Worth Fixing? 1969 Ford Mustang Mach 1

This Ford Mustang Mach 1 is in a sad state right now, but the once-beautiful custom paint job still shows beneath the tattered exterior, suggesting someone really loved and cared for this car long ago.  The seller lists this as a 1969 model, but Barn Finds reader 8banger has a keen eye and pointed out it’s a ’70 front end; then Woofer chimed in, noting other evidence that it may actually be a 1969.  We’d like to thank both for their valuable input!  If you’ve got the funds, I suppose you can repair and restore just about any automobile, but this one will take a lot of time, effort, and especially cash to get back on the road, so it might make more sense to find another that doesn’t need basically everything. However, if you’ve got strong DIY skills, this 1969 (or 1970) Mach 1 is in Chicago, Illinois, and can be found here on eBay. You can buy it now for $12,000, but the seller has also wisely added a make-offer button.

The seller is a man of few words, and the only specific information he shares is that this car has been sitting for 30 years and has a 351 engine and an automatic transmission.  There’s no word on why it was parked decades ago, and it’s unknown whether the Windsor is original or if it will still turn.  From the looks of things under the hood, I’m guessing the V8 will need to be torn down and rebuilt, unless the buyer chooses to swap in something else.

One positive about the exterior is that the custom stripes still seem to be in place on all the panels, so the sheet metal was likely in decent condition before it was parked, and the panels (sans front end) probably weren’t just pieced together recently for a quick sale.  Sadly, the good news mostly ends there, as many exterior sections will need replacement or repair.  The north section of the hood is somewhat mangled, but the scoop is still there, and thankfully, the exterior appears pretty much complete.

A few interior parts are missing, including the headliner and rear seat, and no information is provided about those red front buckets.  It’s hard to tell from the photos whether the floor shows mostly surface rust or is unstable, but fortunately, the rails look fairly solid.  However, I’d still go over the platform thoroughly first, before getting too far into the restoration, to make sure there’s a strong foundation to build on.  Is this Mustang a promising project, or would it be better to let this pony continue sleeping for another 30 years?