Thread: what to look for on a classic

Rust in the front door pillars and sill panels, other than that the single most important thing to look for is a clean cooling system with coloured stuff in it.

Hi Lee,
I am far from experienced but look for rust:
Both foot wells
Spare wheel holder in the boot
Rear tailgate (top and bottom)
Battery box
Around the windscreen
C Pillars
Both sills

Those are all areas that I found rust in mine to varying degrees.

I’ve been told that the windscreen seals aren’t too good when they get old - hence rust in the footwells.

Cheers,
GG

If all interior is intact- that’s rare. The panel’s at “C” pillars get fragile and disintegrate as does panels in foot wells. Rust can be found most places but front wings under guards and also across top of firewall common. The transmission tunnel which also has seat bases bolted to is another common rust area around base of seats/ near footwell. Basically if you have little rust and all interior panels that’s both rare and potentially valuable.

I just envy how you know your classics. But great read here. Learned a lot.

Okay, I really hate to admit this, (though I'm hoping you guys will understand), but believe it or not, sometimes when I can't get to sleep I will count all the places in which a Range Rover can rust, and I think so far I've gotten up to about 32 or so. Yes, I'm that sad, I'll admit it.

So let's see:

- front body mounts
- battery trays
- under the headlight mounts
- the inner front mudguards where they meet the bulkhead, and the square section running fore and aft, under the outer mudguard panel
- the bulkhead under the decker panel, (that's the one between the bonnet and windscreen)
- the square type of removeable crossmember under the transmission
- the footwells
- anywhere on the front floors
- anywhere on the sills
- where the door pillars are welded onto the sills
- where the rear pillar for the rear doors on a 4-door sit on top of the rear wheel arch
- the bottoms of the doors
- where the window frames of the doors meet the doors themselves
- on a 4-door, (and I think 2-doors), inside the rear door opening, where the seat base meets the floor
- on a 4-door, where the seat belts mount onto the rear wheel arch
- on a 4-door, looking under the rear wheel arch and forward, that whole crazy area where various panels are stuck together without sealant so there are overlapping places everywhere
- on the rear pillars, underneath those cover pieces, where the pillar finishes at the top of the body, (you have to remove those covers to see it)
- the entire liftgate
- the entire tailgate
- the rear floor where it overlaps the side panels which incorporate the wheel arches
- inside the car, around the fuel filler on cars with the exposed filler cap
- the very rear of the rear floor
- the rear body crossmember, which is the bit on top of the two rear body mounts

And I'm sure there's more, but I'm so sleepy now . . . zzzzzzzzzzz . . .

I think it would just be easier to say, they rust everywhere.

Because they do.

Deformation of the chassis arch over the front axle - White Tiger Chassis Laminating Plate

Well, that's more because of enthusiastic usage than everyday stuff, but thanks for putting that up. That LRA site has been such a mess for so long I haven't looked at it for years. It's still a bit of a disaster but at least there's something on it now!