Put that money back in your pocket, and back away, slowly. When at a safe distance, turn and run like heck. You’ll thank me later for this advice. What am I saving you from? For an ask of $3500, you’d be getting a supposed 1965 Mustang coupe. No options are mentioned. But you’d also be getting a mess that’s hard to value, unless you’re talking trade for an afternoon mowing the lawn or helping to paint a fence. A couple of hundred bucks worth of labor, in other words, is about what this South Sioux City, NE, barn find deserves as an offer.
Too harsh a judgement? OK, then you tell me: What kind of goop covers this poor Pony Car? It looks to me like bird poop from generations of pigeons or whatever flies around this particular farm shed. Disgusting, though If this had anything else to recommend it (like it was a fastback, a convertible, or an A- or K-code), it might be tempting to put on a hazmat suit and dig it out of its misery. And wait—reading the ad again suggests that the ask is not $3500, but $2500. And the car is not a 6-cylinder, but a 289 V8, despite what the headline says. And further, that the car is a 1966, not a 1965. So what to do?
Ignore the fact that the floor is probably toast, judging by the axle-deep-in-dirt images and the shot of the driver’s floor pan. Ignore the fact that the gas cap is missing, and all that’s left of the fuel system, from there to carb and intake is rusty metal and rotted rubber. And further ignore the fact that the windshield was long ago smashed out of this car, leaving the interior, not the least the dash assembly, to degrade beyond salvaging. Just ignore the warning signs, including body rust and a trashed interior.
Tell yourself that it’s a good thing that you can buy almost all you need to fix this up from catalogues. But do you, after seeing this hulk here on facebook, really want to be the person who attempts this rescue? You’d have the nicest of the first-gen cars. The differences between a ’66, which this likely is, and a ’65, which it is labelled as, are subtle, but I very much love the side spears on the rear fenders of a ’66. The gas cap (which in this case you’re going to have to source) is also subtly nicer. Most def you want a 1966 Mustang over a 1965. But do you want this one? Not hardly, and good luck if you decide to take this on. Someone’s got to do it, after all. Oh wait. Maybe nobody has to. It’s been sitting this long. Maybe it can sit some more. How many years until the supply of Mustangs reaches a critical low point when restoring this one, or others like it, makes sense?
An actual, tangible, double entendres-“this thing is a pile of….”
Brian K, I’ll offer my opinion in answer to your last sentence. I don’t think we are anywhere near exhausting the supply of first gen Mustangs which are “out there.” If true, this is a sad fact for all those folks who think that just because it is a Mustang, the car rotting away in the barn will be funding Sonny’s college education.
As you point out, unless it is a particular model or drivetrain, a Mustang like this isn’t very valuable. Add to this the fact that most parts are being reproduced, it adds up to poor-condition cars having negligible value.
Which illustrates another general adage: start with the best example you can afford. Which certainly isn’t this one.
Aside from wondering what might be living inside that gas tank, I can see Sonny’s education easily funded by all the decent looking lumber in sight.
Artists are wonderful people. They take what would normally be a tragic scene to us non-artists, and make a fortune selling it as “art”. My town is inundated with artists, each wanting thousands of dollars for a mountain vista scene. Take here, for example. 1st, I think the “coverings” are a combination of crap, dust and mildew, but look beyond the car, I mean, it’s a wasteland and in that mire is a decrepit Mustang coupe up to the lug nuts in something. That, my friends, would make a great painting. Price? $10gs,,,what? Don’t think so? Tis’ so.
Maybe you should try your hand at painting that scene then my friend, if it’s so easy. You could be ten G’s richer.
I didn’t say it was easy, but to art is subjective, I don’t see the value, and these people selling that expensive stuff aren’t seeing their paintings fly out the door. They are waiting for that one person, and hence the term, “starving artist” comes from. Artists can see “flowers growing out of crap”, like this 1st picture and I never had that vision, it’s why I drove a truck.
Those trusses look like they were a roof system at some point, so I wonder how they ended up on the ground like that? Maybe the wind or a tornado blew the building apart, and the lowly Mustang somehow emerged “unscathed”.
Not enough TP for this one…
Aw c’mon Howard, all artists aren’t bad. But you always have a few bad
apples that spoil things for everyone
else. As for the car, suck it up Brian
and join the party! This was how we
sometimes found the car of our dreams in a situation like this. And like you, we asked ourselves before we handed over the money to Farmer
Brown if the car in question was worth.it. Being the overzealous car nut I was back then, I believed I could
fix and old derelict I found– much to
my parents dismay. Yeah, I won some, I lost some, but at least my love of vintage tin and my love of music kept me off the streets at night
and out of trouble with the cops. But
yeah, this was how we found ’em nearly 60 years ago. We dug ’em out,
fixed ’em up, and it doesn’t affect us
one damn bit. Some of you folks out
there might be put off by this find, but
for me, it’s a trip back home.
“I know what I got”
I actually think the dog in the background pic is in AWE of this beauty!
Be afraid, be very afraid!
Great write up. (one which I wholeheartedly agree with) Absolutely no, zip, nada redeeming qualities.
The border collie scratching itself in the background is worth more than the mustang.
There is a few hund bucks worth of parts here, but no complete car to work with!
I’ve been critical on many Mustang listings. This needs no critical comment from me, it’s been covered.
Hey now.
It was found in a … barn.
Just cause it can’t roll outta there, doesn’t mean it isn’t a genuine “Barn Find”.
I mean, that’s the name of this site, yeah?
Great parts car!!!, that’s all.
It wouldn’t change the reality of what’s wrong with this car, but this is another example of “pull it out of there, at least hose it off, and drag most of the junk out of the interior” ads that might get a hit if they did! ha! I mean, we don’t have to know its been buried in guano for 30 years, do we? He’ll learn when he sees how many people call him about it ………. !? Maybe….
Black sheep: do you honestly believe that someone is going to call on this? That’ll be 2.minutes that they’ll never get back.
Lowballers may call. Offering $500. Which he should jump at.
That will buff out quite nicely! ;)
Don’t care for Mustangs — never did — thought they were ugly — still do. That said, you could find a better example in an old abandoned and overgrown salvage yard, parked under mysterious circumstances in the woods untold years ago or, baked to surface rust in a dry southwestern field. Hose it down to get the gunk off, then park it as a strange lawn ornament! Any poor soul who seeks to restore this has a painful case of masochism. What is the seller THINKing??
Don’t care for Mustangs — never did — thought they were ugly — still do. That said, you could find a better example in an old abandoned and overgrown salvage yard, maybe parked under mysterious circumstances in the woods untold years ago or, baked to surface rust in a dry southwestern field. Hose it down to get the gunk off, then park it as a strange lawn ornament to skandalise the neighbours! Any poor soul who seeks to restore this has a painful case of masochism. What is the seller THINKing??
What car ?….all i see are piles of crap everywhere !