Tatton Park - Classic and Performance Car Spectacular June 2018

[Tinsmith_Skippy]

The Pi and S should have mastic pads behind to hold it away from the body work to stop the vibration.

Maybe my context was wrong, mine had mastic substance behind it. I’ve only had the luxury of scrapping one car and another I bought got stolen. I’ll get back in my box and never leave the the project page again.

[Tinsmith_Skippy]

Buy the best you can afford I paid £2500 for the red pi 5 years ago in bits, people would probably say thats madness, but restoration costs a lot of money.
My Valencia Pi was probably a dead cert scrapper or a ring road bumper car and to restore it cost me more than usual raised eyebrows of a £8000 - £10000 car on eBay.

[johnnydog]

The Pi and S should have mastic pads behind to hold it away from the body work to stop the vibration.

Maybe my context was wrong, mine had mastic substance behind it. I’ve only had the luxury of scrapping one car and another I bought got stolen. I’ll get back in my box and never leave the the project page again.

I've seen the odd one with something like dum dum around the screws for the number plate, which I presumed was pressed into the initial no plate drilling when drilled and fitted by the supplying garage. Would prevent water ingress, but unless it covered the bare metal edges, these would rust in time. They all seem to rust around the mini expansion rivets because the edges would never have been rust treated when drilled. At what stage in the production line the actual holes would have been drilled, I don't know. Replacement light panels are not drilled, so I'm presuming they were done on the production line after the shells were painted, hence them rusting outwards from the hole.

[nimchimpsky82]

Thanks John -- you're nothing if not thorough!

It sounds as though this is difficult to inspect on a car for sale, then, unless the corrosion is so bad that it's coming out from under the panel, in which case I suppose there may be other issues with the car as well. By the way, I remember you showing me the traces of Supertrol at that seam on Saturday on your 2500S; I was impressed!

[johnnydog]

I really think that the right car will stand out as soon as you see it Will.
I think it is better to find a car with the odd rust blemish but the car is genuine and original (as long as it isn't severe or particularly deep rooted) than a car that looks near perfect but has had paint or body repairs done. You never know how well it has been done or what is underneath. With the odd blemish, at least you know where you are with it.
However blemishes coming through on a car that HAS had bodywork / paint in my opinion is one to steered away from, as the repairs have probably been more cosmetic. The obvious signs of this is areas where filler is lifting under the paint. An original car, the rust will be more localised, with the rust areas showing initially as small rust pin pricks, or surface rusted areas where the paint has given way to a rusted surface, but the metal although rusted, is still quite solid. Rust coming through on a cosmetically repaired car looks totally different from rust starting to show on an original car.
I hope this makes some sort of sense!