Did I mess up buying this rust bucket?

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standup303

standup303

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Just bought my very first classic car. It’s a 74 Dart. Has a pretty poor but new Plum Crazy Purple paint job, new vinyl top, new seat covers, slant 6. I bought it with intentions of installing a V8 this winter.

The car had a rust resistant coating installed a long time ago, but the more I look the more I am thinking I may have screwed up buying this car. I have been looking at Eastwood products and POR-15. With enough wire wheel/sanding work and rust specific products, do you think it’s worth keeping and building?

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I don't see any rot through in any of your pictures. Looks pretty solid to me. Just wire brush the bare spots and put some black paint over them.
 
That’s all just surface rust. If those are the “rusty” parts, you did really well.
 
It is a total P.O.S. I will take it off of your hands,
Cheap of course.

P.S. Looks pretty solid to me.
 
Lets see some more pics of this so called rust bucket.
I think you may have a winner.
 
Pffffffffffffft. Come to the east coast, I will show you some real rust. When the leaf springs pops through the trunk and hits the trunk lid, the car has some rust starting.
 
Thanks for the replies all. I got pretty worried there. Still going through with a wire brush and some rust products.

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That ain’t ****! Looks great.
standup303 said:
Just bought my very first classic car. It’s a 74 Dart. Has a pretty poor but new Plum Crazy Purple paint job, new vinyl top, new seat covers, slant 6. I bought it with intentions of installing a V8 this winter.

The car had a rust resistant coating installed a long time ago, but the more I look the more I am thinking I may have screwed up buying this car. I have been looking at Eastwood products and POR-15. With enough wire wheel/sanding work and rust specific products, do you think it’s worth keeping and building?

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Nice Car, I think you will be fine, Enjoy it and you found the best spot on the web for a A owner.
 
Guys that do termite inspections for existing home sales use a pointed stick to poke wood framing to look for soft spots. Paint can cover the rot and hide it well but a hard stick can detect where wood is rotten or patched poorly.
The same applies with rust on cars. A screwdriver can be used to poke at areas that you suspect. To me, your car has just simple surface rust where bare metal allowed some minor oxidation to occur.
 
@standup303, first of all, welcome to the forum!!!! Second, that rust does not look bad at all. Eastwood makes some excellent rust treatment products. Look for lots of videos about them on YouTube. follow the instructions and TAKE YOUR TIME. Post lots of pictures of your work. We all like that.
 
I will never forget the time I lost a spare tire out of my 1970 BMW. The entire spare tire well just gave up and dumped it in the middle of the road. Luckily I was in a small town, just pulled over and grabbed the tire and threw it back in the trunk.

You did good on this one, it looks solid!
 
Welcome to FABO!

I agree with the comments above. Start knocking off that surface rust and treat it with a good rust encapsulator. Wear eye protection and get to know the bottom of your new car. Good luck!
 
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