Which is more pathetic—the state of this sorry A-code Mustang, or the ad that purports to represent it for sale? The tip on this 1966, available here on ebay, came from an unknown source. Still, it’s a good one, even as a lesson in what not to bid on. Some people have ignored that idea, running the car to $3,250 in an auction that ends quickly, on the weekend. If you’re the person who wins (and cheekily enough, that price is not yet into the reserve), you’ll be hauling this heap home from Lindsay, Oklahoma.

Seriously—this thing is not already fully priced at this number? It needs absolutely everything and then some. The body appears to be in primer. There is rust in the doors and around the rear wheels. Who knows if the rocker panels are going to crumble into sand any minute? The floors are of unknown quality, and the trunk we don’t even get a peek into. Even without these problems, the car has had an accident that will call for a new driver’s door and quarter panel. Perhaps hinting at further degradation from what is shown is the mold that appears to have colonized the interior, plus the seller’s statement that the car has lived in a garage with a leaky roof for decades. That means rust, of course, which is why, perhaps, we don’t see the floors. While we’re inside, note that there’s a funkadelic non-factory AC unit hanging under the dash. A nice curiosity for sure, but probably not something that will ever blow cold again.

Perhaps one redeeming quality is that this is a factory A-code GT. It is not, as the ad says at a couple of points, a Shelby. Nor is it a convertible, as if you need to be told that. It does have a Rally-Pac mounted on top of the steering wheel, and a pony (“Deluxe”) interior. It doesn’t have the GT wheels because, well, what people call “GT wheels” are not in fact, ahem, GT wheels. They are “Styled Steel Wheels,” and they could be ordered with non-GT trims, and didn’t have to be on GT cars.

So if you really have to have a Mustang, get this. You’re cuckoo to pay anywhere near three and a half grand for this thing, even nuttier if you’re the guy that pushes it past the reserve and into the fours or fives (thousand dollars). But you’d have some yard art, and you can claim to yourself and anyone else who will listen that you’ll restore it someday. If, on the other hand, you dismiss all of these warning signs and open your wallet to restore this car, then from the Mustang hobby—thank you. You saved one that surely had little such hope.