Rust: Does this look OK to you..?

[LA8PV]

Hello from Norway! This is my first post.

I am about to by a 2009 LC120 (Prado) with 17,100 miles (275,000 km) unseen and would very much appreciate any advice. The seller lives a few hours drive from me, and has send a lot of photos. The bodywork and interior looks very nice, but I'm not so sure about the frame, etc under the car. I have received the attacherd photos, without any additional information (I'm not even sure what some of them are of).

The car was (very?) recently anti-rust treated with lanolin (sheep's fat oil?) by an authorized dealer for Fluid Film stopper rust! - https://www.fluidfilm.no. This is a well regarded way to prevent and "stop" rust in Norway, but I do'nt know what it normally looks like.

Since the car is 12 years old and has the normal mileage, I don't expect the car to be as new. But I don't want a car that has excellsive or serious rust problems either. Please keep in mind that Norway has long wintrers, and ther roads are salted half the year.

I plan to drive to inspect (as well as I can) and test drive the car next week, unless this is a car that should be avoided. Any expert(ish) advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

 

[LA8PV]

Five more..

 

[LA8PV]

And the last ones.

 

[sedonut]

That coating could hide a lot of rust. Personally I would pass.

 

[GrizzlyClint]

That coating could hide a lot of rust. Personally I would pass.

I'm inclined to agree. Better to know what your dealing with by seeing bare metal than to have it covered up.

 

[Rednexus]

Agreed, looks to be a bit crusty. FWIW I'm about to WoolWax (similar to fluid film) my GX but I know what it looks like now. I can confidently say the underhood rust on the posted GX is worst than mine.

I would pass unless the seller can pressure wash the Fluid Film off and then take some pictures, or let you inspect it yourself. The Fluid Film should come right off with a good pressure wash. You'd then want to re-Fluid Film it. I wouldn't but a GX sight unseen that may have rust issues, as rust can be worse than it looks in pictures.

FYI - Fluid Film/Wool Wax will stop rust when sprayed over it. So whatever is there will be stopped as long as the film is maintained, however pre-film damage will still be there.

 

[thelastrailroad]

Its impossible to know with that film, and its presence would be a massive red flag to me. Ive dealt with my fair share of that in old 911s, and it was almost always an ugly surprise under chip coats, etc.