Hoping some of you can check out these pictures and let me know what you think. Supposed to leave at 3:30pm to inspect the car. It has some of the typical 914 rust issues in the trunks and battery/hellhole. How bad does it look to you? The price of the car is $7xxx. It's a 72 1.7 with a lot of miles on it, but currently in good running shape. Is the price too high? Do you think a sanding and respray of that trunk will fix the rust or will it possibly need metal replaced?

Please check out the pics and give me your opinion....

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a125/phi...r/silver%20914/

without even lookin at the pictures, i think i can safely say that the price is way too high. usually the 7k range is for very minor to NO rust at all.

high mileage and rust, usually 3-4k unless its a special model

What about the saying that no 914 is rust free? It's not major rust, but it's there. Mileage is 167K. Gotta go back to work, but will check back at 3pm. Here's the pics showing the rust areas...

Hard to say from just pictures, but the pictures make it look pretty good to me. Poke at the hell hole with a screwdriver. Pull the jack post covers off and look inside. Check the rear trunk right up next to the taillights. Get underneath and look at the floor pan. Check the cowl for bubbles.

If you decide to buy the car, tell the seller that you want to pull the rockers before you hand over the money. He knew what pictures buyers would want to see, so I'm sure he knows 914s and would understand why you want to do this.

Might be a good find, especially in Ohio...

The proof will be in the details. Is the paint as nice as the pics make it look? Is that just surface rust on the battery tray and hell hole? If that's the original battery tray, it's a good sign. I would check underneath the battery itself. Checking longs is a must. What's the history of the car?

If it looks that good in person it could well be worth $5-7k. Any paint defects or serious rust would reduce that.

Love those wheels. I bought a new '73 1.7 and that is the same style the dealer put on when I ordered chromies. Good luck.

I would be most concerned with the Hell Hole and behind the rockers. Look the rest of the car over very carefully including along the channels that hold the front and rear trunk seals as rust can hide there.

It doesnt look like the seller has a clamp on the battery so it should be easy to get a good look underneath it. Poke around down in the lowest area looking for the probable hole there.

If all else checks out and you think $7xxx is a fair price make the offer pending inspection of the area behind the rockers.

Oh and look at all the seals on the car, those can cost some $$$$ to replace.

Jim

the car could very well be worth 7k... esp outside of Ca where rust-free cars don't exactly fall off trees

hell-hole rust, longitudinal rust, etc could lower it, but imo it's cheaper in the long run to pay more for a great-rust free car than to pay less and try to fix it...

That car is going to need quite a bit of welding and fabrication to make it worth $7 or $8k

as it sits, its an excellent candidate for a restoration.

I would offer $3800 and if he didnt take that I would walk. I just bought one like that last year, we took it apart and have been fixing all the hidden rust ever since.

Remember the rule 914 rust is like an iceberg.... it not the 10% you can see that is dangerous its the 90% you cant see that will kill you...

Thanks for the replies. I didn't go look at the car. I myself thought the price was high after seeing the pictures. The 74 I sold last year for 5k had less rust, but the paint wasn't quite as nice and it had some aftermarket parts on it (link to pics in sig). Kind of hard to judge the value of these cars!

I definitely would rather spend more up front for a nice, rust free car, but where are they at? I've tried contacting a few people selling in CA but they blow me off. I assume it's because they don't want to deal with a long distance transaction, but who knows.

The search will continue.