When it rolled off the production line in October of 1969, this 1970 Mustang Mach 1 would have been an attractive and fairly potent vehicle. The passing years have taken their toll on it, but it is by no means beyond salvation. For the right person, it could represent a great restoration project. If you think that you might be the right person, then you will find the Mustang located in Wylie, Texas, and listed for sale here on eBay. The owner has set a BIN of $18,600, but the option is available to make an offer.

Originally finished in Raven Black with White hood stripes, I believe that the Mustang has undergone at least a partial repaint at some point in its life. This is supported by the fact that it no longer sports those hood stripes. Looking through the photos reveals a very good reason why this may have happened. There is evidence of accident damage when you look through the comprehensive set of photos supplied by the owner. The Mach 1 has had a fairly decent sort of a hit in the front left corner, and if you look through the gallery of photos at the bottom of this article, you will find a photo taken of the engine bay showing that area of the vehicle quite clearly. Whoever performed the repairs didn’t do the work with anything resembling care and attention to detail. I don’t think that it would be possible to rectify the damage without cutting out that entire section and replacing it. This is a shame because being a Texas car, it has quite limited rust issues, and repairing the accident damage is going to add significantly to the workload. The panels look very clean, with little more than a few pinholes of rust. The trunk pan, drop-offs, and the rear rails look solid. The floors have some small areas of rust, and the next owner would need to choose whether to address these with patches, or go the whole hog and replace the floors entirely. The driver’s side torque box looks like it is okay, but it looks like there is some rust around the one on the passenger side. The condition of the external trim and chrome ranges between being good, and requiring restoration, while all of the tinted glass is present, and appears to be in nice order. The Magnum 500 wheels that are fitted to the Mach 1 are not original, as it originally wore Argent styled steel wheels. However, these wheels are dated correctly, so the new owner could potentially retain them if they wanted without disturbing the vehicle’s originality too much.

The blazing Texas sun is great for protecting the integrity of steel, but it can be absolute murder on plastic and vinyl trim. That is the case with the Mustang because the interior looks pretty awful. Everything in the way of trim and plastic is either baked, cracked, split or has had damage inflicted by its owners at some point in the past. The rear seat looks quite reasonable, but that’s about as far as the good news inside the Mustang extends. The rear trims have been cut to fit aftermarket speakers, and that’s a shame because they look like they might have restored fairly well. A full interior trim kit is going to be about the best approach here if the Mustang is going to be returned to its former glory. The Marti Report that is supplied with the car reveals that it originally featured an AM/FM stereo radio, but that is long gone. Otherwise, the Mustang also came equipped with a tilt wheel, while the factory air conditioning would have been a very welcome addition for anyone sitting inside this Black Mustang in Texas.

The Mach 1 was originally equipped with a 351-4V engine, and this would have pumped out 300 healthy ponies. This was backed by a 3-speed automatic transmission, with the Marti Report indicating that power steering and power front disc brakes were also part of the package. The owner says that at some point in the past, a previous owner pulled the 351 to perform a rebuild, and then proceeded to, er…lose the engine. Now that’s just plain careless! All that remains are the radiator and its shroud, along with the air cleaner, alternator, and a few sundry pullies and pieces in the trunk. If something resembling a faithful restoration is going to be performed, then the next owner is going to need to source another correct 351 to slot into the engine bay. Of course, they might potentially choose to abandon originality and use the Mustang as the basis for a resto-mod project. A more modern drivetrain and some sensible suspension upgrades could see this vehicle retain its classic appearance, while the driver could conceivably have access to significantly more than 300hp, with improved handling and braking into the bargain.

On the surface, this 1970 Mustang Mach 1 shows so much promise, but the visible accident damage is an inconvenience that might require some investigation. My main concern doesn’t revolve around the damage itself simply because the repairs don’t tend to indicate that the impact that the Mustang suffered was particularly hard, but the apparently rough nature of the repairs would make me want to take a closer look. If everything checks out okay, the existing repairs could potentially be given some finessing. Then, it could potentially be a pretty reasonable sort of restoration or rest-mod project because its rust problems seem to be so limited. It might not be perfect, but I think that this Mustang could be worth a personal inspection.