[gavinlit]

I've looked at about 10 - 12 911's (from 74 - 79) in the last week, and without exception, every single one has had evidence of at least some rust up the front in front of the spare tyre well where most people seem to keep their tools/air compressor etc. The cars that are less well cared for have 'push your finger right in type of rust while even the best body examples still have rust that I would consider needs to be panel shopped out.

There is a cross member type beam that runs across the front of the nose with what seems to be 3 (or 4 - can't remember) plugs that are inserted from underneath the car. It's just back behind the bumper of the car. This is the area that always seems to have either a little or a lot of rust. Is this a common thing or have I just looked at a whole stack of bad ones?

The car that I looked at yesterday even had a small dished section of metal in that region that looked as though it was designed to allow any water to drain out of the trunk area. I could feel underneath the rubbers on the trunk lip that water was coming down the side of the trunk and the getting under the rubber, subsequently entering the trunk compartment.

So I guess - design fault or evidence of poor maintenance/panel work?