I'm looking at purchasing an 1972 el camino custom, 350-2v. The car
itself is fairly straight but has some body cancer below the back window
across most of the length of the window. It's definitely not surface rust
and will need to be repaired.

I need to know if this is a common area for rust and how easy it is to
fix? The owner is asking $4000 for the car. He is the second owner and
the car's motor was just rebuilt. It needs a brake job (drums all the way
around) as well as the rust repair. I don't see any other rust on the car,
are their other known areas I should check?

Lastly, this car has factory air (it's a CA car, built in Van Nuys) but he has
the belt off the pump. He says the pump works but he doesn't use the AC.

Any opinions on the car's value would be appreciated.

Thanks

Check the frame rails behind the rear wheels. Check both floor boards, driver and passenger. I'd be leary about the "compressor works but I don't use the A/C". If it's important to you, you can use that as a bargaining chip. Has the car been in Cali it's whole life?
JC

Just from experience, lift the carpet. Check those floor panels. If the back window is rusted out my guess is that the floor is also! Rear window rusting is common. I had to have a bottom sill welded back in because mine was gone. Check the heater to see if the heater core leaks. Don't trust that the A/C works. Really have a good look because everything that is wrong will need to be fixed, unless you've got a lot of money to burn. Don't buy for $4000, but offer half that, and start picking out all of the problems. My guess is that they are many, and varied. By the way if this guy is Jay Hancock RUN!

The car has been in CA all it's life so I'm kind of surprised how much
body cancer it has below the back window. It's got me thinking twice
about the purchase. I checked the floor boards on both sides and
they look good. The metal below the rear window has rust about an inch
down but below that it's fine. The frame rails behind the rear wheels
look fine but I did find some rust right above the left rear wheel on the
edge of the wheel well.

Thanks for the info.

Todd

Yes, rust under the rear window is very common, even on California cars. My '67 has the same problem and was garaged in So. CA most of it's life. Mine isn't thru & thru rust, so I'm going to pull the glass and use POR putty to fill/smooth the lip out, then re-paint it. My other '67 had the same problem and I fixed it with the same procedure. GM didn't usually put an extra bead of window adhevise below the window, much like regular side glass. This is a problem though, as water will pool in the lip under the stainless trim. I added a bead of adhevise under the glass and smoothed it out with a gloved finger so there was a natural angle for water to run out from under the stainless trim.