So, seeing as we're talking about my C110 let's clear a few things up.
The reality is that in 2003, (which was 7 years ago) I bought the C110 from Malcolm.
Being I was in Invercargill and him in Christchurch, we corresponded by email for a while before the decision was essentially made to buy it, because let's be honest after having hired a trailer and driven a dirty Fairmont all the way up from Invercargill, the likelihood of returning without it, was slim.
During the emails Malcolm (maldat) provided me with photos of "The only rust in it."
These photos consisted of:
1. The boot floor, which had minor surface rust
2. The top of the rear quarters which had minor rust bubbling through because Malcolm had removed a vinyl roof and not tidied it up properly.
Also within the conversations Malcolm informed me that it had a few other "special" things, like a full rear firewall which he believed to be the same as the 'P' shells.
When I got there, we went over the car and I took his word for a lot of it, hell.. all of it really. Though as we were looking it over he removed the back-seat to show me this firewall and it wasn't there. Just the standard supports. No big deal.
He also told me that other than the rust, the car had been involved in a minor bender. Someone had bumped into the ass end of it but he went on to inform me that he pulled it out and straightened it before flicking a bit of filler over it, etc. No worries.
I was told that he'd taken it all back to metal (because of getting rid of the vinyl roof, you see) before painting it in the brighter metallic blue.
This is a warning to most people, myself included. It's always a concern when the car you're buying has a "fresh re-spray" however, I had wanted an early Skyline forever and I was smitten with finding one. So we trailered it up and took it home.
What I didn't realise until later was just how much was being covered up and HOW it was covered up.
It spent a whack of time off the road (almost a year as some of you know) after some tourists drove into the side of it. During this time, if the panel-beater who "fixed it" had of taken the time to talk to me about what he found (which he chose not to do, because then he would have actually had to fix it properly) then I would have known then just how shit the "repairs" had been.
Every few months in order to just keep it legal I had to scuff back a few bits and pieces and dust it lightly with some colour match paint. This was telling in that what was underneath was not in good shape.
However, it wasn't until my windscreen cracked that I really got to grips with just how fucked the car was. now obviously during my ownership the rust had gotten worse, that's what rust does. However, if I had known how bad it was in places of concern then I would have got onto it a lot earlier.
I removed the windscreen, which had cracked at the bottom passenger's side upwards towards the middle. I imagined it had done so due to rust forming on the underneath. That was incorrect. Why it cracked, is more likely due to the twisting of the car due to what was missing on the UPPER section of the window frame. After removing the stainless surround and popping the window out, I discovered that the steel that the upper screen runs along was rotten, did Malcolm know about this? Simply, yes. How could he not? Where there was not steel there was COPIOUS amounts of not only bog, but white Bathroom silicone. Yes. That's right, Bathroom Silicon.
This was the beginning of it all, once I had a place to work on it, I got stuck in.
I have taken the ENTIRE exterior of the body shell back to bare metal.
So, had Malcolm done this? No. How do I know? because I found original paint in more than a few places and in fact the only places I didn't find it, were the places that were filled with holes and rott. Strange that.
It doesn't bother me so much that the car has rust in it, it's from the fucking 70's of course it will, it was no show pony. My issue is the fact that it was all lied about.
Further evidence of this is a recent "conversation" that was had on the trademe mesage boards. A friend of mine had been watching my progress on the car and whilst Malcolm was offering some chap a car to buy my friend jokingly asked whether the car he was offering was full of expanding foam filler, like his old C110 had been. Malcolm got all bitter and retorted that the C110 had "NO FOAM FILLER IN IT"
Weird then. I wonder where that came from?
Anyway, perhaps Malcolm hadn't put that spoiler on and so he wasn't aware of the foam filler. Guess what though? He did put it on. He went on to say in his conversation with my friend that it was an SLR5000 spoiler and he had put it on because the bootlid was fucked and he couldn't find a replacement in NZ. Yet, I was never told this when I bought the car. I was told that the spoiler was used because it looked like the GT-R one. All part of the half-assed GT-R look that he'd done. SLR5000 spoiler and a cut and shut front grille. With sign-written "Skyline" stickers on the rear quarters and R32 and R33 GT-R badges, rear and front, respectively. That was his "C110 GT-R".
As for these magical three piece alloys you think are so special. They're nothing special. They're 15x7 "Asahi" Mesh wheels and from what I remember when we had to replace the first pair of what Malcolm now refers to as "Brand New FM901's" and what anyone else would refer to as, at LEAST half worn not including camber wear. The wheels pretty much went straight onto my brother's S30 240Z as they're not a style of wheel I give a shit about.
As for your assumption as to the value of the car being on the light side at $1500, I know of several C110's that have sold for less and around the same amount and in FAR better shape and in much more recent times since. It's only the last two-three years that the value of the C110 has gone up and even then, it's only in peoples minds because this is NZ and people here don't give a shit about the C110, try selling one for anywhere near what they're "worth" and you'll be hanging onto it for a long, long time. Ask Malcolm, he initially listed the C110 at $30,000. Hell, try insuring one for what you think they're worth.
So, the reality is this. The car is quite rotten. I am fixing it, I am not selling it. The amount of money I have spent on the car is far and above what it cost me.
Like I said to Malcolm when I bought it off him, I plan on keeping it for a long, LONG time. If he had of taken the time to tell me the truth about what he'd covered up, I would have been grateful, as I could have fixed it up a lot sooner than now and I would have no issues at all and threads like these would not exist, at least not from my end. Though as you can read further up, I'm not the only one who had been lied to about the amount of rott that was in a car he sold.
If you want to follow my progress with the car, by all means do so. When I make a post about it on my site it will always be categorised under the "110-Project" link on the left. So you can check it out there.
Before I go. Here's a picture of the dent in the rear that Malcolm pulled out and "skimmed" over with filler;
I guess it really depends on your definition of "skimmed".
So, in summary.
dirtyleppa; Don't kill me for my car.
2 doors; Yes, it is very frustrating but head down bum up, I'll sort it properly even if takes a while.
sam910; It's nothing to do with jealousy and the implication of which just lends me to believe you're ignorant in this regard.
Alright, as you were.
P.S. Donations to aid in the restoration are accepted.
