and found what looked like a clean 3.2 TL from the rear... looked inside and the interior was completely stripped... as i walk towards the front of the car,



i couldn't believe it... i may go back later next week to see if i have anymore luck with what i was looking for...

 

The excessive rusting and the extent of the rust does not surprise me, rather it confirms what I have long suspected -- crappy steel? or maybe pig iron . My 2003 TL-S has bolt heads holding the seats to the floor board or frame that are quite rusty as are some other bolt heads thruout the car. I was starting to believe that the car had been in a flood but not so. Thanks for the great pix and taking the time to post it here. If you do go back could you take a few more pix? And have a stiff belt of Jack Daniels before going back. While I am here, I just replaced the cabin filters and now we will see if my car still has dandruff! Not much to clean out in the cavity but I had done that last fall when I did an inspection and put the old filters back in. JC

 

Damn, that's fugly!

~Cheers~

 

Looks like it was burnt out. Any protective materials inside would have melted off, thus allowing the rust to grow to that extent.

 

wow that actually doesn't even look like a first gen TL's body structure.

 

yeah from that pic.. u can only tell from the engine that it is either a legend or 1st gen TL...

 

wow, i'm gunna go rub some wd-40 on the inside of my engine bay out of fear

 

LOL at all u guys that think rust can form like that with the paint you have on the car right now. That car has been on fire and all the paint burned off, thats why its just revealing bare steel and rusting from sitting outside

 

Wow ! This cars been burned....was it in Iraq?

 

i guess this wouldnt be the best time to ask if the grill moulding was still on it or if they have one at that location at all because i need it

 

In case you have never seen the results of an engine/car fire - that would be a reasonably good example.

Your reasoning for the rust makes absolutely no sense at all. (period).

 

What are you looking for? My friends yard has at least two TL's (one 2.5 and one 3.2), one Vigor. He has at least one Legend also. I say at least two because when I was there yesterday - I could not locate the one that I had pulled a few parts from about 6 weeks ago.

The interior on the two that are there are pretty trashed - it is amazing how badly people treat their interiors. This one only had 90K and it looked like something I would own that had say 300K on it.

My 97 with 130K looks showroom new compared to these two...

 

racerock does he happen to have the 3.2 grill trim moulding?

 

I might be running over there today, and will check to see if he has a 3.2. Is there a grill/hood difference between a 3.2 and 2.5? I have a 3.2 and will try to compare.

 

Were early TLs rear wheel drive? This engine is not transversely mounted, which is kinda odd for a front wheel drive car?

 

Quote from racerock: In case you have never seen the results of an engine/car fire - that would be a reasonably good example.

Your reasoning for rust makes absolutely no sense at all. (period).

At the time of my first posting the other postings referring to a possible fire had not been made. And no, I have never seen a car that has been in a fire. That's the sheltered life I have lived I guess. Perhaps in your modesty you could forgive a old fart for not recognizing a car fire. Your comment about my reasoning is not appreciated. JC

 

um...why are you taking offense? nothing happened...

 

Not rare for a Honda/Acura. V6, Inline 5 are "normal" mounted but FF.

 

Im curious too Kam what are you out on a search for?

 

i should believe that there is a major difference, between the models, me myself i have a 3.2tl didnt know the difference between it and a 2.5 till i needed parts...lol, but there are differences between the two i dont know if the 2.5's have the same grill moulding becasue of the way our 3.2 grill mouldings fit into the hood, i still have mine but all the screw holes in it are gone i dont know if i can 3m it but i'm most definitely gonna try today....but hey lemme know somn thanks 4 d reply though

 

rust prolly caused as a result of the metal burning leaving the protective(galvanized/ or painted) coat damaged and leaving it open for oxidation which true metal doesnt like with a tad bit of moisture introduced u get the rust...i think i did that in like 6th or 7th grade with a nail/piece of cotton and a water dropper thingy

 

It all starts as soon as the fire starts. Then the fire dept comes and puts it out with chemicals that add to the equation. Seen plenty of them and they all look basically like that whether they start in the interior or engine bay. You can often tell where it started...

You can often tell if the person needed to get out of payments by:

--looking to see if it started in the interior
--Is a new model
--Is just bad enough to total it...

You would be amazed how many cars are intentionally torched.

And it is amazing how wiring gets exposed on certain cars. You can see some in the above picture, but basically all the jacket gets burned of and the end result is just a braid of copper.

 

Confirmed that the one I saw was a 2.5. Good hood, drivers light, decent grill, very worn overall though.

 

Interesting, I wonder if there was ever plans to make RWD?

I've been thinking if my 06TL can survive "me" over the next 4-5 years, I might use it for a RWD conversion. This will maybe give some insight on how to turn the motor, that is if it were to still be used...

 

The 3.2TL hood is very much different from the 2.5TLhood, since you have one you should see the difference if you look closely, i'm not sure of the grill trim sometimes i wish i had a 2.5 because there are so many of those here its damn near pitiful.....lol

 

i was looking for a type II legend and maybe an RL to strip out... type II intake manifold mostly... heads if i am lucky... an RL strut bar...

and i just got another legend that i need some parts for...

 

here are some pics of the new toy...

 

i know thats not actual miles is it? thats kinda high aint it, or maybe i'm not reading it correctly

 

110k miles??? for a 15 yr old car???

my TL is a 98 and it has more miles than that???

 

oh i thought it said 1102124

 

I took my camera to the yard only to find that I had the Xd card in my computer. Did note that it looked a little different - but my wife has the car at her families until tonight, so I could not comment.

 

It could probably make it to that. Looks like a clean car. Seats look to be in great shape.

 

yeah it does look pretty clean