Need help with your opinions of this deal on an original condition GT/CS please

Hi,

I'm new here but have been into the first gen Mustangs for as long as I can recall and I love this site! It's a treasure trove of valuable info on the classic GT/CS Mustangs.

Well, I'm finally looking at purchasing a GT/CS and drove 300 miles roundtrip, argh, to check out one in original condition and running well but needing to be restored. As luck would have it I left my camcorder at home and didn't realize it until I got about 60 miles from home. I wanted to take some pics and a walkaround video but oh well (I've posted the four no-so-good pics the owner used in his original ad to the bottom of this post just in case they don't come up for anyone on my online report/review). I did manage to spend a little over an hour there before the owner had to leave for a prior engagement. I got stuck in some of our lovely Socal traffic so lost some time there but I did manage to get a good look at it with the exception of the undercarriage, yes, I know, very important, but it was due to no way of jacking it up and time constraints. I did manage to squeeze my fat head under it best I could but wasn't able to see much but what I did see didn't look too bad.

I was supposedly the first one he showed it to and he got maybe 15 calls in the short time I was there. We didn't talk final price as I told them I needed to get the Marti report on it and needed to go over all my findings. I gave him a deposit as I was afraid that if I didn't it'd be sold to someone else quick as evidenced by all the calls he was getting regarding it. He also mentioned that he took it to Mustang Country (I assume Mustang Country International as they're located in the same area code his cell is in) and that someone there checked it out then called him back a little later saying his boss wanted to buy it. So we agreed he would hold the car for a week, not show it to anyone else, not cash the check I gave him and that it was refundable if I didn't go thru w/purchase.

Overall, this Mustang GT/CS is in mostly original condition and does not show any signs of ever being in any accidents or having had any major modifications made to it. It does not appear to have had any major body parts replaced or repaired. Car does not have nor did it originally come with A/C. The original exterior paint is shot and has peeled down to primer in quite a few areas. Body also has a lot of surface rust and some pitting. There is some minimal rust in usual areas although undercarriage has not been checked out thoroughly. All electrical seems to work OK, including headlights, high beam indicator, turn signals and back up lights. The bulb in RH turn signal indicator on hood is burnt out. The odometer appears to show car has over 100k and maybe over 200k miles as it indicates it has over 60k miles on it now which comparing to car’s condition does not appear to be accurate. Also includes original owner’s manual in fair condition which has the original owner’s full name and address as well as that of the dealership where it was purchased from written inside front cover. This Mustang GT/CS seems like a very good candidate for a complete restoration or can be partially restored to look very nice and be driven frequently and/or shown IMHO but again, what do I know.

Here is a link to my full review:

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/obwankanobee/

I've also attached a .pdf version of it as well.

Thanks again to all who give their honest opinions!

Recv'd Marti report, added it to my online page...

Just wanted to let you all know I got the Marti report on this car today. Thanks very much to Nancy w/Marti Auto Works for getting my order to me so darn fast! I've added it to my online report of the car I checked out. Please note that I've blanked out the last four of the VIN to protect the innocent. :wink:

Thanks and am looking forward to your honest opinions!

Take care.

Go here for my online review of this car:

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/obwankanobee/

You didn't say how much the guy was asking for the car, and that makes it tough to say if it's a decent deal or not. Rust is expensive to fix if you can't do it yourself and it seems there is a lot of it. You didn't mention it, but I'd bet money there is also rust at the top of the shock towers. Broken fiberglass can get spendy too, if you can't fix it yourself. Unless it's dirt cheap, you might want to consider a car that's in a lot better shape, unless you've got a few restorations under your belt and can do most of it yourself.

Steve

Hi rvrtrash!

