Having missed out on a couple lately i wondered about buying a cheap one with a view to doing it up. A 20vt has come up on ebay locally for under a grand the advert claims the engine and box are strong and it is roadworthy. The problems are mainly cosmetic rust on the bonnet which i realise would be difficult to fill and some dodgy paint work and driver's seat. The only mechanical problem listed is a manifold stud though this could be cracked i imagine.
Obviously if a keeper i'd put new belts, probably new bonnet and seat.Resprays and belts are not cheap, it really is a question of knowing where to start, i would not want to spend a lot on it only to find it is basket case.
My query is there a way of getting a sense of the condition of the engine without taking it apart? i guess a compression test would help but i would had to have bought it before.

When idling, check for noise/exhaust fumes around the exhaust manifold, if there's any noise and it lessens as the engine warms up, that's a sign of a manifold crack. It's possible to prise back the heat shield a little and peer into the gap with a torch to see if the manifold is cracked, but not that easy. You can also prise back the cam belt cover and get a feel for how new it looks. Also check the aux belts condition and tension? Check for oil leaks from the cam cover, also look underneath for oil leaks under the filter. With engine running, remove oil filler cap and make sure there's no puffing (broken piston). Check oil level, is it topped up, what does the owner say about the oil? Look for any blue-ish grey smoke from the exhaust. Listen for noise from the belts area, and for any ticking (manifold) or knocking from the engine. I'm not sure there's much else to check without pulling it apart...

Rust.... inspect it closely because if it's bad there's no way it'll pass an MOT in the future without major effort or expense.

I still haven't got to see it, unusually there is a picture of the underneath on ebay there is some rust but not too bad. there is also a link to a video with it running. some very curious markings on the seat and some odd paint effects.
Given how much the owner has put out it would appear an honest sale, that said a respray, new belts, bonnet, manifold, seats etc won't leave much change out of 3 grand.

I was weighing up both options like yourself
And found buying 1 around £3000 without any problems is a better idea
As like you say will the other car be worth £3000 after it’s been fixed up

I'm with Alan on this, buy one that is in good drivable nick, the most you can afford. I purchased My Coop ten years ago just short of five thousand pounds which was a bargain looking back. It was in very good nick, the problem being over the years not neglect, but getting a garage to even look or recognise the car. For me, although handy with the spanners there was only so much I could do on my beloved Coop.

Having a Coop friendly garage is a big part of ownership & of course the forum is a must. Best of luck.

As with any prospective purchase of an older "classic car" condition is all.
Cost of restoration/repairs will outstrip the cost of a good "sorted" car, so it depends what the aim is?
I speak as someone who bought a "cheap car" and have since turned it into a very expensive one!

You may have taken a "hit" on your Porty Mark but your thread has taken a deal more

Is this the green one on the bay of dreams? i spotted that but couldn't justify taking on another unloved example.

but .... buying cheap has worked for me (so far, 10 months in). i needed a car quick when i came back for an extended visit to the UK and bought (in all the wrong ways, ignoring all car buying common sense) a low priced 20VT. not as cheap as that one on the bay but not a lot more. main selling points were price and a long MoT, but mainly price. i figured that by the time it went pop i'd have my mothballed alfa back on the road.

i genuinely thought i'd run it until the MoT or the car expired and then sell it as spares/project for pennies.

now turns out that it's genuinely low miles and unmessed with. no rot and it's not even gone pink yet. way overdue for a belts service when i got it. 14 years overdue if the history is to be believed but i conveniently ignored checking the service book until i'd been driving it daily for a couple of months.

bought it, used it for a bit and then gave it to AforAlfa for some remedial work. now, to be fair, i have spent approaching 4 figures with paul since the summer as i have no real spare time, no facilities etc to work on it myself and so have to farm out more involved work. he reckons that, despite his bills, it's still a good buy given that it has comprehensive dealer history, a newly acquired belts provenance and (after spending several hours on the ramps with it) that it's a good example with purchase price + bills still < current value by quite a margin. i don't even have a snagging list at the moment.

