in the rear deck I should walk away from the purchase of a Disco I. I also found a rusted-through hole in the rear left fender.





Notice the water pooling behind the right taillight:





I'm looking at a 1995, 5-sp Disco that drives nice, Engine does not smoke neither at idle, nor accelerating, nor decelerating. Tranny sounds fine. Frame and body are straight, not accidents, but it does have these rust issues. Also, the horn does not work. Buy or run away?

Dude has done two trips up and down the East coast with no reported problems.

Thanks!

 

unless your looking to make a woods truck out of it, I would stay away. That amount of rust is $$$. Running/driving with that much rust, your looking at a $4-$500 truck, and then (again unless your looking for a woods truck) pretty much a parts truck for a disco with a good body.

Sure you can weld yup some new steel, do some paint work etc, but unless your handy and can do this yourself 100% you looking at more than the truck in worth to fix it.

If you can get it for the 4-500 range, personally I would pick it up and then just go have fun with it, you can't buy a crappy used quad for that and with the added bonus of the 5 speed you would get more than your 500 worth of enjoyment out of it.

Just my 2 cents.


Here is what I would do to it... Buy it, strip out the interior completely, buy some Por15 http://www.por15.com/ Then sand down the rusty areas and put the por15 on. after which I would spray the whole floor with a good rino liner type paint. (you can get it in regular spray cans at any auto parts stores. That hole... I would grind it out, and weld some new steel in there primer and paint it.

Course, you still have to solve the issue of where the water is coming from... does it have sunroofs? are the drain lines off or plugged, headliner sagging (discos will sag anyways from age, but water can cause this also) I would take the headliner out, and sit inside the truch and have someone outside hose the truck and see if I could find where the water is getting in and fix it.

At this point you have a couple choices Put the Interior back in (Go get the carpets cleaned etc...) Or just put the seats back in and use it as a utility truck. Due to the spray liner, you can now easily wash out the inside of the truck... I plan on doing this very project as soon as a find a 4th Rover to play with that in the right price range.

 

I missed out on buying a 500 dollar Disco last week. I was thinking about stripping it and painting it with a liner, yes. It has been storming here for weeks, tropical rain (South Florida) and the truck smells very moist. The headliner sags, I suspect the rear door is leaking, but I found water also in all door sills. The driver's seatbelt attachment (floor) has rust at the bolt.

The sunroof is permanently closed (the front). The one on the rear I did not check.

Thanks again for your prompt response!
Rafael T

 

You are going to find the rust on the rear fenders like that on all of them, mine is that way too.
Some rust removal, alittle body work and paint and she will be as good as new.

Anytime the carpet gets wet and does not dry quickly there will be rust.
Its just the way it is, we just live with it up here, keep the carpet dry and take care of any rust you can.

 

Personally that is not bad at all for a 95. Yank out all the carpets, headliner and deal with it.

Just make your offer based on the condition. You will be passing up a great opportunity because of a minor easily fixable problem.

 

Going through this on mine right now. Thankfully, I have full access to all the steel & metal working equipment I would ever need. Still, it takes a lot of time & tools. Go for it & have fun!

 

If the price is right I would go for it. Then rip out the carpets, clean up the rust, and bedliner the inside. That's what i would do.

 

I was thinking about bedlining the whole floor--no carpet, but I'm still on the fence about the purchase. Guy says mechanically it is solid. He's a friend of a friend(s) so he can't hide if he's fibbing.

However, reading about this truck and it's condition, I assumed it is worth 600 bucks, but he's asking 1250.

Hmmm.

I like the fact it is a 5-sp, and that the engine does not smoke. A buddy that drive one says to buy it without thinking about it already... and another buddy that had a '96 says to buy it only if I have $500/month for repairs. $6000/Yr for repairs? That's crazy money for a 1K car, no?

 

There are a ton of discos out there in the 600-1200 range... it's all what your willing to pay for them. Fact is, you can get a GOOD truck with no rust for 1000 bucks...

Take a look at the videos...

http://www.youtube.com/user/NGARover

The blue truck in the video is a 98 V8i, with 93k Original miles and has every option in the book. It was a 2k rover and I drive it as my everyday car.

The white one had 181k miles, NO RUST, perfect body, a full set (5) new Michelin tires (still have the knobies) and the interior is literally like it just came out of the show room... plus it was a 1 owner truck. It was 1000 bucks even. In my book a PERFECT starting point for my build cause I don't have to deal with the body work at all. With repairs and upgrades (Headers, cats, muffler, springs and shocks headliner and various gaskets, hoses wires etc) I'll have about 2500-2800 into it total when done.

Point is, it all hinges on that starting point... Your going to spend money on them whether you get a rust bucket or not, but the rust buckets going to cost you more for obvious reasons. I would be direct in pointing that fact out to the seller and get the price down.

Personally, I would take a clean body/interior with a shot motor over a good motor and shot body, but thats just me.

Deals are out there, but your not going to normally find them on ebay craigslist or these forums. Do what I do, just drive like you normally do, if you spot one you like leave a note on it. You would be surprised the number of call backs you will get doing this from people who bought the discos with the mindset of them being a SUV/soccer mom truck that then came to realize they cost a LOT to maintain being used in that fashion and just want out of them to get a minivan. lol.

One the forums a lot of us have a different mind set, me included, and the time and space to part one out if need be so your never going to get a 500 buck truck this way. I would strip it bare as and piece it out and make a lot more. (plus have a pile of spare parts for my others).

Again, if you can get it for 5-6 hundred and it runs and drives, you can't really go wrong and even as a woods truck your going to get that much out fun out of it. Plus, if you do find another down the road you already have a parts truck...

 

Level head.