Just a few other common spots you need to check out;
Boot floor, around the tank support and to the right of the spare wheel well. Wheel well itself can rot out, but it's not too bad to fix.
Lift the carpets and check out the floors front and back, both sides, they will probably be patched but strictly speaking they should be one piece panels. Mind you not many are, so as long as they are solid thats OK.
Do your best to check the sills, they are a three piece design the outer is almost non structural, it's the inner and middle which do the work, you cant see the middle one so all you can do is judge it by the ones you can see. Have a poke about where the front anti roll bar is fixed to the front cross member, thats another trouble spot.
Another area is the little housing on the engine bay of the inner wing where the top suspension arm is fixed, you can only see the NS as the OS is under the carbs, but scrape and poke at it, it's not easy to fix and rots out as it catches all the salt and grime inside it.
A good shiny upper body is a good sign, but be carefull you don't get sucked into it without checking the the underside, it's down there where the problems will be.
Mechanically these cars a pretty bullet proof, the Engines are strong, the transmission apart from second gear synchro, virtually faultless. Suspension may need bushes and dampers may need changing like all cars, but everything is available and it's all reletively simple.
The only tricky bit are the Brakes you didn't mention the age of the Car and over the years the brakes changed, the early ones had a Dunlop set up which is OK if set up right, but can be troublesome, next came a ATE single circuit set up, which is probably the easiest to work on, but still can be enfuriating, the later cars had a twin circuit, twin servo ATE system which can be a real pain in the Ar*e at times. Mind you when they work all the systems give almost modern day braking capabilities which are a class above most classics.
Hope you get on OK, most owners would agree that you won't find a better classic for the price, in fact for double the price of a Bertone Coupe.
