October, 2000
My first impressions were mostly horrible.
The rust was not only worse than the seller had said, but it was almost
to the point where the car was about to break in half. The doors were
being pinched tight by the sagging of the center tub of the car.
Other unmentioned problems were the missing air cleaner, the cracked front
windshield, the fact that some idiot had spray painted the engine compartment
white, the missing gas cap (which was in the auction pictures) and the fact
that there were no keys.
The generator was installed loosely, but it was from a 6 cylinder engine
and could not be used.
There was also a fuel pump from a 6 cylinder engine installed, which
actually did seem to work right, even if it did look weird.
The carburetor is date coded 1962 - and seems to be from a Fairlane.
All four floor pans were rusted through where you could see light coming in
from the outside.
2 quarts of water poured into the vent in front of the windshield (the cowl)
mostly wound up inside the car, making the carpet wet. This is probably why
the floor of the car is so rusty. The cowl must be totally rusted out.
The car and the trunk were also filled with years of leaves and garbage.
I bought some fluids to use for changing the anti-freeze, oil, and topping off
the brake fluid. It turns out that the engine has two of the freeze plugs
missing, and all the anti-freeze just poured out onto the driveway.
Also, in another e-mail I had asked the seller if the brakes worked. He said
that they did. When The car arrived, the brake pedal was down to the floor
and the master cylinder was full of rust particles.
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