Buying a Mark ii

[MMiller]

I'm interested in buying my first Mark ii. Are there any items on the car that are really difficult to repair/replace such that it would be helpful to find a Mark with these items? Any other helpful tips would be appreciated. Thank you!

[lld]

In general, body and paint work are expensive, particularly rusted sections. The car is very large and has trim that is flash chromed, stainless steel so it is difficult to work on without scratching the flash chrome.

Most parts, with the exception of brake drums, are generally available.

Of course, the general rule applies, "buy the best car you can afford" to take advantage of the money that prior owners have already invested in the car.

Larry

[jdsnoddy]

That sage advice from Larry is right on the money. I would also say that the cow belly frames tend to rust badly especially behind the front wheels; please be sure the car frame has only minor surface rust, if any. Windshields and windshield wiper arms are especially difficult to replace. Just make sure you buy a solid, rust free, not wrecked, complete car as possible.
Good luck. John

[MMiller]

Thank you Larry and John. I appreciate you taking time to give me your thoughts.

[thundershine]

above all the chassis is the number 1 thing doesn't matter how the body is. the cost to remove the body and everything to get to the chassis is just not worth it.

[Jack Bowser]

All good advice from these 3 fellows.

Make yourself a checklist and take a friend with you so he can read the checklist as you check everything out.

Some things are hard to check such as the gas gauge.

Unless you either fill the tank to see if it registers full or siphon some gas out to see if the gauge drops, you can't tell if it works.

Mine showed empty when I went to buy the car and when I filled the tank the gauge only came up to half full so I am still messing with the sender to get the gauge to work right.

New gauges and senders are no longer available. If you buy original ones, they are 63 years old and may not be any better than the ones you have.

Having things like this working is important when buying a Mark II.

Good luck in your search.

Ask more questions because the folks you see here on the forum are always happy to help and there is a lot of knowledge about Mark II's on the forum

My car looked like it had never been driven in rain let alone bad weather which is one of the reasons I bought it.

If things like the engine are painted the wrong color, that proves that it has been removed for some reason in the past.

You can imagine how difficult it would be to remove and repaint the engine.

Some things I never thought of checking when buying my most recent one (I have bought 6 over the last 57 years) were things like the door locks.

I never thought of checking to see if they work. Both of mine didn't work with the key because the handles were removed in the past for a repaint and were not put back on correctly.

The good news is I was able to fix this because I had the door panels and handles off to do my paint job.

A good checklist is about three 8 1/2 by 11 pages of things to check.

[Chuck Lutz]

All fantastic advice. I would possibly add the lack of availability of windshields.