Advice on buying a new (old) car

[xy500]

G'day
i was wondering if the huge pool of knowledge that is the ford forums could offer a youngster like me some advice on a car i am considering selling my xy to buy. Now i would just take the car to a mechanic but i'm very very tight for money.

The car i'm looking at is a 72 val charger, yeah i know its not a ford - if you want to kill me then just pretend you didnt read this! Also if your going tell me to buy something newer, forget it i'm only young once and i love my 70's muscle cars. It has the V8, i think its the 360 might be the 318, is setup to run on straight gas. Car is road registered, has beautiful straight body and all instruments and ancillaries are said to be working good, though i can't be sure as it has no battery atm.

Now the charger is my dream car, so i would put it above owning any other car purely out of preference, but i don't know enough about them to risk parting with my current car before making sure this thing will actually drive. i would just up and buy this car but it has a few problems i'm not sure of the fixability of:

No.1 the most major problem, the engine leaked water (apparently) from no 1 cylinder from the area where the head meets the block when it was last topped up with coolant after a trans rebuild, this leak happened when the system was under no pressure and engine wasn't running. the owner reckons it's a blown head gasket, but it sounds a little extreme for a blown head gasket to leak when the engine isn't even running? i dunno, you tell me? i realise this could mean cracked head/block etc. engine has not been run since leak was discovered.

No.2 car has been sitting for a year or so without being started up or driven, as well as being dry (no coolant, rust inhibitors or water in the cooling system and radiator).

No.3 there is a fair bit of oil under the hood and on the engine - must have an oil leak! duh... but thats bad cos it's gonna cost money to fix.

and then theres the little bits of rust here and there, but nowhere near as bad as my xy!

Other than that she's supposed to be all sweet, the transmission had just been reconditioned a year ago and she hasn't been run since.

Now i know all of this can be dealt with with the right sums of money and work. but i have very little money to work on it, and i will need the car as a daily driver (as it will be my only car) fairly soon after i buy it. so i was wondering if this seems like a trap where all my money disappears and i have no running car, or if theres light at the end of the tunnel and i should chase the dream!

my budget for working on this car after the price of purchase is $3000, and that is it, as in i cannot spend a cent more than that. this will need to cover an exhaust system from extractors back, as it has no exhaust system, a set of tyres as they are bald, a battery and the costs associated with replacing the headgasket or fixing whatever is making it undriveable.

thanks for your time, any advice would be much appreciated.

[Bushbasher]

Mate, you got a bit of a problem hey. The oil leak could just be part and parcel of the head gasket leak assuming that is the problem because if there's a leak from a water gallery to the outside then it's quite possible the adjacent oil gallery could have been breached as well....Well, the first question is; do you have any mechanical knowledge and ability? , if so, ask the guy if he'll let you change the head gasket BEFORE you commit to buy, that way you'll know if the water and oil leak is just a gasket or more serious and it'll only cost you a head gasket and a bit of time. As for it sitting dry for 12 months, as long as it's not in a sea air environment it should be ok, just a good flush should sort it out. assuming everything is good to go after the head gasket is done, change all the fluids and filters, put a little oil down the pots and crank it over by hand a few times without the plugs in to lube the bores a bit then crank it for a minute to get oil up to the top of the motor and through the lifters and cam etc, then put the plugs back in and give it a kick in the guts. Make sure the carby seals aren't buggered when the fuel starts to flow or the carby might need a rebuild too. Can't help you with the rust but get the car off the ground and check the bushes and bearings as well before you take it cos all those things can soak up your cash real fast if they need changing.
Good luck .


Bushbasher

[mrniceguy]

If the price is right it would make a good project. As a daily driver however... no.

[Boosh Brus]

Originally Posted by mrniceguy

If the price is right it would make a good project. As a daily driver however... no.

I Agree. If you got a spare car or money go for it!
Without money it will probably spend most of its time on the side of the road.
Also a nice XY will hold its value well so you may be able to trade later

[blueoval]

xy500 - I wouldnt do it if it were me. Your xy is in good running order yes? Just keep that going for now, save ya pennies and keep an eye out for a better val thats in running order. For a daily, I wouldnt waste my time on a car thats not even running. As a project different story.

