Classic Car Buying Basics- How To Spot An Honest Car

You don't have to have X-Ray vision to see a cars true nature, if you know where to look.

[WhatsOnTheTube]

Uncle Tony i tried the neck thing with this woman but she had a turtle neck shirt on.. So i went with Up Under the Dash and she slapped me :P.. I guess she was rebuilt too..

[ClassicRideSociety]

That's why prefer the ones that have been sitting for years. Its all right there in front of you. The good and the bad.

[tbone]

So Uncle Tony, you told us how to spot the age of a woman. How do we spot an honest woman! LOL

[joeford]

Never had a 67, had 68, 69 GT and a 70 Swinger.I wish I would have known you Tony back in the day you could have have saved me a lot money.

[RustOnWheels]

Great tip, Uncle Tony! This is actually twofold: ALWAYS check out the wiring under the dash. ESPECIALLY with old Mopars.

This is also where you can separate the originals from the fast flips, the honest rebuilds and the meticulous restorations.

Mopars have known issues with the bulkhead connectors, dash voltage regulator, light switch and the ammeter.

I have seen it all: burned wires, molten bulkhead connectors, completely cut wiring replaced with thermoplastic home wiring connectors and speaker cables, bad splices, spaghetti…

It tells you a lot about what kind of attention the rest of the car got and if the previous owner just wanted to get rid of it fast or made it a reliable and safe driver.

Cars tend to rot in the corners of the wind screens there too when there is leakage or the car has been out in humid weather for years.

[shawnsantos]

You remind me of the older guys at the classic car body shop I used to work at. Decades of experience. Not a day went by without me picking their brains and learning something awesome. Keep up the good work, your advice is awesome!

[Yourmomisbomb]

I parted out a 1990 4runner and when it came time to pull the dash apart it was a jaw dropper. It had to of been under water at some point. It’s was like taking apart a fish tank in the desert. It got weird

[Fopeano]

I've had this experience myself. Every terrible car that I've rebuilt had the dash and HVAC unit out so I could replace the heater/evaporator and all the foam gaskets and whatever else is needed. At the very least along the way, I'll wipe the interior firewall and all the dirty HVAC housing/ducts and dash skeleton parts with a rag. There are so many careless and ignorant people doing a terrible job fixing/restoring cars. It's the worst thing about being a car guy.

[TheLastResort]

When you live in the middle of the Rust Belt, there are no honest cars anymore. You could find one that has been in the barn for the majority of its life, and still have to deal with the dishonesty of pigeon 💩. Here's the deal folks this is as honest as I can get, if you're going to buy one of these cars and you don't know how to do the work yourself, be prepared to pay someone who does, and hope like hell they have the character to be honest with you. Hot rods, muscle cars, and rare Exotics are like good looking women. If you want to roll with one there's lots of Maintenance and expense involved, and if you're not prepared to pay the price she ain't doing nothing for you on Friday and Saturday night.

[rumrunner]

With all of its issues, I love that GT. Reminds me of the ‘68 that I owned in 1970. Bought it for $1200 with 20K miles on it. Man I wish that I had some of my old cars back. Kick myself every time I see one roll across the auction block and sell for a price that I’ll never be able to afford. OK, have to go to work now. I’m done whining, ...for now. Thanks for all of the videos Tony. ☮️

[robbyrob]

Another great tip is to check under the car to see if the panels and frame are rusted. If they're rusted, run lol

[TheJoefussGarage]

What a timely video, for me at least. My 65 Mustang coupe, it was my dad's, he got in 1977.
I've worked in it, with him since I was 12 yrs old.
He had me cut the dash for 500 nose piece stereo.
I removed the old cardboard glovebox, and we reconditioned to heater box back then. He gave the car in "87", and I refreshed it myself, motor, trans, paint. Just a few days ago, I pulled that glove box out, to help replace the original dash pad. I lost a nut, and used a mirror to find it, and found a ticket stub laying on the dash metal under the glove box.It was from a Camden NJ Drive in, that my Dad had taken my step mom to back in the day. It says, 10 cents extra for the Electric heater !!! Just like Tony said, that area can be like a time capsule!!!

[kennethjones]

Another good thing to have with you is a magnet . You can put it on different places around wheel wells and quarter panels to check for bondo and rust .

[brianglade]

My dad loved these old cars, in the fall of 1978, my dad spent that time walking the Metra Train Station lot looking at the old cars and picking up cigarette butts and smoking them

[stevenschwartz]

Thanks for the tip about spotting an honest car. As for a woman’s age I usually go by their hands. But it’s good to have a backup with the neck thing.

[aaronmarkham]

Parts cars pieced together or not for these old cars to once again put smiles on faces and build memories is what its all about. My favorite car memory banging through the gears on my 70 chevelle looking over that cowl induction hood (only rust free part of that heap) bit still cooler than a camry . love the channel

[Properformancenutritioncom]

Good tip Tony. I picked up a 60's car recently thinking it would take me no time at all to clean up the interior. That was until I got it home and looked under the dash. Mud dobber and wasp nests galore. I spent forever on my back scrapping, scrubbing and vacuuming before I could finally start doing the fun stuff. If I would have spent more time under the dash before I bought the car instead of just a quick glance at the wiring situation, I could have planned for that. Instead, I immediately fell behind schedule.

[caseycuda]

Yep and for some reason people miss the rear deck filler panel from inside the trunk. It's like they forget the mountain ranges of flux core wire welds, and cheese grater affect Bondo has through the rust holes they tried to cover. then they don't shoot paint on it so it rusts again.

[mikecontoni]

When I first happened on this channel, it was because of the trans am video you did, then I thought, "who is this old school, shade tree mechanic that always has a cig in his hand". Well Uncle Tony, you got me. I'm a believer. I'm subbed, notified, and it's even gotten so bad, my wife says, "Are you watching Uncle Tony again! If you spend half as much time working on your car as you do watching his, you'd be done by now."  So much good common sense car knowledge on here, keep up the great work

[maidenrulz]

Nice 67....I had a ‘69 gt when I was it for 500 bucks I had it a ‘70 swinger now but always loved the 67-69