Hello again, chaps!
I've been to see a GTL for sale this weekend, and have just arrived home a little confused...
The nice guy who's car it is said that it hadn't had any welding done and had been garaged from knew. I have to say that it was in terrific condition inside and out, but underneath is, as we all know, more important...
I gave the chassis a good prodding with my trusty screwdriver, and it did seem to be in good nick, although it was starting to get dark! However, I did find a weld he hadn't known about. I opened the boot and pulled up all the rubber lining, and the weld was on the left-hand side on the wheel arch, kind of where a rear seatbelt mount would be, (even though the car doesn't have them). Looking into the rear wheel arch from the outside you could clearly see rust and flaking in the same place. Is this a potentially serious problem???
Also, I tried the best I could to assess the condition of the rear suspension mountings. Outer mountings seem fine, but there was some visible rust just forward of the inner mounting on the car's onside. Visible, but not flaky. Will this need addressing in the very near future, and how expensive will it be?????
Overall, the car is in excellent condition - extremely clean inside and out and it drives really well. I believe him when he says it's been garaged from new - otherwise it couldn't be in that good condition. NO bodywork rust at all!!! My only concern is this: no welding has been done to the chassis, (apart from that one small patch I found in the boot/rear wheelarch), but does the visible, but small, amount of rust just forward of the inner rear suspension mounting mean that I'll have to fork out loads of money down the line???? It has 10 months MOT and, according to the guy, the mechanics who carried that MOT out said they hadn't seen such a good R4 chassis in ages....
It's VERY tempting because the car is SOOO clean, but on the other hand I already have my trusty but slightly scruffy R4 which has already had chassis welding done - welding which my local mechanic said had been done to a pretty good standard.
So, do I go for the one I saw today and hope the chassis doesn't require expensive attention, or stick with the one I've got???
Any advice will be greatly appreciated!!!
Thanks!
Chris