I have a 89 GTA Convertible that I'm selling. I prospective buyer came to look at the car and told me it has been hit at least 2 times. I have owned the car for 18 of its 20 years and I know it that time it was not involved in any accidents. The prospective buyer felt that since a VIN# was not present in the front passenger fender panel that an accident definitely occured. Did they put VIN's on all the parts 20 years ago. He also stated that the rubber on the bottom of the window bay had overspray on it which was another indication of a wreck. Is he correct?

Thanks.

 

yes,all panels had a vin sticker on them,and you're car may have been bumped into at some point in its nearly 20 year life span,but not nec. wrecked

 

The car fax report indicates nothing of accidents or repairs. I should probably take it to a body shop to ask them as they would be looking at it first hand.

 

well,if you have any questionable areas on your car,you can post pics of them here.I know quite a bit about these cars but,I'm not an expert.
However there are lots experts on here,and can definately help you if I can't.

 

To my knowledge you can tell a GM part from an aftermarket...so you should have markings on there indictive to orignal parts. While they may not have a sticker, they may be original (sticker removed). There is no way to tell, and in 20 years...does this guy expect this car not to be repainted?! Yes, every panel came with a sticker, but sometimes they had fun with it and stuck the sticker WAY up in the fender, so only way to see it would be to remove the inner wheel well plastic and look up/possibly even remove the fender. Not suggesting it, but if you really want to prove to this guy/yourself, that may be something you may want to do.

All in all, it sounds like this guy is possibly d!cking you around to get you to drop the price. If you have owned the car 4/5ths of it's life, then i wouldn't question yourself. Overspray is no big deal, it happens. If the door still has the vin sticker then there should be no problem, just a case of poor taping.

All in all, fenders, hood, bumpers, hatch, doors, and rear wheel wells ALL had these stickers somewhere on them. The frame rails that run immidately underneath the fenders had the last 6 digits stamped into them, and i'm sure there are more identifiable marks other than the steel plate under the windshiled. Car fax will only show damaged reported through insurance companies most of the time. I had a friend that put his Nissan Pathfinder through a $3000 ditch, lol. He payed in cash and it never went to Car Fax. Although to make the sale legit when selling it he told the next people what was fixed, but after that, that was that and to this day car fax still shows no reports.

 

84redta,
Thank you for your response. It reinforces what I believe/know to be true with my car. I was able to find the VIN on driver's side (front panel) and just a white sticker on the passenger side quarter panel.
I may still take it to a professional bodyshop to have it looked over for my piece of mind.
Thanks again,

 

the overspray is an obvious way of telling that somethings been repainted on that car, but it could be that the car got keyed, had a minor ding, ect.
as for the vins they were on every panel but they could have fallen off or been removed in this cars 20+ year life. even if this car was involved in a little thing shops typically will replace fenders rather then repairing them so it very well could be aftermarket.
I think it sounds like this guy is trying to get a lower price, good luck.

 

Thank you for your response.
Another thing I'm still unsure of is the techniques used by ASC. Does anyone know how they made the cars into convertibles? They would have had to retouch the paint where the hood originally sat, I just don't know if they completely removed all parts of the door (removed the window and it's track) before they painted or if they covered and painted.
Does anyone else have an 89 GTA and have you looked in between the doors/window track to see if there is any slight overspray?
Thanks!

 

I believe they may have removed the fenders to cut off the bottom edge for the Subframe connector, never considered it really.

John

 

I didn't drive 5+ hours and rent a car to get there so I could go home after looking this car over for two minutes. there is no douth that this car was hit in the driver and passenger side. and yes that's how fast I saw that the car was hit

 

and i didn't know all the details of the transaction much less haven't seen the car so thats why i said possibly. i wasn't calling you out or anyone in the situation. I have called many people on cars that have been in accidents because they replace a bumper support and cover and 4get that their radiator is move 3" back and the frame is visibly tweaked. I was making a comment on the information provided, which was vague enough because i don't know everything. Also, there are very few cars that haven't been repainted in it's lifetime after 20 years, so as far as that, if the rubber window guides are the only thing oversprayed on a car then they did a decent (not propper obviously) job, as i've seen horrible tape jobs of which i've owned 2 cars with horrible tape jobs. Anyways, i wasn't here to call you off, i didn't know the details, he asked a question, i gave my opinion on the original assumption that he's owned the car for 18 of it's 20 year life and that he says wasn't in an accident.

 

I never thought that you were calling me out, I just wanted everyone to know the truth

 

ok, i thought there was a bit of hostility towards my comment. It sux, but that will happen from time to time. If ghost is the second owner (which would make sense owning it for the last 18 out of 20 years) then it's also possible he is telling the truth and that the damage was done 18 years ago. All in all, i obviously don't know the details so with my reguards to you both, i'm out.

 

your right he might not have known the car was hit but after I showed him where it was hit he is still telling potential buyer that the car was never hit. I e-mailed from a different e-mail address and asked him if the car was ever hit and he said no.

so this is why I think he was lying to me about the car in the frist place because he was shown the and he still saying that it was never hit.

well this car will be someone else problem someday if they get it for around $5000 they will be o.k

 

Was this guys name Chuck?

John

 

no john

 

Sounds like some TOM, **** and HARRY looking for a factory fresh car twenty plus years after they left the Factory. If he wanted a perfect car, his father should of bought one for him and put it in storage. .

 

I don't mean to stir things up, but just because there is overspray does not necessarily indicate that it was wrecked, simply that it was repainted for some reason. It may have been in an accident, or just another vehicle with bad paint from the factory...there was issues with the paint quality from that era with all the big 3 from Detroit.

 

I'm the one that was going to buy it. when the seller says it is the original paint and never hit that is what you want to see. like I said before and I will say it again the car was hit I don't know how hard but I don't care anymore you can buy the car if you want.