I'm possibly looking into buying my first roller car. It's a Black 1979 Mustang Hatchback ex 5.0 5-speed car. The car's $100 so i'm not expecting a perfect car at all but the guy said the body was in great shape and it has a full interior that looks pretty good. I was wanting to know what things I should check before I decide to buy the car. The things i'm planning on checking are for rustholes, and to see if it's ever been wrecked. I was also wondering what motor I should go with. I found a 1978 351W and a rebuilt C4 transmission that I'd like to buy I just don't know if you have to modify the car in any way to get that motor in. Would a 302 be easier to build? It's gonna be a tight budget car, pretty much thrown together so that I can play with it on the street and strip as well. Thanks for any info you can give me.

 

the 351 only requires different brackets for power steering,and maybe the accessory bracket (for alt.,tensionor,and smog pump)351 headers in fox body. Will it be a carb. or efi set up? You will have Torque over the 5.0L. With a mild cam,induction system(carb. or efi) and gear change,will have a nice package! Good luck!!

 

sounds good to me, a 351 is the same block as 302, so your fine there. look at the core support and frame rails. also the floorpans (check from bottom and top) anything else is no big deal really, surface rust ont he body is ez fix. also check the trunk area.

 

for a $100 its worth it no matter how you cut it but just check the floor pand and support ails and look into tieing up the unibody

 

the 351 has a higher deck hieght. but is still very easy to drop in a fox just a set of 351 headers and bam it goes right in

a 8.8 rear might not be a bad idea to drop in it either back in 79 the v8 cars (i say v8 because a lot of them where only 255 cid) didn't put out much power so the 7.5 was used unitl like 83 also when you have it tore down ;you might want ot swap fornt ends if you use a 87-93 kmember that bolts right up it will make some things a little easier they are the same for those year v8 or 4 cyl so just get one the junk yards are full of 4cyl cars.