS. California plates have always been issued sequentially and I was always into cars and plate numbers while growing up - helped by the cars my parents and siblings purchased

If you give me the 1st letter of your blue/yellow combo, I can come up with an approximate year of issue. And whether it was a numbers/letter combo or the later single number, letter, number

The current 7 digit format of number, 3 letters, 3 numbers started around 1980. I remember it well because we were allowed to go to 7 digits for personal (vanity) plates and I jumped all over that. Around 1985 was the time we switched to the reflective white plate/blue number theme for personal plates. Normal plates were still blue/yellow. The white/blue combos for normal plates was sometime after that

How about 1RSL574, blue/yellow.

Vikki, that one will be a bit out of my range. My Feb '85 Toyota MR2 was my last car living in So Cal and it was 1NCN393. I left a year later for my 6 year tour of Europe. So I am not familar with the plates my family had on their later cars. My mom had a '89 Plymouth Acclaim that I could have used to frame your plate with.

So I can kinda guess at late '80's. Let's say 1987. I have a photograph at home of my father outside a famous LA landmark restaurant that dates back to that period. I dated the photo based on the license plates and my father's journal. I will see if I can't dig up the photo over the weekend.

That's the best I can do at the moment. I will ask my brother if he can help. He still lives there.

http://www.calpl8s.com/california/blue.html

1980 base plate. So I just need to look at the tag.

True. But if the car was in the state a couple of years, the original year date was probably buried. CA issued new decals for each year.

PS: Cool web site; way more into CA plates than I ever was.

I have a 3 number 3 letter plate starting out with a 6. So the plate was purchased somewhere between 69 and 74.

Does anyone know where I can get a title history for my 68? I tried carfax and another one, but they only go back to 1981.

Is my plates "number matching"

The "UXC 430" plate is correct for a car registered in California from 1967.

The ### XXX plate series was letter driven, not number driven, so a 6## XXX plate could be from a car registered from 1969 through mid-1980. Trucks, including ElCaminos, had a different series that also was revised in 1981 when the additional 7th character was adopted.

As far as I know, California records for titles and plates only go back to 1981. Prior to that, they were archived on microfiche only when a car was destroyed at a salvage yard.

I have the title history for the turquoise car back to the original owner. The plate issue date corresponds with the p.o.'s move from Colorado to California per the title history, which is what I hoped to see.

There is a 26 year and counting registration lapse.

Vikki - I'm pretty sure a date of 1987 would be close for that plate.

What about 548FOV, blue plate, yellow letters...?

1972