How much rust is TOO much?

Post by **Wrinkles** » Sun Sep 29, 2002 2:37 am

Look, don't get me wrong - I love seeing Oz cars making an impression in the US, and that people are making some great replicas. I do realise that you're restricted with your purchase options. It's just (in my opinion) a shame that we're talking about a vehicle that's 1 of only 200-odd ever built (think it was about 260) ....still, I guess it's better to be resurrected in another form than to be left to rot.

As far as your search for parts... just follow your nose around this site, and the links to plenty of others - you shouldn't have a problem.

Post by **Peter Barton** » Sun Sep 29, 2002 2:52 am

Mitch, out of interest, who did you buy the car from? I thought there was only one John Goss coupe over there, and I didn't think the owner of that one was selling it. Did someone import another one?

By the way Wrinkles (if that IS your real name), I believe Steve Pilant / Bill Brown's replica was originally built from a John Goss shell as well. From the pics I saw the base shell was quite far gone when it was acquired for Mad Maxing anyway, and I gather that it must have been even worse than it appeared, as the rust repairs done to it still didn't catch everything - I saw a post a few months back that apparently Bill still has a rust problem on his hands at this point with areas of the car. Anyway, getting to the point, just because the car was once special doesn't mean it still is. There are plenty of such cars around Australia that have basically been trashed and left to rot, so if someone wants to pick one up and at least do something with it, I say let them go for it. If not for that, a few of these cars would still be sitting in someone's backyard, rusting into the ground. It's not like he's buying a mint example and trashing that or anything.

Post by **Wrinkles** » Sun Sep 29, 2002 3:09 am

Yeah Peter... thought I'd cleared that up. I'm well aware of the condition of what's left of Falcon coupes - there's plenty of dodgey GT's floating around. ....surely you've seen enough of my posts to realise I wasn't going to travel to the states and rip Mitch's left arm off and hit him with the wet end. ....it would have been his right arm! (insert one of those winking smiling faces that I try to avoid using here)

....and yes.. Wrinkles IS my real name!

Post by **Mitch** » Sun Sep 29, 2002 3:11 am

Hi Peter! Been a fan of your site for years. I'm getting the Goss Special from Terry James at madmaxcars.com. He and his partners have been importing Aussie cars for some time now, and this car had been listed for awhile. It wasn't exactly what I wanted for an Interceptor candidate, but since the price dropped, I decided it was ok. It has some rust problems, among other things, but like I said, here in the States the supply is somewhat limited. Until a couple years ago, I never would have thought owning an Australian Falcon would be anything more than a pipe dream. Like most fans over here, I considered the Torino/Mach1/AMX route, and eventually made a nice little Intereceptor out of a '73 Mustang Mach1. But I really wanted a Falcon, both for authenticity and because it's a cool car in its own right. So now I put my money where my mouth is and plunked down the bucks for a fixer upper. Hope it turns out as good as some of the other replicas I've seen on your site. Thanks for the support, and Wrinkles, I understand completely how you feel. No worries, eh?

Mitch

Post by **xbCoupe** » Sun Sep 29, 2002 3:35 am

Mitch I guess you didn't read this post first! "How much rust is TOO much?" - that thing has been rotting away for forever on that site (at least a year) and it looked bad to begin with! I thought as they had not anounced the thing had sold it had simply just rotted away... hope it isn't as bad as it looks mate.

Post by **Mitch** » Sun Sep 29, 2002 3:54 am

Well, as somebody said, 'No matter where you go, there you are...' Terry and Troy sent me pics of the car showing some of the rust damage. Interestingly enough, in the background of one of the pics is a truck that reads Yarra Valley somethingsomething. From what a friend told me, thats one of the few places in Australia that gets snow, road salt, etc. Guess that's where the rust came from. Anyway, as I've said, the market here is pretty thin, especially at the entry level price. I don't mind doing some of the work myself, and this comes down to a labor of love for me. From my point of view, even if it is a rustbucket, how many people here in the Midwest USA have an authentic Aussie Falcon? OK, several, but it's not like they're common. Terry did not misrepresent the car to me. As I said, he had Troy E-mail me some disturbing pictures of rust damage, and told me the car probably needed a tune up, maybe a carb and definitely some brake work. He strongly recommended to me to go up to Seattle and look at the car before buying it. As there was another interested party, and I wasn't able to get away on such short notice, I took the plunge and got the car based on the pics and Terry's reputation. Hope I can get good advice and some lucky breaks as I restore the car.

Mitch

Post by **Peter Barton** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 2:45 am

Mitch, unless the car was garaged most of its life, you will pretty much find rust in it anywhere in Australia. Cars of that era are notorious for having parts of the car where water will just penetrate and sit, and eventually start rusting away.

How much rust is acceptable probably depends on your ability to do the work yourself. I would never buy a car with a major amount of rust because I'd have to rely on others to help me do the work, and it would be difficult. But if you're capable of doing your own repairs then you could certainly save yourself some $$$ by buying a cheaper base car to play with. Just so long as the shell is not too far gone to be recovered...!

Good luck with the project, and as always, feel free to send me pictures for the fan cars section when you get going on the Interceptor conversion.

Post by **FalconGTHO** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 10:08 am

Umm, what the hell are guards?

Post by **AussieCoupes** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 5:43 pm

Man, for someone with a user name of the most famed Australian production car ever produced you should be ashamed of yourself... hehehehe guards are where the superoo

Gaurds = fenders

Phil

Post by **FalconGTHO** » Mon Sep 30, 2002 6:18 pm

Hey, Im NOT an Aussie. Im fairly clever with your quaint words, slang and language. Excuse me if I miss one. I figured it had to be something like that, but "guards" just seems soo irrelevant to the part. I would think guards would be what bumpers are called.

And yes, I use that name EVERYWHERE I go on the net, unless its already used. I know the hisotry of the GTHO, thats why I pick it.