How can you tell the condition of a car's bird cage on a complete, fully assembled car?

Thanks

 

It is best to use a phillips screwdriver to take the kick panels off, and see in there and get way the hell up under the dash on both sides, shining a light onto the lower w/s corners area.....

look very closely at the w/s frame around the vin tag, and down the entire length, both sides....look in the door jamb very carefully....open the hood/wiper door, and examine the w/s base, if you can, push a flat piece of wood down past the fender--w/s area in that corner, and see if it's rusty there.....sometimes you can see it...



IF he will let you....pull the header pad inside, and/or feel for rust flakes....now that last one can be tricky, for instance, that header pad has a steel reinforcing plate running the length of it, it does rust out, especially with any leaking.....like in the case of my '72 vert, though, the pad was original to the car, BUT the car was totally naked at one point and a very good paint job was done, not one ounce of w/s--birdcage rust anywhere as a result....

I did replace the entire interior when I got it some 12 years ago,

 

Its very difficult, but there are a few things you can look at :
- base of the pillars (need to remove the kick panel)
- the rocker chanels (you will need to go under the car and shine up at the side of the frame where the nr 3 and 4 bodymounts are, maybe even poke in there with a screw driver)
- the area between the fender at the top and the pillar
- the rear of the lock pillar at the base (you need to remove the floor mats and maybe some of the panels there, look down into it.

As said before, rustflakes are an indication. Try to persuade the seller to let you remove some of the panels, trim around the windshield.

To conclude : with a C2/C3 you're always at risk when it comes to birdcages. If you know the history of the car and it's been all of its life in a warm/dry climate, you are probably OK, otherwise, expect more or less rust.

 

I appreciate the responses. The car I am inquiring about is my own 69 coupe that I have owned for about 5 years. It has been a southeast Texas car since new, and the frame is in excellent condition. When I was replacing the radio speakers a few years ago there were some rust flakes evident when I pulled the kick panels. I vacuumed them out, and when I checked today there were a few more (after two years).

There dosn't appear to be any structural problems, but the rust I found several years ago has always worried me. The car is in excellent condition otherwise.

 

The birdcage is actually the worst thing to get at, so with a complete car there is practically no way getting at it. It is difficult to asses like this, but i think there is no real reason to worry.

However if you disassemble enough parts from the interiour, you could probably POR-15 the cage as much as possible. I would think that would go a long way.

 

OK, here is what I would do, same as I did with my car....remove the stainless trim from w/s and blow out the areas with air jet, then fill in with black RTV, and put the trim back in place...no more room for water to accumulate.....second off, get two large caulking tubes of black RTV and fill the whole area under the fender lips and down anywhere water can go...tite as a drum....

indise the door jambs look for any openings between the steel and the fiber....seal them up tight...several applications over some days helps...

run water over the car with the kick panels and other interior trim removed to see the leaks, if any.....use common sense and you can seal that car to 12' depth if necessary....

 

Just taking notes. I have started my search for a C3 project car. Any insight is appreciated. Jack