On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 4:52 AM, george jannini <georgejoann@gmail.com>wrote:

> >> Never buy a vehicle from Pennsylvania (or any rust belt state) without
> checking out the undercarriage. <<
>
>    I owned an 11 year old well running & reliable Mazda rotary that
> had so much rust damage to its unibody chassis that you could feel it
> flex in turns, yet no visible rust on the body.  Gotta love New
> England.
>
> Geo/ATL
>

  My wife has a 70  BMW 2002 she simply loves..but she hates cars...or
treats them like she does.  Like many German vehicles of that era, it had
body rust.  Enough so that things in the trunk would get wet when she drove
in on rainy days.  She came in one day and said.."Hey Don, could you look at
my little car?  It's making a funny noise"  I go "What kinda noise?  How
long, etc etc?"  She says.."Started a few days ago...it kinda goes "Scritch
scritch scritck when I turn right or hit a bump"

  I find the whole left rear suspension has rusted out, body is sitting on
the wheel...the tire is actually rubbing inside the wheel well, the axle is
'free-floating'  I go.."Honey, this car is about shot." but she really wants
to save it somehow.

  So I took it (in a trailer) to my race chassis guy, a fella who makes
cages and chassis in Portland, Or..  We 'design' and weld in a tubular
"saddle-frame" in the trunk...A new structure to attach the springs and
shocks to.  $300 for the fabrication and the car drives better now....but
crap in the trunk still gets wet and you can check the tire pressure from
inside the trunk...You can probably brake like Fred Flintstone, too....foot
down on the pavement through the floorboards...(yes, floor-Boards!..now)

  That vehicle must have spent some years in the rust belt...

  Don Hanson