Flood damage / wreck ?

[redcoupe86]

I don't think my car is flood damaged, but there are some interestring things that do make me wonder.

While tooling around my pedal set and the shifter console i noticed that all the threaded studs and bolts - but not really anything else - have surface rust on them. Even the big screws that hold the belt buckles in the back have surface rust. However, the seat rails don't for instance. My pedal cluster mechanicals have some rust that was causing a squeek when i pushed in the pedal, but that went away with a little WD-40. The screws on the sill plates at the door have a little surface rust, even the screws attaching that black metal plate on the dash does too.

The most disturbing bit was the wood plate on the pedal cluster. The metal plate that secures it is rusted, though the metal of the floor pan under the attachment plate is not. And the wood at the bottom left part was deteriorated.

Also, even though i did a car fax, that came up clean as a whistle, this car was at least in a fender bender, b/c I can see a faint line of overspray at the window trim, and when i replaced my left rear taillight housing it was cracked (the right rear was ok). Its hard to tell how bad the wreck was, but as an example the chair rails have red paint showing through the black paint of the chair rail. As if the inside of the car was painted red then they spraypainted black over the chair rails, and when the black was chiped the red shown through. This is also true of the black metal plate I mentioned above.

The car drives strait and all, and if you put it up on the rear torsion bar covers, on a flat floor, and measure all the critical points, they are equal. So I assume the chassis cant be bent, at least not much IF it is. The car doesn't rattle or squeak and feels real solid, with the exception of the drivers door. On big bumps it will squeek.

Anyway, I value any opionions. I have been all over this car and have not found any serious rust issues, but im not a professional either.

[defcon65]

My guess is Louisiana humidity caused the surface rust, not flood waters.

[javadog]

It may not be as bad as you think. It's not unusual to see a little rust on certain fasteners, if a car was driven in the rain. People get in with wet feet and the water has to go somewhere. There's usually a lot of dirt that gets under the mats at the pedal cluster and, combined with a little water, makes a mess. Likewise, the seat belt bolts can get wet with the door open, along with everything else that the rain falls on when the door is opened. I carry towels in my cars to wipe up some of the water on rainy days.

The car may have also had a window leak at some point. That's pretty common too, and can result in water damage like you mentioned.

The red paint showing through the black at the seat rails is normal. When the car was first painted, they didn't really paint the interior floor but they did get some overspray on it. Later, they sprayed the black on the dash, at the seat rails, etc. Lot's of times I have removed a seat and a little of the black paint came up with it, exposing the color underneath. No big deal.

JR

[redcoupe86]

Well thats good news! The car originally came from New Jersey the first part of its life. Could be snow on the shoes would do the same thing as rain. BTW, I have signs of a past sunroof leak, so this is a culprit as you mentioned.