exaggeration or lie?

[hr369]

Which do you think applies here? This car is currently up for sale on an auction website.

"Only rust on the WHOLE CAR is a VERY small amount on the floorpan(could cover completely with less than a dollar bill)"

 

ex·ag·ger·a·tion

 iɡˌzajəˈrāSH(ə)n/

 noun

 noun: exaggeration; plural noun: exaggerations

        1.  a statement that represents something as better or worse than it really is.

 

 

lie²

lī/

noun

noun: lie; plural noun: lies

1. 1.

   an intentionally false statement.

Edited January 26, 2016 by hr369

[Zed Head]

Trust but verify applies, I think.  Technically, it may be right.  The word disingenuous applies here.  It's an indirect form of lying.  Post the link to the site so we can see who the liar is.

Are those sheet metal screws?  Watch your head.

[hr369]

50 minutes ago, Zed Head said:

Trust but verify applies, I think.  Technically, it may be right.  The word disingenuous applies here.  It's an indirect form of lying.  Post the link to the site so we can see who the liar is.

Are those sheet metal screws?  Watch your head.

 

Ok, could apply too.  " I swear I never saw underneath those patches. That's work from the previous owner"

No i'de rather not identify this individual. This is more of a humours poke at the ad's out there on the auction websites.

But my god how can you not notice those shiny new floors?

 

dis·in·gen·u·ous

ˌdisənˈjenyo͞oəs/

adjective

adjective: disingenuous

1. not candid or sincere, typically by pretending that one knows less about something than one really does.

    

    

Edited January 26, 2016 by hr369

[EuroDat]

I think in reality a rust free Zed no longer exists or it never left the factory. A lot of metal was not properly treated to resist long term rust issues and the cars were often exposed to the harsh elements during transport on the ships or docks.

It would not be wise to think a used zed will be rust free. Mine was "Rust free" which means I will need to dig a little further to find it.

Also the definition of rust should also be mentioned. Surface rust or badly pitted to completly corroded away.

I find the biggest problem with these cars is the rust is most often in places you can't easily see until the car is fully stripped. The small tell tale bubbles under the paint are just the surface of the problem and the end result of years of corrosion.

[Namerow]

An old friend worked in the metal-producer industry for his entire career, eventually rising to senior management.  He told me that the auto industry decided to try out higher-impurity-level hot-rolled steel back in the early and mid-1970's and it backfired, big time.  It seemed like all cars of that era -- not just Z's -- had issues.  I remember a guy in my office who bought a brand-new full-size Chevrolet sedan, circa 1977.  It had a very attractive dark green metallic paint job.  A year later, a rust blotch about 1 in. in diameter appeared out of nowhere in the center of the driver's door.  Pinto's, Vega's, FIAT's, TR-4's, Volvo's, Jensen's, Porsche's -- the list of rust buckets from that era is endless.  Except for American Motors, that is.  They ran their unibodies through an immersion tank filled with anti-corrosion primer (zinc?) before painting.

Rust is triggered by localised galvanic (electrical) activity.  Impurities in hot-rolled steel serve to set up exactly that kind of localized electrical cell (and poor-quality steel had a lot of those impurities built right in).  If I remember my Chemistry properly, moisture (esp. with salt added) acts as the electrolyte.  On exposed panels, the moisture evaporates before it has a chance to get things going.  However, when you trap moisture in the seams between two panels that have been spot-welded together, you're off to the (rust) races.  Even the spot-welding process seemed to aggravate the problem -- or, at least, in the cases where the steel sheet wasn't very good quality.  Add a little salty seaside air (e.g. loading and unloading docks, deck-top storage on the ship) and it permeates right into those seams.

If you look at photos of a typical, moderately-rusted Z after it's been lightly sand-blasted, you can see the darker corrosion areas that creep out from all of the seams.  Scary.  'Rust never sleeps'.  A wash with phosphoric acid ('Ospho', 'Rust Neutralizer', etc.) helps to neutralize this -- and, I believe, might even serve as a 'sacrificial' coating on top of the steel. 

Nowadays (after the industry finally figured out how to get paint adherence), we see one and even two-sided galvanized steel sheet used for body stampings.  You rarely see rust on a modern car's body panels, except for upper-bodywork (roof, trunk, hood) where some manufacturers still used non-galvanized steel.

[Captain Obvious]

I'm not sure if any of those terms ("exaggeration", "lie", or "disingenuous") really apply here. From my experience the people selling Z cars have very darkly tinted rose colored glasses on. I've gone to look at probably twenty cars for sale and the story was pretty much the same at all of them. The owners don't see the car as it is right now... They look at it and picture how nice it could be if it were fixed.

So my read on the statement "Only rust on the WHOLE CAR is a VERY small amount on the floorpan(could cover completely with less than a dollar bill)"

Means "There used to be a lot of rust on the car, but it was all in the floor pans which have been replaced. So now that the floors have been replaced, the only rust is a small amount on the floorpan."

Of course, we experienced Z owners know that the rust you can see is a tiny amount of the total rust that you CAN'T see, and if the floors were so bad that they had to be replaced, then there are guaranteed to be other significant issues to be found if you poke in the right spots. But maybe (just maybe?) the seller hasn't that same level of experience.

So maybe I'm giving them too much leeway, but I don't see it as dishonest... I see it as inexperienced.

[Captain Obvious]

And just in case anyone wonders what I think about the cars condition...

I see a dash that has been sun baked and baked and baked. And baked.

Covers on the seats hiding who knows what!

Wrong shift knob (and missing the emblem to boot).

A center console that has been cracked up.

A wiring nightmare with hacked harnesses, splices and wires hanging everywhere.

Steering wheel missing parts, Clamshell gone and wires exposed.

Typical peeling vinyl on the scuff plates and rotted weatherstripping.

Looks like the radio has been forcibly removed.

 

Maybe even a theft recovery?

 

So my read on the car is that it was driven hard for many years in a very sunny humid part of the world and put away wet. Now it's someone's half finished project where they pop-riveted homemade floor pans in it and then kinda gave up on the project because they lost interest or money, or both. And it may have been stolen and recovered in there somewhere.

[Mark Maras]

 If it was being offered by a politician, he, she would explain that they had just "mis-spoke" about the rust.

[John Coffey]

I'm shocked, shocked to hear that someone lied about a used car they were selling.