There’s nothing overly special about a 1969 Mustang with a six, but a convertible without rust would have potential. If you only look at the first 20 or so pictures for this one here on eBay, the ones before you go to the detailed description, you see what appears to be a nice, rust free convertible. Many, or perhaps most selling cars on eBay would only show the first 2 dozen pictures. Bidders would see only a nice car in those pictures. I wonder if the folks that are bidding have looked at all the pictures? This convertible is why you should never buy a car on eBay or anywhere else without a careful inspection.
The interior looks well used, but usable, right? Do you see any problems here?
It’s just a six and there are red hoses, but it looks alright under the hood, right? It hasn’t been detailed, but there’s fresh paint on the firewall. A good cleaning and it wouldn’t look bad at all.
The top looks new and the installation wasn’t the best, but it gets the job done. A little work and you could probably get it looking better.
Ain’t she a beauty! It’s been repainted from blue to silver, but it only shows a little in the door jambs. Wouldn’t this look nice sitting in your driveway? Perhaps some people are already thinking of adding more muscle under the hood!
Here’s the sad truth. Did they really just drop in a piece of galvanized steel and not even cut out the rusted floor? Are those really pop rivets holding it in place? That really is the fuel hose held in with zip ties! There is so much structure rusted away that when this hits the next big bump, this lump of rust might just fold. Look at the rest of the pictures and see if you think this is even safe to drive on a smooth road. The seller provided pictures of the truth, but they are not prominently displayed. Pictures of the underside were not included with the first 24 pictures displayed in the ad. Do you think people bidding on this Mustang have looked at all the pictures and realize how bad it is? Do you see a problem with selling this car and representing it as drivable? Someone may get a really sad surprise when they unload their car, but it won’t be the first time it’s happened of course.
A machinist freind of mine used to say if you can’t make it right make it bright. That’s what we have here I’m not even sure this is worth restoring its basically a waist of paint. Run Forest run, run away fast, fast as you can!!!
Holy – !!
“it has floor pans and probably other components that will need attention under the car”
But no mention of the frame? Really? Someone is in for a major disappointment, unfortunately
What frame it’s a unabody has no real frame, I have quartered these Mustangs before, to much rust here just look at the rust on the fender braces bolts, this is beyond diminishing return. Jack
The seller is pretty clear it needs a full restoration. And I expect most of that rust is typical of a convertible with a leaky top being left in the rain for too many years. There is enough frame there to work with, and if you had a hoist and some welding and cutting skills maybe you could replace the floors and some structural parts and have a nice summer driver without completely dismantling the car.
Uhhh…I disagree. Everyone (if you’ve been in the hobby long enough) should know by now that the floor is part of the STRUCTURAL rigidity of a convertible car. Not a patch panel repair/replace on a coupe. In order to fix this the car would have to be braced and maybe even put into a fixture of frame table to keep it from moving and flexing while removing the old metal and welding in new steel. Definitely not a father son project or for a beginner. Experienced professionals only. Labor intensive plus a thorough inspection would have to be done. Then hope and pray that while the vehicle is being moved and transported it doesn’t flex and fold. Not a cheap repair by any means. Not sure what good a hoist will do.
Poncho
I looked at the eBay add and no picks of the bottom were on it today. Where did you guys get floor/frame details from?
Apart from that ..OK ? ( :
You have to click on the link that says “see full item description”
Wow! The underside looks like a Mopar!
keith! MOPAR joke! Lol
Mopar lovers don’t like Keith
I count about 150 rivets so far. The entire tops of both front aprons have a thin sheetmetal “cap” put over them to cover the rust with a few rivets holding it down and then the fenders bolted to that. Both rear frame rails are also caped and riveted along with the floors and both quarters. What a mess. This would be the kind of car that you would use in a movie where the star drives around in a realy nice one and you swap this one in on the scene where he goes over a cliff or ir blows up.
You know what they call this car, right? A diamond in a goat’s A**!
Goat-jazzle?
Mustangs rust and convertible Mustangs rust quicker and more extensive. We had to replace the complete trunk floor, drop offs, both quarters, doors on our 70 Mach1. I had my son look at it in Colorado Since we live in Missouri before sending deposit ( Big Mistake ) he didn’t do exactly as I said and went totally on exterior looks otherwise I wouldn’t have bought it for the guys asking price. Lesson learned look for myself.
