New member. EXTREMELY keen for an FTO ASAP.

[iPilot]

I'm a p plater and I have never gone over 110 in my FTO and never redlined it. so the theory that all p platers thrash their car is retarded.

LOL?!

Lmao are u calling him a liar?

[Daniel2019]

Couple things:

1) That black FTO is a 10 minute drive away from me, I could come up one arvo with you if you wanna inspect it (Take my FTO to look like we know what we're doing )

2) CREDIT TO khunjeng FOR FINDING THIS -

here you go...not mine but we can use as a start!!!...we need to add lots of FTO specifc items...

Nice to haves...

Facelift front bar
5 speed tip (if you want auto like my wife!)
New suspension (shockers and springs) and work done on the bushes
Aftermarket wheels and DECENT tyres! Also remeber you will get a better ride with 50 profile tyres than 40/45s - nice ride.
CAT back exhuast
Extractors (RPW or similar) with flex pipe
CAI setup - UAS or similar nice looking pipe and boxed pod.
Piggyback ECU (Emanage or SAFC) or a Unichip if your lucky!
Aftermarket dials (white dials and rings)
Nice ICE!
Oil pressure guage - not the volt meter like me!
Body kit..VS/DC/BOZZ/Facelift etc
Radiator shield
Window Tint

Must haves

Decent condition centre console...check for cracks!
Replaced alternator (or you will be doig this soon!)
Timing belt change (usually over 100,000 kms)
Decent tyres as above
Listen for the tappet noise - not a big issue but if no noise good sign its been serviced well
For auto..make sure the tip works well and changes properly or as you would expect. ask for servie history and the oil they use.
Rev it to 8.5k and see how it feels and sounds should be awsome.
Platnium or better plugs
Oil brand and usage (and check the oil!) make sure its been 10W-30
% left on the break pads and type
Listen for the window rattle and get $50 of the price
Go over some sharp driveways or inclines and listen for the suspension and noises. If a lot ask what it is and have it checked out.
Look inside the engine bay and look how clean it is.
Check the central locking and the alarm and the passenger side door when its supposed ot be locked!
Check the headlights for signs of the laminate comming off! you will know it when you see it.
Look at the condition of the drivers seat and around that area and see if the condition matches the Kms on the clock
Check the air-con works! and if a GPX check the client control screen that it all works. Also check the dial lights in a dark spot if possible and see how bright it is
Ask how many owners and when it was imported and get the papaerwork.
Ask who has been servicing it, check with us and see if we known them and if they know anything about the FTO as a guide.
Generally check the bodywork for dents etc.
Compression test is a must. If it fails this leak down test it also. If the place doesn't do it go to another place.
Check the fog lights work


General points to follow when looking at a car:

First points:
Check the car when it's clean. Ask the seller to wash the car before you go and see it. Dirt tells a lot of lies.
Check the car during the day. NEVER look at a car at night. If possible, look at it on a sunny day so you can use the sun to check the paintwork.
Examine the car up-close AND from a distance (front and back, and both sides).
Open and close all doors, boot, bonnet, and any panels that can open and shut.
What questions should I ask the buyer/myself? (Remember ask the seller the questions, but answer them yourself with your own eyes and brain):
Does the seller have a genuine reason for selling?
Does it have a full service record of it's life in Japan? (If it does, check that it's real and not forged. This is very rare as Japanese owners rarely throw the Service or Owners Manuals in the car when it goes to auction)
If it's a local car, does it have a full service record of it's time in Australia?
Has the car been in any previous accidents? Ask, but don't take the seller's word for it. Look for yourself!

