It’s an anecdote that doesn’t deserve much space, but here’s the summary: During my junior year of high school, I made an academic bet with my dad and lost by a hair. He bet me I couldn’t earn a 4.0 GPA second semester, and I finished with a 3.94 due to an incomplete notebook in Government class. I’m glad I lost because I didn’t deserve to win anything simply because my kind parents were making an honest attempt to stem the tide of my underachieving. However, Dad was likely sweating out those last few proverbial minutes, because I might have ended up with something like this ’73 Mustang Sportsroof that Barn Finds reader Curvette spotted on craigslist in Spokane, Washington. A 351-powered project, its asking price is $14,000 (a lot more than they were worth in the mid-1990s, as my dad found out).

Dad and I actually did check out a couple “big” bodied Sportsroofs and Mach 1’s that year, and one of them was a 351-powered Sportsroof like our featured car. Back then, they were selling in the $1,500 to $3,000 range for running projects, and we found a pretty nice one for $6,500; that was, however, 30-plus years ago. The seller mentions that this one has a “strong-running” Cleveland with an Edelbrock carburetor and a bevy of new parts, including a fuel pump (and tank), distributor, plugs and wires (yellow, unfortunately), and battery. It also has a new aluminum radiator.

The engine itself was apparently rebuilt by a previous owner, as was the transmission.

The interior pictures are not that helpful, but there is a new carpet and dash pad, fairly expensive items that you won’t have to worry about, although you will need to install a headliner and do some sleuthing on the dash illumination (the bulbs don’t work). Being an automatic car, the transmission will either be an FMX or a C-6, depending on the car’s engine code. If it was originally a two-barrel car, it would likely have had the FMX; four-barrel cars usually had the beefier C-6.

The seller mentions that the Mustang has cowl rust; however, it’s not in the place people normally expect Mustang cowls to rust (it’s typically the cowl floor around the air intakes). Being up top, the assertion that a good welder could repair it easily might be accurate, although it’s a little close to the windshield for my comfort.

The best part of this Mustang is that the body is straight and solid, although it’s been partially primed, so it will need a paint job to really dazzle onlookers. The paint color is most likely Medium Copper, which is a nice, appropriate ’70s color that looks good with the new Cooper Cobras and Magnum 500 wheels. This may be an example of rarity not adding to value, but regular Sportsroof models were far rarer than Mach 1’s in 1973 (10,820 to 35,440). Whether that makes this car worth as much as a Mach 1 or not, I’m not sure, but it’s going to cost a lot more than the Mustangs my dad and I looked at as a kid. Ah, what might have been.