I went and looked at this gem this morning. According to CL map, the car was roughly 4-5 miles from my home. Actually, car is closer to 24 miles each way.
The owner was in his mid-twenties and lives in a nice part of town (a nice house on at least 2 Acres), and this car looked a bit out of place, there.
I think my smart phone has been dropped too many times – for half of the pictures I took, didn’t come out.
When I arrived, vehicle did not have enough in battery to start the car. I have it a jump with my wagon - but it didn’t take much for car to kick off. He had a voltmeter and shortly after startup, the battery voltage was 14.4 volts. It has a new appearing alternator and a battery with “E6” sticker on it (battery made May 2016). Both battery cable ends were cut off with these style ends added. I’m 95.92% certain that dissembling and cleaning the ends and will, will fix the no start condition.
Engine started fairly easily – but I would replace starter with a mini starter to increase engine crank over speed (if car was mine).
I did not look for or to find the leak – but engine sounds exactly as if the exhaust manifold is cracked (I’ve replaced way too many /6 manifolds to know what they sound like).
The owner said engine has been going through spark plugs, pretty fast. He also said he suspects vehicle has over 100k miles on it (which I agree on). I suspect changing valve guide seals may fix the spark plug fouling condition – or if not, it will make a big dent in that problem.
Someone took off the RV2 A/C compressor and replaced with a Sanyo style aftermarket compressor – which is a bit odd. Owner said A/C works but is not cold. The car does have the factory A/C firewall bubble - which one doesn't find with Sanyo style A/C compressors, often.
Also the ordinal A/C hoses were cut and spliced, as well.
He also said the previous owner had a minor fender bender that broke the grill and other minor front end damage. Note: someone welded up a grill out of metal – that sure looks "better than nothing". There is some minor damage behind the front bumper – so I “think” the A/C condenser might be punctured, maybe. I think the A/C wouldn’t take much to get operational – if a person had access to R-12.
Body wise – there is rust-through on hatch roof area (see picture notes), rust pinholes on rear wheel lips and rust-through on L/F floor pan. My other under car pictures did not take – or was lost. The frame rails do have some rust, but I consider it to be minor.
No fender rust seen - even in the usual areas!
Interior wise – The dash and front seat area looks to be in great shape – if you like black, that is. The seats – not so much. The seats are intact but are in not that good of condition.
I didn’t look at rear seat area.
The spare tire was on top of the tray. The owner removed the tailgate trim to add speakers but decided against that and instead added speakers, recently, into the two side compartment doors. The tailgate trim was ready to reinstall – but he lost the screws for it.
The D-Pillar trim is missing as well as the headliner.
Current owner said he was planning on purchasing carpet and gluing the carpet onto the roof!
The spare tire well is a different color than rest of car was, and I had thought maybe they forgot to paint the area – possibly. It looks like brown primer (see picture). The owner said car was painted before he bought the car – to its current color of green. The paint it sun-burnt off in several places. If someone went through the trouble to repaint the car – they did a great job doing so, for underhood area is painted the same color - but maybe not so great on how paint is sticking on.
The fender tag shows "MU3" which is Carmel Tan (bright tan).
This vehicle does need a paint job and at same time, get the minor rust spots fixed before rust takes over the car (ie: needs paint and rust fixed, sooner rather than later).
This vehicle has the 5 thin chrome roof top luggage rack strips – but no luggage rack framework! No screw holes for the framework even exist! It looks as if it was a luggage rack delete – but someone screwed up on assembly line – or maybe I should just shorten that down to “someone screwed up on the assembly line”.
L/F frame rail, view "A"
L/F frame rail, view "B"
Rusted-through floor board, just above L/F frame rail (a blowup of above picture)
A blow-up of L/F frame rail rust (also from 2nd picture from top).
Note: R/F frame rail picture did not come out - but condition is the same (floor pan is better, there).
Taillamp lens is intact, but poor condition. Rear bumper plastic is broken.
I "think" the R/R wheel is the original spare wheel. The other 4 wheels match.
A blow-up of rust on R/R wheel well.
8¼” differential, with 5-leaf rear springs. The fuel tank has a small bend in it at edge of picture, from backing over something. it is not leaking.