- Check the nuts along the front quarter panels and the radiator support in the engine bay... Are there signs of those nuts being removed? If so, ask yourself why.
- Check for other signs of engine removal. Has the engine been removed? Why?
- Check the paintwork!!! Check that all the paint on the panels match colour tone and depth. Stand back from the car at a slight angle and run your eyes along the panels with the sunlight and check for any blending marks. Look for ripples, waves, poorly fitted panels and mismatched colors.
What condition are the tyres in? Are the rear tyres worn a lot more than the fronts? If they are, I'm pretty sure you can figure out what the previous owner's driving style is like. Remember to factor in the price of replacement tyres into the buy cost. Don't skimp on tyres or continue to use bald ones. They're the only things sticking your ass onto the road and saving your life. Check for even wear marks, uneven wear indicates bad wheel alignment. Another thing you'll have to fix. More money.
Check the condition of the interior. Does the wear and tear on the steering wheel and driver's seat match the kms shown on the odometer?
Which brings you to checking the kms. Is this a 1994 Big Ugly Soap Box Racer with 30,000kms? It's 2004 now, do you really think the previous owner drove 3000kms a year? Contrary to popular belief, Japanese owners drive their car a LOT, just as much as we do. Expect to find in the range of 9000-13000kms per year on the odometer reading. Don't convince yourself that this is a "rare super buy with low km granny owner driven on weekends car"... Bullshit. It's a Big Ugly Soap Box Racer you idiot. Check that the numbers on the odometer are aligned properly.
Carefully push down on the front bumper and rear bumper and see how the shocks are. Ideally, shocks and springs should be rebuilt/replaced every 60,000kms, but this never happens.
Check for rust. Surface rust is okay and needs to be cleaned and treated with fish oil to stop further growth. Look for rust around the bottom of the doors and fenders, and around the boot area... Basically where water has a chance to sit and gather.
Check that the compliance plate date and make sure everything is okay.
Check to see if the car has any defectable modifications. Are you happy with those? Rembember if you get defected for them, that will cost you many hundreds of dollars.


Detailed Checklist:

Body:
Check for bubbles along molding or chrome (indicates rust underneath).
Stand back approximately 10 to 15 feet from the car and see if the car is level.

Interior:
Compare mileage on service stickers (door jamb/under hood) to the odometer reading.
Check the condition of the seats, belts and carpeting.
Check the windows to see if they open and close easily.
Check the brake, accelerator and clutch -- should work smoothly, no strange noises.
Check all exterior lights and flashers on the car.
Make certain that the air conditioning blows very cold air.
Check the glove box for the service manual and owner's manual. (Probably won't be there )

Engine:
Check for leaks in the Power Steering, Clutch Reservoir, Brake Fluid Reservoir, ABS Unit.
Get the engine compression tested and if it fails that, do a leak-down test.
Check the engine belts and hoses for cracks and wear.
Radiator coolant should be a clean, usually greenish (but sometimes blue or yellow) color.
Pull out the oil dipstick. Oil should not be gummy or grayish or smell burnt.
Check automatic transmission fluid, should be clear and reddish.
Check the spark plugs to check for overfuelling, detonation, sulphur deposits from octane booster.
Put the car on the dyno if you want to. I usually do as a last step just for interests sake. If it passed the compression test the engine should be okay.

Undercarriage:
GET THE CAR UP ON A HOIST!!!! How can you thoroughly check for accident damage if you don't look underneath the car where the most obvious signs of repair lie?
Look for weld marks, or thick black underbody tar. Welding marks are usually hidden by panel beaters with lots of underbody tar.
Check under the engine for leaking oil. Alternatively, if it has been wiped clean (the bottom of the engine, ie. the sump and crossmember), ASK YOURSELF WHY!! Who wipes the bottom of their engine? Be VERY wary of clean underbodies.
Check for leaking transmission fluid, power steering fluid, etc...
Check each and every shock absorber for leaks. Shock aborbers are expensive to rebuild.
Look for overspray on the bottom of the car, like the tow hook or suspension parts. This is a tell-tale sign of a respray.

Boot:
Look inside the trunk for an inflated spare tire. Has it been used?
There should be a jack and a lug wrench and wheel chock. Most came with a leather pouched tool kit with screwdriver, and allen keys too.
Check around the water galleries for rust.
Pull out the spare wheel and check the boot floor for rust and accident damage/repair.

smash repairs specific:
. Check headlight/tail-light alignment. They should have perfect gap between them and the fenders and bumpers. Uneven alignment means that they've been taken out and put back in askew. Ask yourself why?

2. Run your eyes along the bodywork and look for paint runs. That is, the paint was sprayed on too thick and dried in "drip marks"... These are commonly found in crevices or join areas. e.g. along the bottom of window seals, the bottom corner of the rear quarter window, the bottom of the A-pillar, etc etc.

3. Look for blending marks. Usually found somewhere along the top or bottom of the C-Pillar, you'll see a slight straight line bump where the spray painted has tried to blend in the new paint with the old. Blending marks can be anywhere depending on where the accident occured, but usually found along large panels that can't the sprayed individually and has to be blended (e.g. the roof's connection to the rest of the body and the rear quarter panels)

4. Look for masking marks. This is where the spray painter has masked off an area of the car that he doesn't want to paint. Masking marks are rough lines of paint where the paint has seeped under the masking tape and hasn't dried smoothly. They'll usually be visibly rougher than the rest of the paint, and rough when you run your fingers over them as well. Most common masking marks are found in door jambs, so open up all those doors, boot, bonnet and check very carefully.

