First-time e30 Purchase. Rust?

[hawaiie30]

Today is the day! Praying the sunroof is clean. Photos to come!

[wolfador]

Make sure to open the sunroof and check it's surrounding. Mine didn't look too bad from the top but once I opened it I could see the rails were mostly rusted out.

Try checking the underside also, rusted bolts snapping off in the frame ain't fun. Took me 2 weeks to do my control arm bushings cause of those. However I got one of the famous northeast cars (Jersey) so your's should be way better :)

[hawaiie30]

Thanks Wolf! Yeah, the sunroof and under the car are going to be the first things I check. If those are bad, it’s going to be a sad day for sure.

[hawaiie30]

The car looked good, so I purchased it and put it on a boat yesterday morning. It arrived in port here this morning, and it's already available for pickup! Going to go get it here in a couple of hours and bring it home. I shot some video and photos of it while we were on Oahu, I'll upload them in the Members Rides section! Stoked!

[jgilber0]

The car looked good, so I purchased it and put it on a boat yesterday morning. It arrived in port here this morning, and it's already available for pickup! Going to go get it here in a couple of hours and bring it home. I shot some video and photos of it while we were on Oahu, I'll upload them in the Members Rides section! Stoked!

Excellent!

[wolfador]

Congrats!

[hawaiie30]

Thanks gents!

So, got it home and finally had time to get a really good look at everything. A couple of surprises ...

- Rust through on the driver's side floor, near the heel mat. About the size of a baseball. Need to pull the carpet and see what I'm dealing with.
- Passenger door and passenger front fender aren't original. They fit perfectly, but I see spots of red where they painted over. Nothing noted on the carfax, must have fixed out of pocket.
- Boots on the steering rack are ripped.

A few known issues I'm working on ...

- Onboard computer doesn't power on.
- Radio asks for code on each startup (could be related).
- Tach is intermittent (SI batteries?).
- Anti-Lock light is on.

I changed the oil and engine filter last night, and the car idles and drives great. No major rust on the frame that I can see. Overall, happy with the car. Probably overpaid ($5500), but these are hard to find out here and the alternative was shipping one from the mainland. I'll take what I can get, I figure this is a good car to learn on

[Reichart12]

I'll take what I can get, I figure this is a good car to learn on

This right here. Sounds like a fun project ahead for you.