Hello, I am new to the forums as well as being a new owner of an old (1972) Ford Country Sedan. Forum member Krash asked me to post a message about my experience using and inspection service during my search for a wagon. I used a company called Aim and I was very happy with their service. They are very thorough in their inspections. Even their base service is a 150 point inspection of the vehicle. They provided details of what they considered problem areas of the car as well as lots of photos. Here is a link to one of the inspections they did for me http://crd.aiminspections.com/crd/c...V/89OnkybO0yWLKyijfqboP0CaVtFPEwCew3bCYidhnE= I think it will be accessible but if not, I apologize. The car in this report is a 1967 Plymouth. I was very interested in it but after seeing the report and the photos of some rot that I wasn't prepared to deal with, I decided against buying it. I had them inspect two other cars for me, one of which I now own. I also used DAS to ship my car to me. Their service was okay though my car was at their depot in Tennessee (where the car was bought) for two weeks. I thought that was kind of long. If anyone has any questions about either, I'd be glad to answer them. Let me know if the report can be viewed by you also.
Report opened fine for me. Looks like Aim does a very good job. Excellent info, and detailed pics. Thanks for sharing!
Looks like a good report. Only thing missing that I could see is details on an underbody inspection of the frame rails and floorpan. Thanks for posting this!
The three cars I had inspected were done by three different inspectors. Each of their reports, though equally as thorough, covered different aspects in some cases. Also, their grading was subjective as the Plymouth I believe got a C and one of the other cars, which I thought was in better condition was graded a D by the inspector. So, I think even though they do a good job, the decision is ultimately up to you.
Its amazing how much that red 68 Fury Sport Suburban wagon gets around. A buddy of mine owned it for several years. In fact he still has the orginal numbers matching engine for it. The original engine needs a rebuild, and it was quicker and easier for him to replace it with a rebuilt 383 he had. His wife used it as a daily driver for a while and they took it on a few long trips. They have four young children and since this wagon didn't have the optional rear ac, the kids in the "way back" seat complained of it being too hot in the summer. I remember the car well, and remember when he replaced the woody di-noc paneling on the sides. The car has original paint as I recall. He sold it to someone it the Pittsburg area along with alot of spare parts. That buyer sold it to someone else who is I think, also in the Pittsburg area, and the new owner is on the For C Bodies Only Mopar forum. I think it was only two years ago that my buddy took the wagon to the Chrysler show at Carlisle. I didn't even know he had sold it until it started showing up on various forums with pictures from shows I knew my buddy would have never attended. Incidentally, the two places most every 50's to 70's wagon will have rust is the bottom of the tire well and the tail gate. The one rust area I will need to deal with on my wagon is the tire well which someone has "fixed" in the past, but it doesn't look quite right. You've got a beautiful Country Sedan wagon now, so it looks like you made the right choice. Still, that 68 Fury was cool. It wasn't perfect, but since it was original paint, it was an "honest" car with no "hidden' issues. I thought it wasn't bad myself, but then I've seen and owned alot worse condition old cars. Virginia is well within the " Rust Belt" of America.
For $179 it seems like a very comprehensive test even though it's geared towards modern vehicles. I don't think anything before 1981 has a DVD player, backup camera, ABS, or airbags. Well, some 70s cars got airbags but they're very rare. I'll keep this in mind. There have been a few vehicles that were way too far away for me to go check on myself, but they were vehicles I would pay to have inspected and then shipped to me. So this company appears to have their stuff together. Thanks for the info!
Along with allizdog's follow-up comment on the different objectivity of the inspectors he used, it's probably important as well to have verbal conversation with them, via phone or maybe skype. I think I'd want to find out a bit more about where the inspector's coming from, when he's looking at the vehicle. Maybe he got a bad 'vibe' from the owner; maybe he wasn't able to dig into the vehicle as much as he would have liked, etc. I noticed in the case of the wagon, he wasn't able to drive it, as the owner wasn't in attendance. If I was paying good money for a thorough inspection, I'd at least want their opinion about how it ran.........
Allizdog: glad to hear you had a good experience and thanks for sharing. Back in the early days of internet classic car sales, I found a car that I was very interested in. It was several hundred miles away, so I contracted a local inspector to look at the vehicle. He called me as soon as he was done with the inspection and gave me the bad news; the "small" fire damage described by the seller was much worse than stated in the ad. He went on to describe in great detail the many things that were wrong with the car. He concluded by saying that he would not recommend this car to anyone. I thanked him and moved on, looking for another car. About a week later, the ad for that vehicle was pulled and the listing showed that the car had been sold. Curiosity got the better of me; I called the seller and learned that the car had been sold...to the inspector I had paid to research the vehicle. I have never used another inspection contractor since that episode. I know that's not fair to all the honest inspectors, but I just can't bring myself to try it again.
I was wondering these things also, about the under carriage and how it ran. I like that they used a measured arrow so you could see exactly where and how bit the issue is. Great thread Allizdog thanks for sharing.