This might sound funny, but I have seen worse!!!! I good friend of my bought a 1971 SS Chevelle convertible for a good price, or so he thought, he said the car was in perfect shape, no rust anywhere, and was shocked at the price he bought it for a steal only at $6500.00. “HE” was told the car only had 45K in it, and the motor had be rebuilt due to a oil pump issue. He showed up at my shop one evening and wanted to show it to me and brag about the great deal he got. Well I let him pull it into the shop and I took a car I had been working on off one of my lifts and ran it up, as the bottom of the truck cleared into eyeshot I saw what appeared to be a replacement section of truck floor and what was welded (not to well) into place looked like a section of dryer drum, but them it got worse, the rear seat bolts were missing along with a 6″ section of the floor pans, but the owner had nicely installed a piece of plywood, the front seat floor pans was again a section of dryer drum that had been beating out and again somewhat welded in. The fuel line from the tank was a piece of fuel hose tie wrapped to whatever they could find to tie it to.. The bottom of the drivers door had a another piece of plywood shaped in it with drywall screws holding it in place. The left front motor mount was gone, a piece of chain was wrapped around the frame and bolt to the side of the motor to hold it in place, half of the oil pan bolts where missing, and the rear main was leaking oil so bad you wanted to put a bucket under it so you could recycle the oil. But the convertible top motors would raise the top, with a little help, but the top was nice, it was black but white on the inside, you could tell it had been painted. After my friend was able to pull his head out of his backside, I started to go over everything the car would need, at around 6K in parts and replace pan he asked me if I wanted to buy the car, I said sure I would give him 2k for it and the was at the highest I would go, he got mad and left, about 2 weeks later he came by again and asked me if my offer was still good, I said not I would not give him a dime of 1.5k, we left with cash in hand. Well after nearly 2 years of on again off again work, I restored it putting in it nearly 7k in parts.
Oh yeah the motor that only had 45k on it, in your dreams, I tore it down, and I don’t see what kept it running, cylindered walls were scored, 2 on the pistons had hairline cracks in them, the cranked was burned the cam shaft had lobs worn down to nothing. But anyway attached is what it looks like today. As you can tell I picked a different color pattern than when I first saw it.
Good friend?
Why did you go down to $1500 in just two weeks, and for a friend? You would have stolen it at $2k. Great job on the vehicle for real. Your work is to be commended. Very thorough. Now come and do my Firebird!
Auto Basics 101. I usually don’t go into pet peeves, but this Mustang doesn’t have a frame, it does have front and rear frame rails, or subframe as the front detachable portion is referred to in some cars like early Camaros and other Unibody cars. To strengthen the car, you can install subframe connectors front front to rear, esentially completing the ‘frame’.
There is so much body filler on this car it’s scary. The lower front fenders are filled, the doglegs for the doors, the rear quarters and wheel wells….I really hope the buyer does their due diligence on this.
When I read this the bidding was nearly 8,000 dollars. It is not worth it unless the buyer found his first car. There’s a ton of mustang convertibles out there. The sellers bought the cheapest marti report, 17 dollars. At least he didn’t spend too much on that.
Matt Trummer at the bottom of the ebay ad it has a link to full description, click that and scroll down all the pictures and you will see the nightmare of this car.
Would I touch this?
You’ve got a better chance of seeing Paul Lynde JUNIOR.
Nice 1966 hubcaps with spinners. They look good on it. And that’s about the only thing good on it.
They didn’t get the nickname Rustang for nothing!
They don’t call um “Rustangs” for nothing!
This is a cheap fix for the 👨🏭 welder!
(Metal pieces and torques under 900)
Order pan halves unless the tunnel is toast and two torque boxes , ballast pans (convert weighted sections) and get it blocked up under the pans and front and back with using a floor jack until the door frame and quarter lines up and the door shuts and opens freely! I would block the whole car but swap each side and torque separately (ie don’t cut the other side out until the new one is in place for strength )
Now put two new skins on each quarter as their probably half Corvette with Bondo 🙃
The top looks not fitted and one wonders did the owner go cheap and reuse the old cloth and metal wired pads????
Once all is done take the six cylinder and put fifty dollars come get it on Craigslist and drop a 351 Cleveland and swap the rearend and trans too (I suggest T5 conversion or for the ladies a c6 or built c4 and torque converter auto)
Pick out interior and paint and have fun running the ponies fast!
FYI;
while your welding make your own
frame connectors as most sold are made for hard tops and don’t fit !