nothing i've paid to have done is beyond the scope of a competent DIY'er (belts on this particular car notwithstanding) so if i'd had the time/skills/space i could have reduced expenditure considerably. re. the belts on mine - having to air chisel the crank pulley off would probably have left me looking a bit silly by the side of the road outside a friend's house so don't regret for one second not attempting myself and getting them done professionally.

course, all this could all have gone horribly wrong on the first journey and i could just as easily be posting about my new coupe that only lasted 50 miles.

paul

Yes it was the green one, looked ok but I've taken the advice above and will try to find the most 'sorted' one i can afford.
My coop experience has been always been expensive as my skills are limited so it's meant paying others for much of it.

There’s quite a good example up for £2400
On gumtree been up a good few weeks so if still available a deal should be easy to do

Has had loads of the expensive hard jobs done within last 5000 miles
Including all belts
All brakes
And tyres so should need to much spent for a while

Are you a gambling man?... the rot in the Coupe seems to be to a certain extent a roll of the dice as most of the grot spots are initially 'hidden' on a cursory purchase/MoT inspection. Some on here have purchased relatively expensive cars sold as 'rust free' which have had more tin worm than a sub £1500 banger....go figure. Would I buy a car which had not had a recorded cam belt change for 14yrs and/or mechanical neglect....no way (unless I had the workshop and skills to do it...which I don't).

Looking at posts from CC and others floorpans, inner wings/behind Pinin badges, wheelarches (all four), sills, bootfloor/seam can all corrode and generally, the later the car, the more rust-prone they seem to be.

I had the boot seam on the OS cut out and rewelded/painted and both front arches/end of the sills sorted a year or so ago...the floorplan is sound topped up the underseal..the car looked mint and there was no sign of rot until you removed the boot carpet and then there was only a brown streak along the edge of the seam. I have looked after her for 15+ years, also had paint on the roof due to lacquer peel.

The mechanicals are the relatively 'cheap' bit of Coupe ownership it's the rot and bodywork that causes the most ££ pain. When I purchased her I thought I would only have her 6months until she 'blew up' as I was sceptical of a turbo Fiat; funny thing is the turbo is still the original unit and she clocked 110K miles this week.

CC put up this list:

Working from the back for the underside:

Rear inner arch to boot floor.
Spare wheel well.
Rear eiffel towers.
Rear chassis rails above subframe mount areas.
Rear chassis rail to floor pan join.
Rear jacking points.
Floor pans, especially where the cable dowels fix.
Front jacking points and inner sill join areas.
Front inner arches behind the liners.
Front lower suspension turret plate.
Front suspension top mount turret plate.
Front eiffel towers, bases and top panels.
Under side of front cross member.

Top side:

Void under front scuttle panel below wiper mechanism.
Front suspension top turret drain points.
Door seal to kick plate area.
Rear quarter panels below Pininfarina badges.
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I agree with everything written above

My last Coupe reached 246,000 miles before it died - the mechanical stuff was fine (indeed much of it is now on my current car and its done another 60,000 miles on top of what it did in the Sprint Blue

It was rust that caused me to scrap the car and it has been rust that has claimed at least 90% of all the Coupes I've ever dismantled at Motormech

As has been said already, the cost of restoring a rusty Coupe will FAR outweigh the car's value post-restoration.

By comparison, the cost of repairing a mechanically-poor Coupe is peanuts compared with tin-worm. Even an engine change is going to cost less than a respray. The only time I'd walk away from a mechanically-poor car is if it needed everything doing - clutch, belts, turbo, brakes, suspension, bearings - that lot could easily break £2k, even more if you start uprating at the same time (and why wouldn't you?...)

For what its worth, my 1999 Plus has more rust than my 1995 16v ever did