Not 10 minutes after saying that I give up on wanting a Z, I find myself talking to someone selling one. I don't know how I called, I just realized I was talking to him on the phone.

After looking at the latest '70 yesterday, I had become discouraged since it has so much rust under the battery. The seats were shot, the shifter was spongy (to be nice), and the front suspension needed attention. Not to mention that the AC and radio did not work. For 11K I really expected a nicer Z. Now, I have not written that one off entirely, I am just waiting to see what else presents itself, and might hopefully be able to convince him to sell it to me for $7500 to $8500.

I looked into this Ebay car to see what the deal was on it. It is also a '70, build date 9/70 and VIN 10095. I talked with Barry who runs the car lot it is at. He says he just got it in on trade cause the PO's daughter needed a new car. He had run out of garage space. Incidently the Z is being kept outside while at the lot.

The E bay site has had no activity and is still showing starting bid of $8850. The trader side shows a selling price of $12.5. Somehow I think the $8850 might be the lowest he intends to go in negotiations.

Anyway, Barry says that this is the nicest Z he has seen in this area. The only rust he knows of is under the battery tray, which is described as a quarter sized place. There are no bubble or blemishes in the paint. He does not know how long ago the car was painted. The PO had the car for only a year. he bought it from another used car lot in Winston-Salem, NC.

I will attach some of the MANY pictures I have of this car to get some feedback.

Battery tray from top.

Here is a close up under the tray by the drain hose. Rust looks like it might be pretty bad under the paint, but hard to tell from the picture.

Here are the frame rails. They look to have been painted recently so accurate condition is unknown.

Another from the front

Pic of the interior. Notice how the seat backs have been swapped. The seat belt hangers are on the wrong side now.

Check out the full carpet kit in the trunk. Have not seen too many like this.

The little bit of rust shown is not too critical. It shouldn't be there, but that little bit would be an easy fix....

It's when the rust is all the way back to where the inner fender panel meets the firewall that gets critical. The pic just shows some surface rust that wasn't taken care of properly and is bubbling under the paint. It could easily be taken care of by pulling the tray, sanding, and coating it with POR-15 and then a top coat to match the car.

As far as the other car goes, the shifters on all of the early cars with the A model transmission are sloppy compared to the later B models, the only way to fix it is with the solid bushings, but it will never shift quite as slick as the "B".

Seats are an easy fix as is the suspension if it just needs bushings and/or strut cartridges. With the price, I would expect better, but the chassis' being in good to very good condition and the fact that you won't break the bank replacing parts that are missing is one thing to consider as well.

As far as telling you which one to go for, that's gonna be all up to you and how much you are willing to spend. Take a little time to look the cars over and make a list of the pro's and con's of each car. Then sit back and compare them. Make a list of what eash car will need until it would suit you and see which one would require less investment after the purchase price and go with that.

Originally posted by Smokey

Here is a close up under the tray by the drain hose. Rust looks like it might be pretty bad under the paint, but hard to tell from the picture.

Agreed, hard to tell for sure from a picture, but sadly, it sure looks like there is more rot under the paint in this area.

POR15 will stop rust, but it DOES NOT neutralize the acid that is there and will continue to cause rust. You have to be able to get all of that acid OUT/NEUTRALIZED before it is worth messing with the POR15.

Originally posted by Smokey

Pic of the interior. Notice how the seat backs have been swapped. The seat belt hangers are on the wrong side now.

Half Dash cap too. The FULL dash cap is the way to go, the "half" looks half-assed IMHO. Probably saved $10-15 bucks and looks $100 worse!

Originally posted by Smokey

Check out the full carpet kit in the trunk. Have not seen too many like this.

MSA sells them for $250.00 v.s. $190 for the regular kit. Cheap way to hide the vinyl if it is all buggered up from flying luggage etc. I don't mean this as a criticism, as I'd do it myself; its just that it isn't "special" in any way. Quite available, and reasonably priced.

Originally posted by 2ManyZs

As far as telling you which one to go for, that's gonna be all up to you and how much you are willing to spend. Take a little time to look the cars over and make a list of the pro's and con's of each car. Then sit back and compare them. Make a list of what eash car will need until it would suit you and see which one would require less investment after the purchase price and go with that.

Smokey: Except for the opinion about the rust, I agree with 2ManyZs, it all comes down to how much you want to spend and what you are willing to do yourself to fix the shortcomings of either car.

I would not shy away from a car that needs suspension bushings and struts. It is not that difficult of a job to do yourself (even if you do the outer spindle pins at the rear, just have a machine shop press out the pins and you install new, don't bust your a$$ trying to remove yourself). The shifter bushings are also easy to replace whether you stay with stock, or go to solid. Seats are easy too.

IF IT WAS ME, and I know others may (or will) feel different, I'd go with the one with less invasive battery acid damage; asssuming I can get the seller to agree to a reasonable price.

$11K seems out of line for the first car from the photos you posted, but IMO so does $8.8K seem high for the recent posting.

Battery rust scares the sh_t out of me. I had soo much trouble with it on Bambikiller's older brother. I will always do everything I can to avoid that situation again.

Yeah, if it were not for the battery rust on the orange one I looked at the other day, I would jump all over it. Its just that the rust trail had gotten down onto the frame rails (and quite possibly inside). Thanks for the heads up on the "inside" part Carl:D . I can deal with the suspension and the seats. That is not a big deal.

Would it be possible to gain an advantage with a closed cell battery like Optima? They do not leak, even when upside down. If that is the case, they could do a better job of preventing future rusting. They might also be able to stand sitting for longer periods of time without going dead. Just a thought.