It could be either the top was installed incorrectly or….maybe the car is already twisting??? For $8000 I’d look for another project. Although sheet metal panels are available, they are not free. So once you add up the $8000 for the car, the sheet metal panels, and try to figure a price into the labor time (even your time has to be worth something in $ to you), You may be lucky to be around $20000 (probably a conservative estimate) in cost. Then you are still driving a 6 cylinder with who knows how much bondo in the body work. Add in a V8 swap (which would include another trans, cross members, and different driveshaft, wiring, oh, and suspension upgrades to handle the additional front end weight from engine swap, might as well upgrade the brakes (probably has 4 wheel drums for the 6 cylinder) to stop the V8 pedal smashing temptation, and the fuel system will probably need freshening…well now you are looking at a full blown restoration/pro touring modification process. Where does it stop? probably when you run out of money. If you must buy this car, leave it a 6 cyl. replace entire floor section with a one piece floor pan professionally installed, and hope the sub frame rails are usuable. The entire bottom of the car would have to be cleaned checked for usability/replaced if bad then reassembled. Not a project for the faint of heart or light in the pocket/budget. Better to find a decent driver for $8000 or even $10000 to start with.
I agree with Classic Steel. If you’re a competent welder you could definately rebuild this car. It would probably never make it to a concourse show, but could be a driver. There are a lot of people with skills and very little money, so sometimes you have to start with something rough to achieve you dream car.
Where I see a problem is… Price. The 69/70 convertibles have not reached the value of their fastback counterparts.
If it was found in a field and was free for hauling away, it would be worth all the work. But bidding is currently at $7300. While there is another with a $4900 Buy it now, that may not be quite as crusty:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1969-Ford-Mustang/253681898281?hash=item3b109e9329:g:3NYAAOSwO-5a-Gvs&vxp=mtr
Well it is a convertible it has some value. Too bad it’s not closer I know a guy who looking for a challenge. This would be prefect
Well it is a convertible it has some value. Too bad it’s not closer I know a guy who looking for a challenge. This would be prefect
This was exactly my first car except for a 302. The car was given to me instead of being junked by family friends back in 1978. The rust was so severe that the body sagged ever so slightly but enough to make closing the doors less than factory spec. :–) Good memories!
To be honest yes the price is a bit high but it’s doable been in the UK I have seen a whole lot worse restored and the panels are are available
Why would anybody change the color from blue to silver. I hate silver cars.
The third from last photo in the detailed description tells me the whole story. I don’t need to look further. The frame arch over the left rear wheel is rusted through. There must be a lot of flex on this car (more than a typical Rustang convertible) as the panels on the driver’s door has chipped — silver paint down to blue at the top of said door means this thing will indeed fold in the middle given the right environment. Still, there is an ass for every seat. Originality is indeed a selling point, but for anyone to claim those wheelcovers as original spinners for a 69 is blowing smoke. Where did the originals go?
A friend of mine is right now as we speak doing over a 66 Mustang Convertible that was in worse rust shape than this , yes he has a lift and is a great welder , retired and all the time in the world . I was really surprised at the replacement body / frame parts avaible for the mustangs I guess let the buyer beware
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What says “I don’t give a damn” more than pop rivets and not clipping off the excess ends of zip ties?
Seller, amazingly, has 100% positive feedback on eBay. Wonder how long that will last once the buyer discovers the hell that lies underneath. The seller is really pushing the limits of credibility by not showing any of the undercarriage photos on the main page of the listing. Price on 6/14 is already over $7K, which seems already too high given the condition of the frame. Pretty sad.
The Seller should be removed from E bay, a site i don’t use for exactly the reasons stated above regarding the condition of the car.
It is what it is and it ain’t what it ain’t
There’s many a wreck ‘neath a good coat of paint
The seller is just another schmuck using the limitations of eBay to pitch a rust bucket. I’m sure the order of photos would change the bidding process–a serious buyer would look at all of them to the very end and not buy on impulse alone. What I don’t get is “this car will need a full restoration” but no mention of specifics like the frame, rivets, zipties in the description. Just on and on about how original this car is. Might be a pop off the VIN and use on another shell kinda resto IMHO.
Just like favorite cars – the A and E body Mopars, their unibody construction suffered from rust, especially in the Rust Belt. When I lived in that area of the country, I always looked underneath a car before buying it. There was a guy (I didn’t know him personally) near my town in Wisconsin who would buy 1965-1967 Mustangs and cut the floors out, then replace them with a piece of flat steel, They always looked good on the outside but a quick look underneath revealed the truth. However, he managed to sell them quite quickly, I wonder if the buyers were checking out the missing floors.