I am currently restoring the Mustang. The body is no good and neither is the interior. The motor was rebuilt 12 years ago, but they only put 500 miles on it since. It has a 4-speed with a Hurst shifter.
This car has some serious power. She will probably do 130 mph at the least. She probably could peel rubber for 150 ft. I call it Eleanor. Please give some comments on what color I should paint it, yellow with black stripes or red with black stripes. Be serious please. Amazingly, I paid $1500 for it. The 351 is the biggest engine you could get in that car in 1973.
"Amazingly" you paid $1500 for a rusted out Mustang with a rotten interior?
Must be a real letdown from the Aston Martin DB5 you (say) you owned before.
What color should you paint it? How about the pinkish gray color of bondo?-- won't have to use as much paint that way.
And how would you know whether "Eleanor" would do 130 or lay any rubber, since you haven't put any miles on "her" since 2001 when you (say) you got "it"
Actually, I drove the car a little bit. Sorry if I didn't put the exact mileage. My DB5 was a piece of junk. It only did 75 mph. It had though 250,000 miles. My Mustang would whoop it in a drag.
What do you mean when you say the body is "bad"? Rusty, damaged, or both?
Fords from the '70s are notorious rusters. If the rust has gotten to the point where there is structural damage, it may not be worth the cost to make it safe to drive.
Drivable '73 (nonconvertible) Mustangs are going for $2500-$3500 on autotrader.com, a more reliable indicator of a car's current value than some book price.
I needed thing like fenders and quarter panels. I found some of these parts used. The total cost of parts is about$2000. Have you checked the good condition cars. They are worth $10 to $15,000.
Steven, I want to know if 1973 Ford Mustangs are worth restoring. The owner obviously thinks so, but the other ones didn't. I definently think they are. What about you?
A 73 mustang should not be restored if you are doing it soley as a way of making money. There are numerous cars that could make you more money if properly restored, a 69 mustang for example. Having said that a 73 mustang would be a head turner, and properly restored would be a fantastic car to drive and to own and its value would increase to make a small profit if you wanted to move on to something else. In my lay opinion anyway.
This car sounds awesome, or at least sounds like it'll be awesome... I always love to see restoration of older cars, cause they have a generally better look to them than the new ones... the 60's had the best car shape, and I hope I be like you and restore one myself.
As for the colour of your car, I'm thinking that yellow doesn't suit it's style very well, plus when it gets dirty, it gets ugly.. having it red with black stripes is too common looking.. if you want to achieve like a cool low rider pimped out look type thing, I'd make the base of the car either black, or a dark blue, and add 2 yellow stripes... ;-)
Anyways, good luck with the car, treat it right.. and you might wanna rethink the name.. try to get creative eh?
I'll just call it my car. No I am not restoring it for money. I want it just to be cool to drive. For colors, a lot of colors simply made the car look huge and bulky. Where I live, there are no yellow cars around so it would look cool. See guy who wrote first, they are worth restoring.