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nymustang's first 1965 fastback

N

nymustang

Member
So I picked up this fastback for pretty cheap last weekend. My plan is to clean it up, do some minor work and have it gone by mid-July. Keep me to that date, I need this car gone! Its a typical northeast car. Rusty cowl, floors and rear frame rails (maybe only pass side). Its missing most of the front end sheet metal, but I have a line on some decent stuff I can put on it. Its a T code that has has the suspension swapped out to 5 lug. Drums all around and I have not looked at the rear yet but undoubtedly its an open 8". The buck tag decodes as: Body 63A standard interior fastback, Color D Dynasty Green, Trim 26 black, black, Date 24B Feb 24th, DSO 13 New York. 6cyl C4. Nothing all that special but the car is in decent enough shape that it will make a good project for someone (starting with me!). It has been off the road since 1982, same year I was born and somewhere before that the interior was swapped out to a pony interior. I've been working on a list of what I want to do to get the best bang for my buck. I will be fixing the rear frame because I think people get a little scared off when they see a leaf sticking through the trunk. I'll also swap out the 6 for the shortblock 302 that came with the car. Install some sheet metal, replace seat tracks. Give it good cleaning and hopefully thats about it. We will see if I can control myself. And now what you all want; peektures!


Lots of surface rust but surprisingly solid quarter and door given what they look like.


You can't see but it needs rear leafs, but I doubt I'll do that. Didn't someone need dearched springs??


Holey Floor Batman!


Inner and outer rockers are actually not bad


Oooh Pony seats


I folded it up, now I can't seem to fold it down...


Oh yeah it needs a battery apron. Duh!


Good front frames though


Factory writing! Wheres Charles Turner?


Ye Olde I6


There was a critter living under here. Thankfully he was gone when I pulled the seat.


Crap cleaned out, more rust.. doh!


Looking through the trap door into the trunk. Yep, that's going to have to be addressed.


Other side, less bad.

And that's all I got for now. Time to order some metal!
 
I'm a bit confused on your goal. You're just flipping it for a profit?

If you have the skill and time, all new floors and rail(s) will be your best investment to turn the highest profit. I guess it really comes down to what you paid for it and what you want to get out of it.

That car needs a lot of work to make it viable for at least 80% of the buyers out there. Unless you do all that metal work that car is not going to bring much, honestly. You may think that door and quarter aren't so bad but that rust looks pretty deep. What do the inner door bottoms look like? Around the front and rear glass?

On the positive side it does have what looks like a complete fold-down rear seat!
 
Let me clarify. I agreed to buy this one with the intention of keeping it and restoring it however another better (solid) fastback fell into my lap soon after. That one is arriving mid-July/early Aug so it gives me a little time to play with this one until it needs to go. Ideally I'd like to make a few bucks on it, but I'll be happy to break even while keeping myself amused for 2 months. I am under no impression that this car is a gold mine. Its rusty and needs a lot of work. I just got rid of my coupe that I had for 10 years and i know how much metal I replaced on that car. I'm going to do what I can with it while I have it then send it off to make room for the next one. If I have the time, I might attempt floors but life is busy right now so we will see.

Oh and it does have a complete fold down rear seat. Possibly the best part of the car! :pbj
 
Looks like a tall order for 2 months. Good luck with it, and welcome to club fastback! What's the July/Aug car like?
 
If I were you I wouldn't do anything to it other than clean it up as much as you can... leave the surface rust exposed so the next owner can truly see what they are getting. Power wash the engine compartment and undercarriage. Cut out any rusty area that have jagged edges, polish the glass, clean the grime out of the interior, polish the trim etc... ... If you want to spend time on it detail things like the dash or seat bottoms... stuff that comes off easy and won't consume more than a weekend at a time. For the rear frame rail, just jury rig something like a piece of square tubing to connect the rear leaf to so it makes it easier to roll around, but with only 6-8 weeks to work on it your probably not going to do the next owner any favors by starting something you might not be able to finish right. Doing frame rails will take some time to do and will require lots of things to come apart that you probably want to keep off while the rest of the metalwork gets done. Make it as clean and presentable as you can, and don't overstate just how good it really is when you sell it.
If you do decide to do any metalwork, maybe replace the right front apron... seems like a cheap and easy enough project.

I keep thinking about dustyrelics... built that beautiful gt500 clone only to sell it after a years worth of hard work. I don't know what he got for it, but after that it seemed like his future sales were cars he bought, cleaned up enough to show what it could be, and sold it within a week or two. I think you just need to present it in a manner that captures the buyer imagination... they will overlook some of the big stuff. Being open and truthful will get you what it's worth. Who knows, the buyer might just want it as a parts car. so just make the parts look good.
 
Thanks for all the good advice. It doesn't have a title but that is because its a new york car and they don't issue titles for cars that old. I do have all the important paperwork for the transferable registration though so registering it shouldn't be an issue.
 
A quick update on how the last few weeks have gone. Life schedule is ruining car schedule.... I have had one thing or another to deal with almost every weekend severely cutting nto Mustang time. There's no way I'm making my Mid-July deadline. I think I knew that was unrealistic but i try to push myself. I also found that this poor car is so much worse than I thought. (deep down I had a feeling) So it took me a while, but I managed to climb through the trap door and open up the trunk. A few things I found: its really rusty back there, I'm having both rear framerail extensions replaced along with the rear cross member. Also I found that is appears the car was likely hit in the pass side rear. The back half of the quarter and the last foot or so of of tail light panel have been replaced with parts from a donor car. Whoever did the work did a terrible job. Outer wheel well lying on top of original wheel well, the whole assembly pop-riveted to the car and covered with mucho bondo. The gas tank also seems to have been a structural element back there. Once I removed it to gain access to the frames, the pass side replacement parts have qile a bit of wiggle to them. Ugh. I do wish I could have seen into the trunk before purchasing this car, but now its deal with the situation at hand. The car is off to the welder this weekend and I have a feeling he's going to tell me we need to address the quarter and tail light panel. Update to follow after he gets a good look at it. All in all I'm learning a lot and I'm still confident that I won't at least lose money on this car but in no way do I think I will be making any. I am scheduled to pick up the other FB the last weekend in July so it looks like I'm going to be a 2- Mustang owner for a short while. Pics to follow when I have some real progress to report.
 
Sorry to hear about all the surprises but damn dude, sounds like your having fun getting to know the car.
 
yeah Abe, I'm having a really good time with it and hey, something would be wrong if this hobby didn't come with surprises! :censored
 
Thought I'd give a quick update. This fastback went off to its new home last week. It took me way longer than I planned (doesn't it always) but it worked out well. I got the rear frame rail extensions and trunk floors replaced making for a much more solid project. The offer to buy came on a Sunday and I hadn't swapped the engines yet so it made for an interesting few evenings after work trying to scramble and pull it all together. I found out that yes you can install a 302 and C4 alone, but an extra helper would have made it way easier! And now for the requisite pics (some of you may have seen these if you peruse various classifieds)

New trunk floors and rear rails


With front end sheet metal attached


Came out pretty good. Car went to a nice guy up in Rhode Island. He was really excited to tear into her and put her back together. Now I have space and money to get started on my other fastback project. I guess I'll have to start another thread for that one.
 
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