I think this would be beneficial to many prospective classic mustang owners that do their research... What do you look for when you go car shopping for a project? I'm talking about, where are trouble points? Where is a classic most likely to rust through? What is the first place to rust?

Something that would help me personally would be for yall to rate this car...

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...38832&rd=1

I see that there is some rust on the rear, but what do you think?

 

I can tell you to not make the mistake I made. Do not assume that taking the car to a local auto shop for a "pre-buy inspection" means you don't need to look at the car very hard yourself first....even if you specifically ask them to check the floor pans, etc. I made the mistake of thinking they would get it on the lift and check so I don't need to show up at the seller's house with a floor jack and set of jack stands.

The local shop told me "it looks to be in good shape for a car that age with a little rust in the usual spots"....guess they missed the holes in the front floor pans? I told them specifically to check the pans before I dropped the car off and specifically asked them about it several times after they looked at the car. They told me about the need for front suspension work and a brake job but I had already picked up on that via a test drive.

My fault really for assuming they had a lift and were even remotely competent.

My advice is look very closely at the floor pans. In particular where the front pans meet the toe boards.

If you have the time, it would be worth it to remove the few screws that need to come out and pull the carpet back on the front floor boards and the back seat on my '66 Coupe can be taken out in about three minutes to have a good look at the back pans. I would check the floor by looking at it from both the top side and bottom side if at all possible.

 

That could be a great car if it stays below $1500. Or it could turn out to be a royal PITA. Wihtout inspecting the car yourself, crawling all over/under it, it's impossible to guess on the condition. The seller states solid floors, etc., but 99% of the time this changes to "well, for a 40 year old car they are pretty solid, there's only a few holes".

With classic Mustangs on eBay, it's always a buyer beware situation.

Good Luck!
Dave

 

Of course, I would never buy something like that off ebay with out looking. I was thinking the same thing about the price. Should I look for anything in particular when inspecting it?

 

crawl underneath look for rust where the front floorpans meet the fire wall. Thats the most common place and is a sign youll need to repair the cowl also.