As a huge fan of 1969 Mustang fastbacks, this car immediately caught my eye when it appeared here on eBay, where the buy it now is $13,900 but lower offers are welcomed. Fortunately, the seller has been really honest as to the condition of the car and this is too big a project for some to take on. The external panels are deceiving! It’s located in North Platte, Nebraska, and I’m guessing that wherever it’s been they use salt on the roads.
It’s amazing how good the exterior looks. Sure, the rocker panel moldings are missing, as is the driver’s side grille edge, but as a whole this looks pretty darn good from this picture. Too bad the underside doesn’t match the outside.
Surprisingly, there’s only a modicum of rust showing in the quarter panels. Apart from a wavy rear bumper, the shell looks pretty straight as well. I was really starting to get interested!
Then I started to look at pictures like this. Oh my! There’s a lot of rust. The seller tells us that the previous owner used screws to mount new floorboards and that they’ll need to be installed properly. Oh. Unfortunately, the rust didn’t stop there, as almost every major structural area under the car has at least some repair necessary. Check out pictures here, here and here to see the damage. I’m not saying I haven’t seen worse, and it’s certainly repairable damage; I just didn’t expect to see it look that bad given the condition of the external body.
The seller has thoughtfully included pictures of some of the additional components they have sourced or removed from the car. Yes, that’s a manual shifter you see; this is a rare four-speed car.
Parts of the interior don’t look bad at all, but I suspect this one will get a full restoration, especially considering how easy it is to find reproduction parts for these Mustangs. You can see the poorly attached floor pans in this shot.
Here’s the 351 Windsor V8 engine, complete with what looks like a new water pump. Obviously, though, there’s a lot of work to be done, and as the seller says, it doesn’t run. Do you think this one is worth taking on? If so, what do you think a reasonable offer would be?
It is surprising that the outside paint looks so good and the inside is so rusty. I have a 1970 sportsroof that was a barn find in 1988 and has spent the rest of it life in my garage. Lucky I have no rust repair to do but my interior and paint is warn out
At least the seller is truthful about the condition….sad shape
Typical Mustang rot issues.. However, if the price was about 5 – 8K lower.. It would be a good buy..
In this case, it’s “good by” for me..
Nice car and great find..
Wife bought a ’69 Camaro new. It lasted 14 years and almost 200,000 NH miles, garaged some but not all winters, it looked great from the outside, and the interior was tough vinyl and looked great, but the floors were gone (plywood and tar to keep the exhaust and water out) and three of the four subframe arms were essentially gone. There was nothing left to weld anything to. You had to be coasting or at rest to shift since the body would shorten with the brakes on and bind the shift linkage which would bind off and on anyway. Sold it for the posi-traction rear and the interior to a guy with a similar car where a dog has chewed up the interior. So, look underneath these things. They are not always what they appear.
Nice car it will be one day hopefully, all the parts are available to rebuild it. It’s a nice restoration project one would enjoy if you are talented enough to dissasemble, fabricate and weld, good luck to the buyer. Worth saving I think.
We have a 70 Mach1 but really wanted a 69 but most were just a bad as this one. Too bad this once was a beautiful car.
great lawn art!. offer a large order of fries and some white castle’s.