So I’ve found a 1971 car that I like the look of. The seller says that it will need a couple of new tyres and some “rust repairs to the bottom of the guards” to get a RWC. He seems to think this is not a major thing to do.
At the moment I’m just going to leave it because I have no idea whether the rust would cost $100 or $10,000 to sort out. Just thought I’d ask here and see if any of you lot are car nuts and could offer me some advice.
What kind of car is it?
Here a shot of my work in progress, but there are plenty of others on here…
Its a VW Fastback. I’d love to own it but not if its going to rape my wallet to get it through a RWC and regularly afterwards.
Buy a new car !
New cars just aren’t as cool.
I’d would only buy a car without a Rwc if it has been looked over by an authorised
rwc mechanic to get an idea of what needs to be done. It will only cost you 1 hr of labour as opposed to potentially thousands of dollars to get a car road worthy.
If you are in Melbourne there is a vw place in north road, ormond just near dunkin mckinnon that enthusiasts swear by.
Rust is never nice.
AF
Do most RWC mechanics offer that service? I’m not even going to see it unless I can find someone in the know to come with me because I know jack shit (about cars).
All decent mechanics will perform a pre purchase inspection. If you book it
in a for rwc inspection they will make a list of what needs doing, just specify that you are after the list and not to go forward with any work to make the car road worthy as you are trying to determine whether to buy the car or not. If the list is large you cab use
it to bargain down the seller, or pull out of the sale.
Keep in mind that a rwc only states whether a car is safe for road use, it has no bearing on the cars condition mechanically. So a pre purchase inspection would also be a good idea.
If you know jack shit about cars (I mean no offence by this), then chances are when you take the car to get the rust fixed, they’ll try and talk you into repairing things that aren’t necessarily void of a roadworthy. I’ve seen plenty of guys get burned like this, and they end up spending about twice what they should. VW fastbacks are sweet, I’m looking around for a beetle to build up as a hillclimb monster.
No offence taken, its exactly the reason why I’m being cautious. I’ve just remembered that one of my girlfriends work colleagues has a husband with two classics in the garage.
Hoping to enrol his help.
+1 for the pre-purchase inspection.
i had to get around $500 worth of rust fixed in my $1000 cheap hack…not a good feeling.
do you happen to know anyone else with some old VW, whether they be a dub or fast back or even a kombi. get as much general background on them as you can, knowledge is power.
best of luck with it.
dF (owner of 3 current and 5 deceased pre '80s toyota steel)
Yeah I am into older cars as well. Got a TE37 Levin, Mazda Carol and a RX7 shell I just wanna get rid of.
Send me as many photos pf the rust you can if possible and I will try tell you exactly what is needed and try and figure out a cost.
I’m a panel beater by trade but hate dealing with the money side of things cause there will always be big variants between the quotes which tend to cause troubles but I can give you a guide.
current car
series 5 rx7, 13b extend port, microtech, fmic, 3" exhaust, all the usual goodies.
don’t drive it that much, chews up so much fuel :(.
for sale at the moment, someone buy it.
old car
s14 200sx, had all the usual bits, making decent power. had a good offer on it and sold it, but i wish i hadn’t :(.
xcx, that fastback you’re looking for wouldnt happen to be a burnt orange colour on whitewall 14" wheels would it? 
nice one if it is.
in terms of your rust question, the price will vary getting it repaired properly with new plate steel and a nice matching repaint. although depending on the size i would budget for at least 1k as rust work is a panelbeaters least favourite job.
in terms of my old cars i have owned:
4agze powered ke70 corolla with a host of mods.
4agze powered ae86 levin hatch.
but this is my current car and project:
a jap ae86 trueno notchback with 80,000kms on the clock and fresh paint
not bad for a 27 year old car
and my next project is one of these:
Rust is like cancer, it will kill your car very slowly!
Take a magnet with you and check places where you think there might have been repairs done and place the magnet on the area, if it sticks you should be ok, if it doesn’t check more closely for signs of repair, looking from inside the body work if you can.
Simple test but may save a lot of expense.
My old VW, well a pic of the model anyway.
I have owned three type 3’s, never a fast back though.
My last one:
The main place to check for rust is the floor pan. This is as easy to check for as lifting the carpet up and having a look. The main place on the floor pan which goes is where the battery is under the rear seat, so just lift up the rear seat and then take the battery out.
I there is any rust in the roof… leave it. Anything else can be fixed with someone who knows what they are doing, or replacing it with spare panels. I would suggest checking out some VW forums. Probably the best if you are in Melbourne would be www.melburgluft.com/ or you can just check out www.aussieveedubbers.com
Other places that are common are the front quarter panels down the bottom. rear lower quarter panels. Sometimes it is easy to check these as the bubbles start to appear anyway, they will look like this.
That’s a nice car. how long until it’s done?
Got this a while ago, for sale if anyone is keen