5. Check for paint defects. That is, dirt that was on the car whilst it was being resprayed. They'll show up as tiny, tiny sand-particle sized bumps in the paint. They should be visible when you look at the panels at an angle, but you have to be conscious to look for them. You can also feel them when you run your hand over the paint. I have never seen a factory car with these defects as they would be fixed before delivery.

6. Check for delaminating clear coats. If the clear coat was sprayed on too soon after the colour layers, it won't bond properly to the layers underneath. As a result, you'll be able to see the clear coat "lifting" off the undercoats and it will be brittle and crack off when you touch it. This can be found anywhere, but I found it on one car at the bottom of the A-Pillar. common sense would suggest this delamination would start at sharp edges like the edges of panels and bends in panels.

7. Take the car to a trusted panel beater. They have a paint thickness tester which is basically a magnet that measures the distance between the metal bodywork and the magnet... i.e. the thickness of the paint. Most factory paintjobs will have a paint thickness of about 50-60 microns. But what you're REALLY looking for is a large DIFFERENCE in paint thickness.

e.g. If the roof, boot, rear quarter panels and doors have 60 microns, and the bonnet and front fenders have 130 microns, what does that suggest to you? Obviously if the whole car is showing 150 microns it's probably had a full respray. Cars that have been rubbed back to bare metal, repaired and then resprayed by a skilled panel beater are harder to uncover... But that is very very rare as it costs mucho dinero in labour to rub back a car to bare metal and respray.


Any car that I'm looking to buy, I do the following things:

1. Check out the car myself using the checkpoints listed in this thread.
2. Take it to my mechanics and get it up on a hoist to check for underbody damage that I wouldn't have been able to spot in my initial inspection. Get a compression test done on the engine and put it on the dyno.
3. Take it to my panel beater and get him to have a quick look at it. They do this everyday of their lives and they can spot 1000 times more paint defects in one quick walk around the car, than you could in 8 hours of looking at it.

[iPilot]

Couple things:

1) That black FTO is a 10 minute drive away from me, I could come up one arvo with you if you wanna inspect it (Take my FTO to look like we know what we're doing )

Thanks dude that will actually be really great!!
Do you much about the mechanical aspect of the FTO also?
Lol that'd be a bonus haha.
I've been going through that guide recently before you posted it up, it's really handy actually. I'll make a print out of that so that we can go through it sorta like a checklist when we get there?

Pm me with an appropriate time for you is so we can inspect it for ourselves.
Thanks Daniel.

[Daniel2019]

Pm sent. Also,

Dude with black FTO said he has receipts.
Note that all the crap he has receipts for was done in 2010 except for the alternator which was done a few months ago.
Car has not been serviced since 22/9/2010 (according to info)
Also according to info it has had $1400 worth of issues so hopefully theyve been fixed properly.

But we shall see when we get there

[Daniel2019]

Oh and its been lowered which is a bitch. Mine is stock and still scrapes on sh*t..

[Daniel2019]

If you were really desperate.. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/1995-Mitsubi ... 500wt_1413

One I was going up to inspect (until I bought mine on the way heh) http://sydney.gumtree.com.au/c-Cars-Veh ... Z359937082

Slightly more expensive but low Ks - http://sydney.gumtree.com.au/c-Cars-Veh ... Z359869509

EDIT - 99% sure its a GR but http://sydney.gumtree.com.au/c-Cars-Veh ... Z352369540

[Astron_Boy]

@Astron... you spelt mammoth wrong... lmao

sh*t, I did too.

Okay...
*bends over*

I'm ready for the pineapple Mr Spell'o'Nazi Man.

Edit: forgot to add before.
Holy mother of Jeebus on that post Dan!

[iPilot]

@Astron... you spelt mammoth wrong... lmao

sh*t, I did too.

Okay...
*bends over*

I'm ready for the pineapple Mr Spell'o'Nazi Man.

Edit: forgot to add before.
Holy mother of Jeebus on that post Dan!

Lol, I didnt realise we had english teachers in this forum also

Daniel, thanks for the links.
A little bit over the price I was willing to spend though (as its going to be my first car I dont want $7000 going to waste if some idiot rams into me anything can happen, its not how good of a driver you are, its also the other people around you that may not be so good)

Knowing my luck i'd probably get a L plater ram into me on my first day of owning the car ... lol

[Astron_Boy]

A little bit over the price I was willing to spend though (as its going to be my first car I dont want $7000 going to waste if some idiot rams into me anything can happen, its not how good of a driver you are, its also the other people around you that may not be so good)

Knowing my luck i'd probably get a L plater ram into me on my first day of owning the car ... lol

Hence why you get insurance!

