Bidding on this car is both a very good idea and a bit of a sketchy one. What points towards it being a good idea? The body style, mostly. The fastback design of the 1968 Galaxie 500, as seen in this posting on craigslist, can’t be topped. If you like what you see, make plans to get to Wilson, in the eastern part of North Carolina, and thank tipster Jack M for the sharp eyes that led you to your dream. Oh, and bring the twelve grand asking price with you if you’re inclined to meet the seller’s demand.

What you’ll be buying is a full-sized Ford from a long era of sales success, 1959-74. This car, a ’68, is the last of the third generation, and it had some racing connections, being piloted in NASCAR enough that it inherited the nickname, “Poor Man’s Talledega.” Two notables who took to the track in a Galaxie were Bobby Allison and Wendell Scott. Allison finished third at Daytona in 1968, and Scott finished seventh. Given that the paint on this car is declared a “twenty-footer,” you’re probably going to re-do it, so think about the idea of a replica NASCAR Grand National car (as the top NASCAR series was called in that era) as your target build.

Not many cars worth having are available in the low-teens price point these days. In fact, I just noticed a four-door mid-1980s Mercury going for more than this uber-stylish Ford Galaxie. That makes this car either a tremendous bargain at $12K, or a rust-bucket covering its sins in prior bodywork. But given that the seller has owned it for thirty-plus years, and the paint is at least that old, since he says it was done by a prior owner, how damaged can the body be? I’m slightly unsettled by the sentence, “not rusted like most you see.” I’d rather that say “no rust,” or describe what (hopefully) little there is, but that’s where a personal inspection is always smart.

The seller claims a 390-CID engine, and there’s no reason to doubt that, but there’s no image to show what kind of external condition that might be in. A reported 66,000 miles have rolled under the tires, so if that’s verified, this is a car you can drive well into the next decade. What will you have to do to make that real? Follow up on some of the repairs needed, like the need for a freeze plug to replace one that leaks. Or, wait—we’ve all heard that before, and sometimes it turns out that that means the block is cracked or the head gasket is damaged. Oh boy. What’s the weather in North Carolina like this time of year? I think a trip to “see a man about a horse,” as the old-timers say, is something a prospective buyer needs to pencil into the calendar. Thinking positively, this could be the best January excursion you’ve taken in a long while.