Projects Question;Why would someone put Bondo on the frame?

Had a friend tell us about a nice 63 Impala in a small town in Kansas South of us several years back. We went to investigate and found the car right where he told us. It was sitting out behind a building in plain site and we couldnt find the owner so we went to investigate. The first thing I spotted was a pair of vise grips hanging from the floor pan under the car. Upon closer inspection I could see where he had troweled all of the rusted out body braces full of bondo. I was commenting on this to my Dad who was standing next to the car and the Old man (ripoff expert) who was trying to sell the car showed up. We started asking him questions about the car and he said he was just an old man and didnt know much about cars. He took us into his shop where he had at least 50 pictures of treasures he had fixed up like this and sold to ****ers who believed the innocent old man story. I got to look at another old studebaker that he had glued astro turf into the trunk with weatherstrip adhesive to cover the rust holes. As always buyer beware!!!!!!!

 

'Rust free'. '....I won't charge any extra for it....'

 

OldFart, didn't you say that it is on a '68 ElCamino frame? If so, you'd be looking at needing to find a frame from 68'-'72, and I beleive, a wagon would also be the same frame as the ElCo, which should open up all of the other GM midsize wagons. If that's indeed what it's on, you could find another one, and swap the body straight over (theoretically) Of course, that info was probably from the PO, which means you'd want to do soem research, since his credibility is a bit bruised. (That's a nice way of saying he's full of ****)

Please note: I'm not 100% sure what I just said about interchangability is true, but I believe it is. Can anyone confirm/refute?

Playing the "Woulda/coulda/shoulda" game is fine, but I'm more into the "gonna" game. We gotta help you find a way through all of this. If there's a bright side, they always say that ****storms come in threes. If that's the case, you should be clear from here on out with this SeDel. I wish you were closer, man- with the rough road you've had on this car so far, I'd like to do more than be a cheerleader for ya.

 

I must have skipped through the thread too quick.
I never remember seeing $500 charged for an inspection.???

 

even if the inspection is $500 it realy is cheep insurance for someone who doesnt have the required nowhow/experience/ability or access(possibly due to location of either the car or the seller)to fully realise some of the faults that can be found.Also sometimes the seller honestly doesnt know how bad things realy are.A buddy of mine bought a muscle car replica (australian GTfalcon clone)for what seemed like a good price byt when we put it up on a hiost we found heaps of newspapers in the rocker panels (these are structual)It turned out that the previous owner had bought the car in that state also and had no idea as to how bad it was.We were all suprised as this was a regularly raced car running 11 second quaters some times the problem goes back a long way
By the way my buddy did the right thing and fixed the rust before selling the car and creating another sour sale

 

That's why we have 6-monthly Warrant of Fitness checks here in N.Z. - a kind of reasonably thorough national safety inspection, costs $35 - $50 depending where you live

A real P.I.T.A. when you have a 'hobby-car' you don't actually use much in the winter - but an ***urance that the car is safe and up to a certain standard.

And the O.P.s car certainly wasn't.

Bummer dude.

 

Here in NZ we are at the mercy of 'flippers' that post pics on e-bay or Craigslist that show a perfect car - sometimes it's not even the same car, sometimes it's a 50-50 car (it looks good a 5mph and at 50 feet).

Unless the buyer knows an honest person or personal friend who can inspect the potential purchase they stand to be screwed.

And sometimes the shipper contacts the buyer back in NZ and askes "Do you really want to pay to have this p.o.s. shipped back to NZ" - because it's full of Bondo, the motor rattles and burns oil, the trans slips etc.

It's 12,000 from NZ to the USA so it ain't cheap to ship.

 

yeah, here in alabama sometimes we have low in the 30's. you might want to qualify that squire. maybe east of the mississipi and north of the mason dixon line. down here in dixie we use salt in our grits not on our roads.

 

last week I priced doing floor pans and quarters on a 65 mustang. Get underneath of the car only to find the rear frame boxes had been mudded up to cover everything. Guy said when he bought the car it look great and after a couple years bondo starting falling out of everywhere. Rear part of frame has huge wholes in it. Got to love the hacks!

 

Yup,this is the one.Since it was advertised here on the HAMB I just kinda figured that it would be as stated by the PO.(It was not advertised by the PO) Here is the conversation w/the PO as I remember it..Of course the PO will probably have a different version.
Hows the gl***?All good except the vent windows are cracked.He forgot to mention the crack in the Driver side windshield.
Do you have a good ***le?Yes.(Good ***le for a 51 but the car is a 49 w/a vin tag screwed to the door frame.)
Rocky Mtn Cl***ics is on the ***le as a former owner.. As I was led to believe that the car did indeed come from Rocky Mtn Cl***ics of Greenly Colo,I figured that it was done "right".The 51 that belongs to the ***le..Probably was done right.But this ain't it.
Hows the engine? Good but it needs to have the carburetor rebuilt. He forgot to mention that there was an engine fire and the d/s under hood got burned pretty badly. Hows the body? Good,you can see the only rust in the pictures.Hows the frame? Good,its a 69 el camino frame.
I very foolishly thought that I could put a couple of hundred dollars into it and drive it away.I was NOT looking for another project.
I sold the 56,payed an overdue tax bill,got caught up on my other bills,had my pickup worked on and put $3000 into this car.$2400 for the car & $600 for delivery.
If I were in the mid-west,I'm sure that I could find a decent frame at a decent price but here in Florida,if a car has been driven on the beach,The salt eats the bottom and being surrounded by salt water on 3 sides means that cars in junkyards get eaten from the top down so there aren't many junkyards that have "older" cars.

 

Scary to think there are cars out there on the roads like this.

Hell, even West of the Mississippi. Minneapolis uses salt.

 

so im planing on building a tbucket this winter if all goes well.. or at least start one.. give my crippled *** something to keep the air between the ears busy.. im six foot four so i know im gonna have to modify the T body to fit my needs, i have a bad leg that dose not bend so well or all the way for that matter, anyhow what im getting at i was on youtube learning how to modify fibergl***. and it dose not look like it will be to hard t o stretch and add opening suicide style doors to a basic fab t fibergl*** body. well i came across this demo on patching a hole in a chev. using fibergl***/bondo.. iv never seen this done before other than one fibergl*** fenders and what not.. t his just seem so far out in left field to me.. always think patch panels made of metal yeah.. well here is the flipper's answer to fixing some rust:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0ULemgTR-g&feature=related

so break out your magnet man and check your entire body.. if you found bondo on the frame.. just think what you may find...

chris,



P.S
i just got done watching some of his ot her videos, safe to say that car in the video is a true bondo baby!!!

 

I also fell for something like this and I'm truely sorry it happened to you. I bought mine from a 78 year old gentleman who I only conversed with on the phone. I started to realize he was a car hoarder and the state of New York ordered him to get rid of all but 2 of his vehicles. He definately believed that this car could be saved and did a lot of work under the hood and interior wiring but turned a blind eye to the fact it was a giant rust bucket with a bad frame. I was very disappionted when I started really looking at it. I would never buy a car again that I didn't see in person.

 

You have had hell out of that thing since day one!

 

One thing's for sure- if you deal with all of your issues, you'll have hella stories to share at the cruise-in

 

wait wait I know the answer to this one...To get it race ready right ?
Seriously man after the battles youve had so far, the first time you really get to enjoy this thing is gonna be something you'll remember forever.