I need someone who will come to Buffalo Lake with me to check out the 1980 Trans-Am.

If you come, you'll paid, depending on where you've had to drive from.

You need to be experienced, and be able to tell me if I'm buying a piece of shit or getting a good deal.

Also, if anyone is wondering, Buffalo Lake is about 70 miles from the Twin Cities.

EDIT: I just though of something else. If no one can accompany me, can someone suggest to me a list of what I should look for?

Minnesota? Look for rust.

I don't know anything about the particular car you're wanting to buy here, but I'll add in a few basic points. I'm guessing it's rear wheel drive.

Driveline - crawl underneath and grab the propshaft where the splines are. Yank it up and down firmly to check for play in the UJ and splines. A split gaiter can cause fast wear when road crap gets in there. If possible, jack up one wheel and with the car in gear, turn the wheel and check how much play there is in the driveline in total. Anything more than an eighth of a turn is getting dodgy.

Exhaust - Similar thing; give it a gentle wiggle from underneath to check for broken mounts. While it's running, put your hand lightly over the tailpipe and listen for chuffing from any holes.

Leaks - Check the insides of the tyres for patterns of fluid shooting outwards. Like a star. This means either a slave cylinder is leaking or an axle oil seal has failed. If it's the latter, be wary of damage to that axle through oil starvation. Look at the sump - is it suspiciously steam cleaned? If so, the owner might be trying to hide a leak. And if it's dripping with oil, it might just be a loose sump plug...but check the engine oil level in case it's been run with low oil. The same goes for the gearbox...a light film of oil is ok on older cars.

Bring a small, bright torch and look for crusty coolant deposits where coolant has been leaking. Try to look at both sides of the radiator for loose white/green powder where a leak has destroyed some of the fins. Again, if there's a coolant leak it may be cheap to fix but the engine may have overheated in the past because of it.

Engine - start it from cold and get someone round the back to watch for any clouds of smoke. Lots of white smoke on a cold start (and being a bit difficult to start too) means that there's a slow head gasket leak, causing water to seep into the cylinder. Blue smoke means oil being burnt...bad rings, worn bores or worn valve guides can all cause this. Black smoke normally means it's running rich, which can be rectified by cleaning the carby out and re-adjusting it. Bring a wooden spoon and put your ear one end and press the other ear against the engine to listen for any rattling or knocking coming from within. And just listen carefully when it's idling and when it's revved up for any weird noises. Knocking with each rotation of the engine points to worn big end bearings.

Suspension - press down on each corner of the car firmly and make sure it doesn't bounce more than once when it comes up. Bouncyness = bad shocks. Also listen for any squeaks or knocks, which might mean worn/rotten bushes.


...and I really can't be arsed to type any more. Hope it helps.

By propshaft, he of course means driveshaft.

Methinks someone should make the "Gearheads international mechanical terms thread - part 2"

To MunkeyQ:

Thanks for the list. That should come in very helpful.