what to look for in a g body purchase

Rust free is key. Frame and body mounts are also key. I would look for a Southern bucket seat hard top car and go from there. Buy as much car as you can from the get go. A rusty beat up POS will nickel and dime you. A Cutlass Salon, Calais, or supreme with buckets would all be good options. The performance G body Olds cars did not have vinyl tops. It is possible to change a vinyl top car to a hardtop with time and money.

sethb said:

Hi all,

New to the forum!

I'm looking to buy a g- body, likely an Olds, and I'm wondering what the collective wisdom is about what to look for in a project car. I just want something to work on, probably drop in an ls and t56. Plan is to make this an inexpensive project. At least as much as possible.

Your thoughts are appreciated!

Thanks,
Seth

Click to expand...

Rust..

If the car has no rust everything you will do to it will become easier. Like changing body mounts bushings. Replacing stuff. Upgrading. Everything.

I'd rather spend more for a rust free car than save a few thousands and end up spending all my time and money fixing the rust.

Thats exactly what i did. Saved a little money buying a rusty car. Ended up using alot of time and ressources to fix it.. But i had no choice if i wanted to get in the game

When I get my g's for cheap it was always the situation and not so much the car. You can always take advantage in a situation where a person is letting a G go for too cheap b/c of the situation itself and not so much the car; like for example theres a decent 79 on CL I posted here the other day and the guy just wants a used quad or a snowmobile on trade so I called people who owned me very small debts over old stuff to see if any of them had something like that to call it square on the debt but unfortunately none of them did. But what if I had gotten agree on both ends? I could have acquired that car for just hundreds of dollars over an old debt. Another time I put up a car auction on here that was going on a day that there was supposed to be a thunder storm. I figured it would just get cancelled or rescheduled but the auction did happen during the thunderstorm and people started to leave. The last cars in the auction went for a fraction of what they should have at the end b/c of all the potential bidders who walked out to beat the incoming thunder storm...

One of the major things to look for if you live in the snow belt states are the rear frame rails. They are notorious on gbodies to rust. Also the rocker panels under the aluminum rocker trim when you open the doors. Since you can't see it you can remove it and lift the carpet and the plastic where the wires go through and see how that looks. As with any older cars that may have been modded over the years I would look for modified wiring, cut wires that look incomplete.

As far as rust it all depends on what you are willing to work on or what your budget is. But obviously it would be best to spend a bit more for less rust.

I know you are looking for a project but the market is in the crapper right now and I would seriously look at buying a car that is done and to your liking. If you put pen to paper you can't begin to build let alone paint what they are selling for.

As others have said....RUST is your #1 enemy- T-top cars are an almost given in the front windshied frame areas. Lucky if you don't get rust there. Also floorboards as mentioned. Wheel wells/rocker panels, et al.

Another situation would be vinyl tops...beware what's underneath those. Feel the top. If it's "crunchy" around the window framings, think twice.

http://albany.craigslist.org/cto/4743487746.html

This is what you should be looking for.

That's a lot of money - I'd sell him mine for $4500.00 52,000 mi.