71' chevelle rust areas to look for?

[Nicks67GTO]

I have an inside on a 71' chevelle 6 cyl. 4 speed in my area for sale for $500. The guy tells my dad its a Florida car and it is rust free besides a little bit under the rear window. I do know that where theres smoke, theres usually fire!! So im asking what secret areas too look at on these body style Chevelles so i dont potentially spend $500 bucks on a rust hog. Any tips before i go check it out this weekend? Also lets say this thing is a rust free shell. Whats it worth? Im going to guess the interior is shot, the motor is going in the garbage, the 4 speed will go up for sale if its any good. Assuming its just a rolling rust free shell that needs some serious loving what kind of $$ is this worth?

Obviously im going to be checking out the floors, firewall, rockers, fenders, hood, quarters, rear valence, wheelwells and trunk. Is there anywhere that i should REALLY be watching for that is a "red flag dont buy it" area?

[shep]

Is it a vinyl top car? If so look for any bubbling, and feel around the top for crunchy spots. The front and rear window channels are rusted on a lot of these cars. Check the trunk floor, the floor pans under the windshield, inner and outer wheel wells. Bottom of the doors. You might post over at team chevelle and see if a knowable member is in your area to go look at the car with you.

[Gordz32]

AS far as the $500 goes, its hard to find one that cheap so if you get a fairly clean shell w/a straight frame, and a clean title. You could make some money. First things first. Chevelles don't have near as many replacement panels as say.. 1st gen camaro's. Most chevelles will have rust at the bottom part of the firewall ( Where the rear part of the front fenders bolt up. There is no patch panel and I had to make them myself "PITA". Next the cowl area below the a-pillars will get rusty sometimes. Roofs, as mentioned b4 watch out for vinyl cars and check reall really well. No aftermarket replacement panels are made. AS with any other 30+ year old car, quarters and outer wheel houses almost always have some rust, as well as the drop off panels off the side of the trunk. Feel around in there( Re pops are made and aren't to hard to install when ur patching 1/4s. The filler panel between the rear glass and the trunk lid are replaceable. Trunk gutters are incredibly hard to find so make sure there pretty good. And Lastly the rear tailight panel can get rusty but reproductions are made. WE got screwed with our car. Bent frame, and I replaced inner/outer wheelhouses, 1/4's, drop-offs, taillight panel, rear filler, door skins, fenders , and hood. and we over payed alot. but $500 seems pretty good. Goodluck and sorry for the reall really long post! Let me know if u have any ?'s :jump:

[JJSmitches]

Gordz32

Is there replacement stuff for around the rear window, like the corners that are rusted out on mine?

Sorry to hijack!

thx!

[Gordz32]

If your talking about the window channel in the bottom area, there are no replacement panels other than to install full quarters or cutting up a full quarter. The other option is to make the part. I just installed full quarters b/c the bottom was rusted and previous to my owning the car someone used mass amounts of bondo!:banghead:

[StRacerDuke]

From an owner of a 71 SS (Me):

Water will pool in the lower corners of the rear window and rot through. If it gets really bad it will spread up on the rear seal where you can see it. There will almost always be a hole in the window frame that rusted through to the trunk.

The water will drain into the trunk so you want to feel down beside both quarter pannels. The trunk floor should be in good shape because the water usually drains off of it and down into the side cracks. You can get your hand back there to feel around but I would suggest using a light and mirror to see the damage. You'll typically find that the lower part of the quarters are very 'thin' or have pin holes in them. You can patch pannel or replace the quarters, up to you.

Another spot you may find some issues is behind the front wheels down by the frame. The fender is a two peice section down there and you will get debris that builds up and will stop water. This is harder to see unless you get underneath and poke around where the lower fender connects. Sometime it will even rust through 4-8 inches up from the bottom.

Jsapata, I don't believe they make those peices as replacement parts but they are very simple items to fab up even if you don't have a lot of tools. you'll just need a welder, grinder, and some good paint sealer.

Hope this helps.