Thanks for your reply. I think the price was posted in or below the title on the quick report I wrote up and posted online. They're asking $10k for it and after checking it out I am planning on starting my offer at $7.5k-$8k. The rust/rot that is in the body seems to be only in the spots mentioned in my findings and I think can be easily repaired by cutting out the infected areas which in all three cases is about the size of a silver dollar, maybe just a bit smaller, and replacing with readily available repair panels. The damage to the fiberglass tail light panel seems minimal and looks like it could be repaired easily as well. I have several contacts involved in auto body locally with most of them also doing restorations and custom work so I'm sure I can get one or more of them to help us out for little to not much. I also live a few miles from NPD's warehouse/office here in Ventura, CA so going there to get anything I need is no problem at all and should save alot on shipping costs. There are also a few other classic Mustang parts and services companies here in Ventura County, CA including Mustangs & More who when I last checked was still owned by one of my old band teachers from high school, Sue Smith, another great local resource. I'm also a very resourceful shopper and a good online researcher having made note of lots of parts dealers, salvage yards and so forth that deal in older Mustangs and shouldn't have too much trouble getting the body work taken care of or locating most of the parts I would need although the car is pretty much complete with the few exceptions made in my report. Plus this site and it's members as well as the folks over at VMF are awesome resources for real world info and experience on these beautiful cars. I know if I do get this one we'll have alot of work to do but I think if I can work a good deal to my liking I'll be happy with it, we'll see. I looked at the shock towers and underneath best I could and didn't notice much more than a little surface rust BTW. I still have to have it's underside looked at to make sure about the torque boxes, floorboards and frame rails but from I could see the undercarriage looked OK with some surface rust of course but I do expect to find some more invasive rust in other places and am just planning on that being a given. It there isn't then hey, I'll sing a lil' song and dance a lil' jig then get back to work on it hee hee hee.

Thanks again for your reply and I do look forward to your and everyone else's thoughts on this deal. I value everyone's opinions here and I will use the responses to help make my decision over the next couple of days.

Please help. Pwease pwease pwease...

Hi all!

I apologize for being a pest but I'd still like to get a few more honest opinions from those of you who have had experience purchasing a classic GT/CS in original condition. It will be greatly appreciated. I've included the link to my online report below as well as attached it to this posting in PDF format. Please note that I've blanked out the last four digits of the VIN and my full name and fax number on the faxed copy of my Marti report for security reasons.

The owner called me today even after we'd agreed that I'd contact him after a few days and he'd hold the car for no more than a week from last Saturday with the refundable deposit I gave him. But his son is anxious to get his money back as he's a bit upset dad is making him sell his car that he really isn't ready for right now. So that's why I'm bothering you all for some opinions. I'm still on the fence on this one as I'd rather have one w/factory A/C and power front disc brakes but this one is still nice and those two items can be added later and I'm just afraid another one that I can afford will not come along anytime soon.

Thanks everyone!

Go here for my online review of this car:

http://members.dslextreme.com/users/obwankanobee/

I'm by far no expert in this field to give out numbers advice.

But my opinion is you need to look at all the things you say need to be replaced and add more to your potential costs on all of the "I think it's this or it might be that" issues. Don't assume it's a no brainer problem, assume it might be something more or find out for sure if it's something more that could cost you more than your budget.

You need to decide what do you want this car to be? Restored to original? Concours, Driver, Restomod,etc ...
What are you willing to put into this car to get where you want it to be.

Granted you can do some labor yourself but there's a strong possiblity that some work will need to be farmed out just for the aggravation and time it will take to do it yourself.

Again- I'm not expert but just my 2 cents. You need to figured out a budget for yourself and assume worse case what all the big and little things will cost to get it to your satisfaction.

Then you might want to think about how much of that part money can I afford now and see what you can get for 14,000 or 15,000 that's a little further along in the resto process.

I'm hoping someone else can help answer whether the price is worth it or not. I can't say for a car in this state.

The steering wheel doesn't appear to be a Ford - maybe a Grant or other aftermarket brand.
The "fuzzy" covering has to go :grin:

Good Luck in whatever you decide
P.S. you didnt' hid the VIN in all places... if you want someone here can see if it's in the registry if you're interested. It's not on the online registry but might be in one of the books - I don't have mine with me right now.

