How much rust is too much?

Hello all, time for my first questions after plenty of reading. The search for my first Disco has finally began in earnest, it will be a 300Tdi auto. I've seen 3 so far all in various states and prices. One I saw today looked promising, lots of service history and fairly tidy inside. There is a little rust on it, around the rear cross member and the drivers inner wing, sills looked good though. A fair bit of surface bubbling though.
Another promising one had low mileage, good history and only 1 sunroof, it appeared to have hardly any rust on it, inner wings all good and rear floor looked ok. Interior needs a good clean and tidy up though.
My dilemma is that there's an £1100 difference in price, second one is the dearest, so I don't know what to do. How much welding can you get done for £1100? I'll have a go at interior and mechanical work but welding is not really for me.

Get a cheap welder and learn on your disco

That what I did.

Nunfa1 said:

Hello all, time for my first questions after plenty of reading. The search for my first Disco has finally began in earnest, it will be a 300Tdi auto. I've seen 3 so far all in various states and prices. One I saw today looked promising, lots of service history and fairly tidy inside. There is a little rust on it, around the rear cross member and the drivers inner wing, sills looked good though. A fair bit of surface bubbling though.
Another promising one had low mileage, good history and only 1 sunroof, it appeared to have hardly any rust on it, inner wings all good and rear floor looked ok. Interior needs a good clean and tidy up though.
My dilemma is that there's an £1100 difference in price, second one is the dearest, so I don't know what to do. How much welding can you get done for £1100? I'll have a go at interior and mechanical work but welding is not really for me.

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buy one with as little rust as possible ones with lots of rust are worth nothing maybe 400-500 if they have solid motors so to find a really clean one expect to pay a lot more but make sure its clean and not just hidden get a chib oot and try find holes, they are not the hardest things to weld but can be like all others time consuming jobs if you want it done right in my view 1500-2000 will get a decent motor with a full ticket they can be found cheaper though

Don't underestimate how much rust cannot be seen on these things. A quick visual from the outside simply won't tell you exactly what's going on.

The one I brought seemed to only want a few patches on the inner wings and sills at first glance, but on stripping everything back, and I mean right back - carpets out, seats out, wings offs, bumpers off, plastic sill covers off - do you only truely find out how rusty these Disco 1s can get.
Chances are, if you've found one which appears to need work in the usual areas that can be seen, you can bet your bottom dollar that they'll be as rotten as a pear in the areas that can't be seen.

Whereabouts do you live? I don't mind helping you look over a few if you're local.
I also know and use a guy whose knowledge of these things is second to none.
I had all my rot completely cut out and replaced with new metal/panels at a price that nobody could ever compete with, but I did do all of the prep and rebuild work myself.

Thanks for the replies, and for the offer of assistance Mark, very kind. As you can see I'm in Essex so it might be a bit far you.
I think I've ruled out number 1 and might go back to number 3 and see how low he'll go. In the mean time there is a few more in my area to look at.