I found a decent deal on a '68 400 convertible that's spent many years in the north east. My buddy who lives a couple hours away from the car went and checked it out but I had concerns about rust in a bad area that looks like it could be difficult to repair properly and already has a very amateur looking repair. Also has very poorly repaired??? trunk pan. Been down south for many years and not sure if this makes it enough of a case to avoid this car. Any insight would be appreciated.

http://s1333.photobucket.com/user/daveg6743/library/?sort=3&page=1

Trunk no big deal but your rockers might be in bad shape. Need to get under car and carpets to see what's up. A "good deal" could be "good deal of work to fix"!

Gus is right. The rockers are the backbone to a vert. If they are bad even a good deal can be not so good.

I live in the northeast so I know about rust, sheetmetal is easy repair even a sloppy repair is easily fixed, but if the rear frame rail or rockers are rotted they can be repaired, but it's a major overhaul needed then.
It's up to you and what are you looking for a cheap buy with a lot of work to be done.
Something you want to drive today?

I'm looking for something that I can enjoy and drive today and repair/upgrade as I get time and/or more funds. That's how I did my '69 400. What I don't want is something that's so far gone it will become a money pit and end up being completely consuming all of my time and resources.

Could explain the welded subframe connectors.

Dave,

See that good looking driveable looking car on my tag line?

Here is a more current shot...

Screw drivers mark the spot where the pinch welds have rusted to the point I can put screw driver thru it into the floor pan!

Big project going there. Good luck. I guess your point is that any issues can be fixed if you have the means to deal with them??

Sorry Dave, Had to run out and drink beer with the neighbor so I was a little short with the description.

What I meant to illustrate is the car can look great on the outside but require a great deal of work to fix hidden rust. I tried to fix my 68 coupe 2 years ago and gave up. Very little good metal left.

Look at the pic of the floor pan. You can see the original blue paint! Just a small fixable hole in the floor right. Then you get under the car and look at where the floor is pinch welded to the rocker it's corroded so bad it is not really hold ing the floor that well.

You really need to have the car checked over or you could be in for trouble.

The pinch weld rust and the rusted out frame connections made my car unsafe to drive.

Thanks man. No apologies needed for drinking a cold one. Hope it was a Molson or something good.

Corona actually! But then it was not my fridge!

I know how that goes. Would it mean anything to you in regards to the safety of the car if it recently passed a state inspection? Problem here is my brain is telling me not to get the car but my guts really want it. Guy is going to either sell to me or someone else tomorrow and I need to make sure I'm cool with buying it or with letting it go. Don't want to be kicking my butt either way.

What's the asking price? Any other pictures than the couple on your photobucket?

$12.5K and those are the only pictures that show the rust. Other than that it looks pretty good. Needs carpet, dash pad, etc. but the guy has done a lot of work to it. Just added some pics http://s1333.photobucket.com/user/daveg6743/library/?sort=3&page=1

Dave,

Is it numbers matching? Did you get the PHS docs ( phs-online.com ) for the car?

Can you get it up on a hoist?

Not numbers matching but does have PHS docs showing it is 400 from factory and this guy is 3rd owner. Not really sure if that's worth anything since it's not original drivetrain.

Well it looks not too bad from the pics you have but I would want to know how your frame mounts look like, floor pans, pinch welds underneath. There are companies that you can send out to take pics for you and to check out the car. Put a deposit down and it make it refundable should something neg come up.

I did have a friend of co-worker who is fairly knowledgeable guy check the car out since he lives in the area and he is the one who took those pictures. He has lived in the NE for his entire life and thought the car was OK for being 45 years old but seller wouldn't let him look under the carpeting-said there were other people coming to look and he didn't want it messed up.

You probably won't find a running driveable one for much cheaper than that. Just be prepared to have more $ into the car than its worth. (in other words, come join our club)

I'm already int the club buddy!! I have a '69 TA clone/tribute that seems like it will never be complete to my standards!!

If you like the car and your not concerned about a few surprises then go for it. Just blame 68tpls400 if you find any bad. lol

If I find too may surprises might need to be moving in with my '69 and this one!!

I agree this is a club, we are never finished.
Like Neil Young LP RUST NEVER SLEEPS, it seems to pop up overnight again, so I like to call her the project in the works.

That's ok. Gus blames me for everything already! Its ALL my fault!!

Could be worst, I could call you the goat! nuk nuk

That's nothing. The inner rockers on my '68 vert were none existant when I got it and it still had good door gaps. There's a lot of metal in those vert rockers.

So you don't see a real concern in the photos in the attached links?

Concern, yes, but until you get to Gus's point of re-construction, you likely won't know. I have seen way worse. (and better)

My gut feel is you will be OK, but some day the real work will need to happen.

Sorry Dave, tried to respond yesterday but had to leave for work. The rust in the 1/4 looks like the 1/4 may have been replaced. the spot between the wheel and the door is right where you would join the new panel on to the lip of the old one. Check the wheel openings for two layers of metal in the lip. feel the areas carefully to make sure the inners and outers were both replaced. Here it would cost $3000 per side to fix this plus a paint job if the rest needs it. Floors are much cheaper as long as you don't start with the windshield mouldings like Gus. Looks like a nice car. I love cruising in my convertible, I'm sure you will to, Good luck

Thanks I appreciate the info. Been trying to contact the seller for a few hours without success-might have lost my opportunity. If so I'm sure there will be others.

Well Like I said the northeast is tough on the metal, My bird came from Penn. and I had to replace the trunk, wheelwells and quarters and I've never been happier. I'm still getting rust spots here and there, I just get them taking care of before they become a problem.
My intent wasn't to scare you away from the car, just to make you aware it'll need TLC, but it's so worth it.

Trust me you didn't scare me away from the car anymore than the photos did!! If I were a welder or body man I wouldn't have near the doubts I have now. I really do like the car but I'm more comfortable dealing with mechanical or electrical issues.

My 400 'vert was sold in NY, and spent 37 years in DC. It has 100% of the original sheet metal, with zero rust. It was re-painted in 1988, and to this day does not have a single bubble anywhere.

The second Owner put 10,000 miles on it in 26 years. It was always garaged and protected. I have put 3500 miles on it in the past 7 years. (boy, I better stop driving it)

So there are very clean ones out there under the haystacks. I looked for 9 months before I found that one.

If you want to talk rust, lets discuss Minnesota! There are virtually NO original fgf's up here. All are transplants. The originals were all scrapped 30 years ago.

Sound to me like you got very lucky finding that one.

I don't think Minnesota is any worse than Wisconsin as far as salt on the roads and rust goes, and my '69 lived all it's life in Wisconsin and is somehow very much rust free. The first owner must have had a "winter beater" because this car has never seen salt, the gentleman I bought it from had it for 17 years and put on 100 miles a year. Today I had to drop the tank to replace the fuel gauge sending unit and the strap bolts came off with no problems and the paint under the trunk looked almost like new.
There are a few cars that somehow survived the midwest winters, luckly I found one of them.

Well I found out the one I own came from Quebec to Ohio then to Penn. then to CT.
I pretty much had to replace the rear of the car, Both quarters and tubs and trunk floor and drop offs, the amazing thing was the tail panel was solid and rear frame rails too.
I pulled her off the road in 1991 with 148,000 on her and took 8 yrs to get it back on the road again, now I spend the winters inspecting and tearing down cleaning her. So it's nowhere original and I had a friend who did body work weld some and he taught me to weld too, anyway the car isn't a show car but it's fun to drive and she'll turn heads as I'm out cruising.
Anyway I getting ready to locate my next project 1977,78,79 TA
A little rust won't scare me,