horseman54

Looking for opinions. I recently aquired a 69 Mach 1 mostly complete and original but is a total rust bucket. It would need almost everything underneath replaced including the suspension. Should I be looking for another car for a donor or maybe a complete aftermarket frame setup? Are all 68 - 73 suspension parts swappable? Tell me what you would do.

atomsk680

not buy a rust bucket......

you probably would have to switch out suspention in any old car anyway.

horseman54

If I get a donor car does it have to be a 69 or 70? Will a 67 - 68 or a 71 - 73 chassis be the same? Also what about the Mustang II front ends? Has anyone had success in grafting those onto the older body styles?

rwh129

What size engine did it have?
If it had a big block then I'd say do a complete restoration.
It think you need a 69-70 chassis. 67-68 are alittle shorter, 71-73 are alittle longer.
But I could be wrong.

Rench

Check the VIN, No s... Mach 1's are worth it especially if you have a "big" engine. If you have a mig welder and are handy there's plenty of patch panels avaiable to bring it back to life. Just takes ALOT of love. How bad is it? Cowls shot? Can't really "swap chassis" on a mustang. It's a uni-body. Depending on who you talk to, re-bodies are somewhat contraversial as far as maintaing value. 71-73 wont work at all. 67-70 has possibilities but you lose the all important vin. If you're not sure how to decode the VIN let me know................

atomsk680

No.... only 69-70 will work, as said before, 67-68 are shorter, and 71-73 are longer, and those r completely different styles too. i believe Mustang II front end will work, but not too sure. and also said before, mustangs are unibodies.

Rench

Just depends on how creative you are with "grafting"....Patch panels are usually the best way to go...........

horseman54

It is a 351 W engine and appears to be all original. The car had set in a barn lot for over 20 years. When we put it on the trailer the front suspension collapsed. I would like to find another body to take parts from. If anyone knows of any in the midwest area let me know.

THUMPIN455

Mustang II is completely different, very little if anything interchanges other than drivetrain parts. Some parts interchange through the years, others dont. It depends on what you need, finding out why the front end collapsed will be the first priority, is it something simple or are the spring towers rusted out. Thats what you need to know.

How much rust is alot of rust to you? Repairing it can get expensive fast, if you dont mind learning and buying some tools, you can do all the underside stuff. I would leave the 1/4 panels and patches on doors to a pro, but floors, trunks, wheel wells, and the like are fair game. 69-70 are the most expensive to restore from what I have read on here, doing the work yourself may save you some $$ but could cost you your sanity or a few brain cells, how ever you want to look at it.

I know of a 71 fastback that is getting almost every piece replaced, the ones not being replaced are being patched. Taking it completely down to the bare minimum to find all the rust isnt much fun, getting the rust off everything is even less fun. Plus it takes up ALOT of space. If its as rusty or worse then the 71 consider comercial paint removal, such as chemical or sand/soda blasting.

This is pretty bad rust, most people would have scrapped it. It still needs more paint, rust, and undercoating removed. If its not this bad, remember it could always be worse, and usually you just have to remove some parts to find worse.

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atomsk680

my fault, i misread, i thought he was talking about suspension