You can be lucky, but Even when I started driving, the roads have become worse, people just do not pay attention.

I was involved in 3 collisions, each of which I was not at fault to, and my car repaired from the others insurance.
But just goes to show, no matter how good a driver you are (might be, think might be, etc) you can never account for the actions of others.

Lol, I didnt realise we had english teachers in this forum also

Fkn ahh we do!

Best learn the language before you get a pineapple too!

[Daniel2019]

@Astron... you spelt mammoth wrong... lmao

sh*t, I did too.

Okay...
*bends over*

I'm ready for the pineapple Mr Spell'o'Nazi Man.

Edit: forgot to add before.
Holy mother of Jeebus on that post Dan!

As I said, credit to khunjeng for that big list, not mine

[Astron_Boy]

As I said, credit to khunjeng for that big list, not mine

oh, sorry, chucked a Gen Y there I guess.

[Daniel2019]

@Astron... you spelt mammoth wrong... lmao

sh*t, I did too.

Okay...
*bends over*

I'm ready for the pineapple Mr Spell'o'Nazi Man.

Edit: forgot to add before.
Holy mother of Jeebus on that post Dan!

Lol, I didnt realise we had english teachers in this forum also

Daniel, thanks for the links.
A little bit over the price I was willing to spend though (as its going to be my first car I dont want $7000 going to waste if some idiot rams into me anything can happen, its not how good of a driver you are, its also the other people around you that may not be so good)

Knowing my luck i'd probably get a L plater ram into me on my first day of owning the car ... lol

Insurance is a must, as Astron said. Also, they would come down in price, the $7000 bloke would come down - just point out all the sh*t wrong with the car hahah. Probably get 6 for it. First FTO I inspected, bloke went from $6500 to $5000 straight away.

[Astron_Boy]

Don't think I saw this mentioned, and just remembered about it.

http://ftoaustralia.com/v3/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=24555

[Daniel2019]

Good form from Astron, good idea.

[Taz]

Oh and its been lowered which is a bitch. Mine is stock and still scrapes on sh*t..

If you think stock height is a bitch for scraping....lmao...check out mine or matts ride

[adzski]

hey buddy,

i know every one is saying dont buy the first one u look at but i did for $4600 120,000 on the clock is in great condish, but it wasnt the first car i looked at just the first fto i looked at heaps of skylines but yeh, i think i just got really lucky just suss everything out

[iPilot]

Yeah thats a good point, if I'm lucky the first one i look at will be good,
unfortunately that isn't the case though koz i saw one yesterday and it was a heap of sh*t.
The black one with the chrome rims i posted up.
It literally had a dick keyed on the bonnet and the rims were gutter smashed like a mofo.
Not the mention the terrible DIY interior paint job it had, stiff as suspension just a terrible ride.
He wanted $5500 for it. I wouldn't have gave him 3.

[Daniel2019]

Yeah thats a good point, if I'm lucky the first one i look at will be good,
unfortunately that isn't the case though koz i saw one yesterday and it was a heap of sh*t.
The black one with the chrome rims i posted up.
It literally had a dick keyed on the bonnet and the rims were gutter smashed like a mofo.
Not the mention the terrible DIY interior paint job it had, stiff as suspension just a terrible ride.
He wanted $5500 for it. I wouldn't have gave him 3.

When I finished driving that black one it made me realise how glad I was to have found mine haha. Man that thing was a piece of sh*t.

[iPilot]

Yeah thats a good point, if I'm lucky the first one i look at will be good,
unfortunately that isn't the case though koz i saw one yesterday and it was a heap of sh*t.
The black one with the chrome rims i posted up.
It literally had a dick keyed on the bonnet and the rims were gutter smashed like a mofo.
Not the mention the terrible DIY interior paint job it had, stiff as suspension just a terrible ride.
He wanted $5500 for it. I wouldn't have gave him 3.

When I finished driving that black one it made me realise how glad I was to have found mine haha. Man that thing was a piece of sh*t.

Hahahhah yeah f**king oath bro! Tomorrow im gonna go see harry's fto and also a dealer on parra rd that wants 4k for a gpx but with no pics so ill take photos of that tomorrow and post em up, hopefully that aint a peice of sh*t also lmfaooo.

[Daniel2019]

Test drives!