[Powdered Toast Man]

Is it original paint? If not then I'm sure it would have much more rust than you think. Chargers are even more notorious for rust than XA-XC Falcons. I would put a careful eye over the plenum as they always rust out there and as you can imagine it's not a quick job to cut out the entire plenum and weld in a replacement. Check under the covers behind the rear quarter glass and check the floor pans as well. Plus the usual rear window area that can be an issue on coupes of all makes.

Engine condition sounds extremely iffy for a daily. I would be thinking full rebuild if it was me, but I'm not a mechanic.

My only experience is we had a charger that went from my cousin to my brother (call him No.1) to the next brother (No.2) and then back to the first brother so was in the family for quite a few years (around 10). Brother No.1 then did the body up (he's a spraypainter) so I know what condition the body was in. Sat as an unfinished project for about 5 years, was only finished and sold about 3 years ago with full body and interior resto but stuffed mechanicals.

And there is absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to own a Charger, they were and still are great looking muscle cars. They're not the greatest handling cars however lol.

[Elks]

Now before I get lynched, I'm a blue blooded ford fan.

However to me the Charger is cooler than and XY 500 sedan. a V8 Charger cooler still. Coupes have an advantage.

I don't know how good your XY is but they are worth something. Assuming you can fix the charger for your budget go for it. You get your dream car and pass on the XY to someone else who's dream car it is.

As for being able to get it together for $3K unless you can do a lot of the work yourself I think you will struggle. I like bushbashers idea of a part repair. If you can do it, cool. Point proven for low risk. If they won't let you it's an instant bargaining point for a cost reduction as you must now assume the worst and factor in an engine either rebuild or change over.

As for reliability XY vs 73 val!! 35 or 38 years old either way it's no new land cruiser both with be cool and both will let you down when you least expect it.

Cheers

[XD 351 Ute]

The Charger would be nice to have, but she sounds like she needs a bit of work.
Unless you can afford to throw a few $$'s at it regularly, I wouldn't do it, especially on a budget.
Even moreso if you need a daily driver that is reliable and you have no other car.
If you can work out some way to keep the Falcon, and have the Charger as a project, then go for it!

Ed

[xy500]

if so, ask the guy if he'll let you change the head gasket BEFORE you commit to buy

yeah i might still give this a go, if for nothing else, a bit of fun and gained knowledge - i dunno whether he'd mind or not considering i've never lifted a head off an engine before! but i've seen it done so i could try :

If the price is right it would make a good project. As a daily driver however... no.

yeah its cheap for a charger, but i still would need to sell something to fund it.

I wouldnt waste my time on a car thats not even running. As a project different story.

a good point, there is a lot of unknowns with this car

Is it original paint? If not then I'm sure it would have much more rust than you think.

yeah its original paint, and it looks like it's been stored a fair portion of its life, the visible panels are amazing, as good condition as the day it was made, it does however have a reasonably badly rusted pillar on the passenger door side... :( nothing a good mate and a welder can't fix

As for being able to get it together for $3K unless you can do a lot of the work yourself I think you will struggle. I like bushbashers idea of a part repair. If you can do it, cool. Point proven for low risk. If they won't let you it's an instant bargaining point for a cost reduction as you must now assume the worst and factor in an engine either rebuild or change over.

yeah i planned on doing as much work as possible myself as my time is cheap and i love working on the old beasts, very rewarding. yeah i thought the condition of the engine was a good bargaining point, but i know the guy and i'd hate to see him get less than it's true value cos he needs the money for his other projects (his GTS Monaro is breathtaking!) and besides, i've seen incomplete rolling shells of chargers go for double what he is asking. i figured valiant engines are supposed to be somewhat easy to come by? if this one is stuffed.

If you can work out some way to keep the Falcon, and have the Charger as a project, then go for it!

in a perfect world thats exactly what i'd do, if only the mrs had her manual license, i could sell her piece of crap commonwhore to fund the charger and she could drive the xy, leaving me with the dream garage - an xy parked next to a charger, i'd have no more issues working on her car

yeah i guess i was dreamin a bit, too bad a don't have the cash to have it as a project car, one day! one day dammit!

i just hope there is still one around somewhere by the time i finish uni and get a real job.

cheers for the input crew, ya bunch of legends