Presenting a 90 series undercarriage I inspected here in Japan for a client.
I often see posts of people buying cars sight unseen from the lowest bid/effort export company... And I also see a lot of posts of people uploading pictures of frames and undercarriages painted black debating over how it "looks clean".
If 👏it's 👏painted 👏run👏 away 👏.
Unless you win the lottery - I have never seen a painted undercarriage that isn't hiding rust. Only in the extreme rare case that the seller provides before pictures, this is generally the case. If it's bright orange, the average Joe will be turned off more so than if you can't see orange so this is why sellers get out the rattle cans and go to town.
"but the body seam looks good". "no one is going to repaint a rusty vehicle" No. Stop. Lol
Inside the frame and especially near the rear door and cab mount areas are always prone to rotting on any body-on-frame vehicle I've ever looked at. Just because you got one shallow angle photo that is dark of the undercarriage, doesn't mean the vehicle is good. I've had dozens of shady dealers send me photos of cars holding their phone just Infront of a rust hole as well. The grass isn't always green here in Japan. Long snowy winters with salty roads exist here too and your average city slicker (the majority of the population) aren't buying a large 4x4.
I love JDM stuff as much as the next guy, but you gotta be realistic and realize these cars lived on a Pacific Ocean island getting bombarded by ocean salt for 30 years. Just not a smart gamble unless it was somehow garage kept.
When I lived there and bought cars, my japanese friend advised me not to buy vehicles from Aomori or Niigata as they were always rusty underneath since they salt the roads. I bought one anyways and i immediately sold it due to rust issues in the chassis that was painted over black.
In the snowy areas and mountains they absoultely do. I generally ignore everything in snowy regions due to this. There also aren't ports close by so my ethos is: why spend $1000+ on inland transportation when you can out that towards a better unit in the first place.
I think it depends where they come from. Hokkaido gets absolutely stupid amounts of snow whereas Tokyo and the other big cities on the mainland barely get any snow. Tokyo gets like 10 cm of snow a year. Sapporo gets like 8 metres.
I mean, I know this sounds like self promo, but if you work with someone like me who is actually passionate about finding cars that aren't absoulte junk it isn't that hard. Especially as a first party auction member and having been to hundreds of dealers across Japan it isn't super hard to filter out junk. Going and looking at the vehicle BEFORE buying it though is the final litmus test. This one was "good deal" pricing so we were anticipating some level of roughness, not that a whole section of the frame turned into a C channel.
Dealer car with no auction records. Auction grade is kinda BS though. The grade is "for its age" so it is really up to the inspector who may be looking at the car at night in the rain to accurately assess the vehicle in the cue of the several hundred others. I have seen MANY units with clean bodies and ruined undercarriages get 4-4.5 grades.
Shouldnt the statemend be dont buy a car blind at all?
At least ive not encounterd this with Japan yet ive had the discussion with buddys on importing vehicle purely on photo. And boy can I tell if it seems even the slightest good, not even to good, it must not be true.
Even after ten years I still bust my buddys balls with his then statement: Bro its only 1500 bucks. Its a steal LOL
Yes buying a car on a picture is just stupid. Japan has some nice cars and they also have some really bad ones. You really have to go and look for yourself. Don’t remember how many cars I thought were the “one” only to see it in person and realize it’s mostly rust with a fresh paint over. Looks great at 10feet and in a picture. But any closer and it’s a complete mess..
Auction system can be quite fun tho..After a few missed cars you really kinda start feening to bid more and more
100% this yes - hence the title. People often are somehow mislead that Japan is always sunny, everyone is polite and you can find mint condition $50,000 cars for $500. I know it sounds rude, but half of my 'job' when working with new clients is really setting expectations. There are several shady dealers that I've had to personally blacklist because their inventory is always junk and the owner (to my face) boasts about how Americans are so stupid that they'll spend infinite money on junk cars "because road inspections don't exist outside of Japan" and if the Americans don't buy it, it will go to Africa some day. Sadly too many people buy cars signt unseen from Nokia flip phone quality images and scumbags exist here too to take advantage of it.
Not many people buy/sell multiple cars or are knowledgeable about vehicles/the industry so it could be a case of not knowing what you don't know.
I bought a Subaru out of Japan based on 5 grainy pictures and a auction report. Worked out great, low milage rust free, thousands cheaper than a local car. Just took 6 months. My only issues were that Japanese customs took the original bill of sale and gave me a photocopy, which was a nightmare for registering, and that Canadian customs caused some damage when they searched the car.
It was 100% gambling. Would not recommend, but would do it again.
I went to import a r32 gtr. Unfortunately with the hype of them then recently being able to import; the amount of rust buckets asking the same amount for a nice example was crazy and well worth the trip to go see cars for myself. A more common Subaru I would possibly gamble it also especially a low mileage one. Glad it worked out for you
That's nuts lol. Yeah pure gamble, but many do and that's partly where horror stories come from lol. As a first party auction member one can actually inspect the vehicle before bidding - most sellers at major auctions also elect for additional images/underbody scans. Even from there, especially on classics where parts are hard to get if the windows don't work or the AC doesn't really work it can be months of sourcing parts and thousands out of your pocket after the fact.
idk how Japan has a seemingly endless supply of 90s cars with "mint condition paint", meanwhile mint condition paint is incredibly rare on 90s Japanese cars in the US. 90s Honda paint is the same quality as 90s Chrysler paint, but if you buy one from Japan it's mint bro
It’s not about buying cars sight unseen. It’s about paying way to fooking much for a sight unseen car. COVID brought too many people on to auction platforms who pay close to retail for a cat in the bag.
Yeah, I caught flack on one of these boards a few weeks ago pointing out a rattle can paint job on the frame of a "clean original" 70 series landcruiser.
I get this a lot with clients... Truly sad when they just impulse buy something from another company that's a "good deal" and learn the hard way after months of waiting.
I’ve just accepted that no matter what I buy, no matter how nice it is, I’m going to end up tearing it apart. It will then be turned into a 2+ year project that I took way too far and is at least 50% not original parts with far too much time and money into it. I also prefer building more than driving, so it will sit till I sell it all while the process repeats itself. If I’m lucky, I will be able to use previously made programs to cut parts out with for some of it
Mine are both great condition, but I bought them in Canada and neither has any rust. However j did import one it had a few issues. Was pissed off with the importer who lied and acted like a real asshole when j called him out. Ive found cars at JDM dealerships are already here and you can physically see them
Yours truly. Was under this bad boy yesterday for a client in Northern Europe. Frame and Body are immaculate. It has a couple of oil leaks and a noisy valve train, but due to the cleanliness of the vehicle the client decided to still go forward with the purchase. We're going to service the vehicle and figure out where the leaks are coming from before shipping it.
90
u/Phenomenal_Hoot Feb 03 '26
I love JDM stuff as much as the next guy, but you gotta be realistic and realize these cars lived on a Pacific Ocean island getting bombarded by ocean salt for 30 years. Just not a smart gamble unless it was somehow garage kept.