Doh!!!

Hey there Rich!

Thanks alot for your reply man, I really appreciate it. I just realized I left the VIN in the Decoder results! Hahhahhaaaaha! Oh well. Don't matter much anymore now (read on). If you could find out if it's ever been registered and listed in the book I'd appreciate finding out. I looked it up on the online registry over the weekend and didn't see it either.

Yep, I'm into this car alright but not enough to pay what they're asking for it though. I'm was prepared to walk away until I talked to the owner's Dad this afternoon as I had to ignore all his calls until I was done on a job site. That ended up helping me cuz after hearing back from a couple of you here and a bunch more on the VMF I called the guy to tell him that if he had someone coming out w/cash today, like he said in one of his messages, and he was willing to pay what he was asking to just sell it to him and that I appreciated their time and patience w/me and I apologized for wasting their time. He was very cool w/that and said he'd contact the other guy who had already come and gone after looking at it by the time I had called him back. I told him if the guy offered him less than $8k I'd take it after all but just couldn't see paying the full $10k as IMHO it was not worth that in it's current state. He had told this prospective buyer that I had already given him a deposit on it and just wanted to confirm whether I was going to go thru w/it or not then he'd call him back, nice, honest guy. Well, after we hung up I was a bit bummed but got over it quickly thinking I'll just find another 'stang even if it's not a GT/CS and knowing that my search was back on the excitement rushed back in.

Well.... I thought about it for a little while and remembered the guy said he needed a new laptop cuz his nephew leaned on the top of his and damaged the LCD panel on it. He had shown me that he travels locally to do Bible study for his church and really needed a new one so he could do his presentations. So, as luck would have it I have a couple of new Dell Latitude D620s that were purchased a while back for work use and never got used. They've been sitting on a shelf and are new, they just had an XP image loaded on to them and put into their respective carrying bags w/accessories and put on a shelf to collect dust. So with that said/remembered I called him back after telling him to just sell it to someone else and played dumb asking if he had just called me as my cell had showed a call had been missed and I was wondering if it was him. Of course no one really called me so he said it wasn't and I said I was sorry. Then I said "Well, while I have you. I remembered you needed a new laptop for your Bible study, right?" He recalled our prior conversation about that the other day and "Why, yes, I still do." So I proceded to ask if he was willing to cut a deal on his GT/CS and he'd get a new Dell laptop in the process. I started at $7k and he met me at $7.5k and I said that would work fine. The cost of the laptop has already been written off so it worked out for me after all. I'll be sending him a cashier's check for $5k tomorrow and the balance by the week's end as I didn't want to give him the whole thing until I was there to pick it up and deliver his new laptop. He amazingly agreed :icon_ecst and I was happy again! Just as I was hoping he'd come down in price after I'd sent him my full report and want to teach his son a lesson for his impulse buy, HE DID! Woooo hoooooo! God does work in mysterious ways and the POP (power of prayer) is awesome. All I am hoping to do is get my almost 76 yr old Dad a nice Mustang to cruise around in before he can no longer drive. He currently has a '66 coupe that is in complete original condition that I am going to talk him into selling tomorrow morning. It just needs more work than we can do to it and runs and drives OK but it deserves to be taken care of and I think after I show him pics of what he's getting in place of it he'll be OK w/it. If not, it's all mine! Mine I tell you! All mine! But that's only if he will not budge on getting rid of his '66 though cuz I really want him to have this one. We'll see how that goes tomorrow. Wish him luck , hee hee hee.

I'll keep you all updated on how things progress with it and when I have it in me grubby little hands. Thanks again to BroadwayBlue and rvrtrash here for their input and advice, I really appreciate it guys, thank you!

OK, so no more "should I, can I or will I?" from me anymore, so everyone else here can rest assured now. :wink:

Thanks again!