What about this 71 Dart?? Advice?
As always you guys are great source of knowledge. This is now the 2nd car I have posted, with the intention of buying it but you brought me down back to reality. I am curious, how do you check for the body and bondo issues? Just take a magnet and stick it around? Wouldnt people get pissed if you drag a magnet around their car?? How do you guys inspect the body on a car like this
Forget the magnet. A magnet can grab metal through as much an 1/8" of filler.
Personally, I like to look at the body scoping down the sides of each panel. Sand scratches (lazy folks will usually stop at 80 grit), bullseyes (the filler not being feathered correctly), and an unnatural wave in the sheet metal can be the better telltales.
I hate to say it, but a lot of guys won't invest in good primer fillers that will help with these things and don't block the filler or the primer right to begin with.
Personally, I wouldn't give up on the '66. The money spent on another car can upgrade most of the things you're concerned about.
Yeah the magnet trick doesn't always work. You can actually "knock" or tap lightly on the car with a knuckle, you'll hear the difference if you hit more than an 1/8" of bondo compared to paint over bare metal. And you don't have to check every inch of the car, I usually just focus on areas where I know there's problems, ie, bottoms of the quarters, fender dog leg, etc. But anything less than an 1/8" and you won't hear the difference, that will only tell you if the bondo is
really thick. Any place you can see the backside of a panel is good too, like in the trunk. Take a good look at the backside of the quarter panels, and then look at the outside. If anything looks odd feel the back of the quarter, if it's anything other than flat there could be a ton of bondo. You can also look at the undercoating that was sprayed on the back of the quarters and see if it's been removed or disturbed, if it looks factory etc. If there's been a ton of bodywork it won't look stock. Look at the body lines to see if they're nice and crisp, if there's been a ton of bodywork the lines can look muddy. Same deal if they're not straight the whole length of a panel. Then some of the other stuff, sand scratches, wavy panels, lots of "orange peel" in the paint. Those are just usually indicators of a cheap/fast job, the filler doesn't have to be very thick for it to have sand scratches, and honestly a wavy panel can indicate no filler just as easily as it can indicate a bondo queen. Remember from the factory the panels on these cars weren't perfect. For example, the Duster/Demon/Dart Sport quarter panel with its concave section right behind the doors before the quarter flares out a little. That's stock, it wasn't flat there. Some of that is knowing what the car is supposed to look like and finding any differences, because differences mean work was done. Not always a bad thing, but something to pay attention to.
You have to look at all of those things and then kind of add them up. That's why evaluating a car that has a driver quality job is harder honestly. You know you're going to find stuff, it's just a matter of how much and what it means. The problem is that a car that has orange peel and some wavy panels can be hiding a
ton of bondo. Or, it might not have any at all and it just got a quick scuff and shoot and didn't get a good cut and buff after the paint was applied. So, you could have a car that could actually be pretty solid and look decent with a little elbow grease, or a car that's hiding a hundred pounds of bondo that will fall off in 3 years. Or anything in between. Which is why buying a freshly painted car is so tough. If you can get any "before" or "in progress" pictures they can be very helpful. Not an end all be all, but if the car was fairly straight before it shouldn't be hiding a ton of bondo. Then again, even if it was really rough it doesn't necessarily mean the work wasn't done properly. Just more things to look for.