My brother needs a car. This one I found has been in a garage for 4 years, and hasn't been started. Story is it was used as a daily driver before that time, but the owner lost his license. Now they have to sell it.

Body is a northern body, starting to rust underneath, but not bursting yet.

Odometer says 15,000. Seats look like its probably 115000, although it might be 215K.

Car could only crank slow. He said it almost started with starting fluid, but its 30 degrees out and the battery was not strong enough to crank it very hard when I looked at it today.

Any other ideas?

Body is pretty good, although you can see some bondo work and rust coming through. I want to see it get a few years of use for hte price I'm getting it for.

I'm thinking I can change the filters.. maybe even siphon the tank and put new fuel in.. purge, change the gplugs and be able to get it started. I may be too hopeful.

price is cheap, but was curious if there's any advice on this car. I know the 123 series has a bullet proof rep, but not so sure about the older series. I know its the old type of coil glow plugs, all tied together.. that's one down side.

 

try to avoid start fluid.get a good battery so it cranks nice and chec to see glowplugs are working.pump the manuel pump on injector pump to get fuel going.

 

Good luck with the car. I just bought a nice 75. They are a little more prehistoric than the 123, but the simplicity factor can be a benefit for using it as a daily driver. I've read they rust around themselves before they break.

Don't use starting fluid!

 

Thanks for the replies. Any tips for what I should look for as potential problem areas on this car. I'm especially concerned about dry rot issues.. boots, mounts, etc.

Any drop-dead components I need to verify? Obviously everything will be suspect, but what items would dry rot affect that will disable the car?

Thanks in advance.

Tim