New here, looking for advice on best way to sell my dad's project fastback

whimsical

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Jul 19, 2021
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Looks like a great forum here!

I've got a tough job of selling my dad's car collection for my mom as his his Alzheimer's is rapidly progressing.

My dad bought this A code 65 FB in the early 80's. It was wrecked in the front in the 70's with just 38k original miles. It turned into a father son project in the late 90's. It started to go the direction of roadrace car, but never got finished. It has sat in a climate controlled shop for 20 years.

As it sits the body is in PPG primer ready for finish paint, but the front end is cut off at the torque boxes in preparation for a tube chassis and the rear floor pans are removed/modified for the rear suspension. The dash and rear interior panels are nicely restored and painted in the correct black. The backhalf is mocked up, but unfinished. Some heavy duty work remains to make it a race chassis or it could go back to somewhat original still. All interior, trim and bits are there. None of the original 289, auto trans or 8" rear axle remain. Those parts were sold long ago.

For powertrain there is a stroked, injected, full roller dry sump 345" small block based on a motorsports iron block with the intention of forced induction and sustained high RPM. It's built for 8000 RPM shifts. This longblock is mated to a rebuilt toploader 4 speed. Iirc the trans was originally from a 67.

Would it make sense to try to sell this as a package or should I sell the car shell and drivetrain separately?

Any idea what to value the modified fastback shell at if sold by itself?

Thanks for any recommendations!
 
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A modified unibody makes a shell less valuable...especially one that is not finished and essentially without any type of frame rails up front. From the perspective of someone building a road-race type car based on a 66 fastback body, its going to be about the same for them to start with an old coupe in decent shape and convert it to a fastback as it would be to essentially replace the entire floor and frame-rails of a real fastback and get it back to stock-ish, though all of that is going to depend on exactly the type of suspension they plan on using. No, your market is going to be someone interested in restoring a real fastback...you would need to price it something similar(maybe slightly higher) to a rusted fastback shell...since its close to the same amount of work to restore it to what it should be. I would sell the drivetrain separately though unless someone was interested in purchasing them together. The actual price you are able to get for the project is going to depend on your local market though. Remember...someone can buy a new Dynacorn shell for $20,000 retail cost, so to make it worth it to restore an old fastback, the cost of the shell + the parts + labor required to get back to that stage of completion needs to be at least under that mark...originality is only worth so much these days.
 
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A modified unibody makes a shell less valuable...especially one that is not finished and essentially without any type of frame rails up front. From the perspective of someone building a road-race type car based on a 66 fastback body, its going to be about the same for them to start with an old coupe in decent shape and convert it to a fastback as it would be to essentially replace the entire floor and frame-rails of a real fastback and get it back to stock-ish, though all of that is going to depend on exactly the type of suspension they plan on using. No, your market is going to be someone interested in restoring a real fastback...you would need to price it something similar(maybe slightly higher) to a rusted fastback shell...since its close to the same amount of work to restore it to what it should be. I would sell the drivetrain separately though unless someone was interested in purchasing them together. The actual price you are able to get for the project is going to depend on your local market though. Remember...someone can buy a new Dynacorn shell for $20,000 retail cost, so to make it worth it to restore an old fastback, the cost of the shell + the parts + labor required to get back to that stage of completion needs to be at least under that mark...originality is only worth so much these days.
That makes really good sense. Knowing you can buy a new fastback shell for $20k sets a firm cap on the value.
 
You should be the one buying it from your dads estate

I thought a lot about what I would like to keep. My dad has a few other cars and projects. One of the cars is a 69 AMX my dad ordered new. I have lots of memories riding in that car as a little kid and it's pretty rare. Maybe not all that valuable, but it is one of 200 cars. Because of the care situation with my dad I need to buy anything I would like to have at market value from the estate. So for me, buying the AMX to keep it in the family is important. The Mustang does not have the same kind of attachment for me. I also have a nice old Ford Highboy 4x4 which I have owned for 20 years. I am very attached to that truck so keeping the AMX and my old truck safe and well cared for is about the limit of my resources/ garage space.
 
It is probably worth 25k in pieces
At least that is what I'd want out of it.
Fastbacks rare 65's arguably the best most welded heaviest ones made. Don't expect much out of the bored stroked

Very few people would pay 25k for a fastback in that condition:


I mean, I could go buy this right now for 27k(if I had the spare money and a desire for a fastback). When you are talking that type of money, traveling to another part of the country to pick it up is trivial.


Then you see things in this price range($8000) all the time that require a "full restoration" which is a good deal more work than what the OP is talking about(floors and quarters really don't take that long to do) but the cost reflects that.

If someone was just looking for a fastback body to build a clone, they would be better off buying something like this:


$3800 for a fiberglass body to put on whatever chassis you wanted(though I think these guys only offer the 67-68 style)

When I see a rustbucket shell with an asking price of $20,000 I just laugh....the only way that is worth it is if its a rare car(at the very least a a true GT). I think when one of those sells its simply because the buyer has not done their research beforehand as to the options...the majority of people classic mustangs are not building concours cars...they are building something that looks like a classic mustang with some amount of more modern updates(myself included).
 
Very few people would pay 25k for a fastback in that condition:


I mean, I could go buy this right now for 27k(if I had the spare money and a desire for a fastback). When you are talking that type of money, traveling to another part of the country to pick it up is trivial.


Then you see things in this price range($8000) all the time that require a "full restoration" which is a good deal more work than what the OP is talking about(floors and quarters really don't take that long to do) but the cost reflects that.

If someone was just looking for a fastback body to build a clone, they would be better off buying something like this:


$3800 for a fiberglass body to put on whatever chassis you wanted(though I think these guys only offer the 67-68 style)

When I see a rustbucket shell with an asking price of $20,000 I just laugh....the only way that is worth it is if its a rare car(at the very least a a true GT). I think when one of those sells its simply because the buyer has not done their research beforehand as to the options...the majority of people classic mustangs are not building concours cars...they are building something that looks like a classic mustang with some amount of more modern updates(myself included).

Thanks for your feedback!

Do you think the car shell (body, doors, trunk, hood, fenders, grill, new bumpers, etc) with complete perfect black interior and a clear title is worth maybe $10k as package to the right buyer? It's more than just a bare shell. It's a complete body and interior.

I'd prefer to sell the car as one lot of parts. There are other cars in pieces to deal with as well, so getting a fair price while minimizing the number of trips I have to make to complete the deals is a consideration.

I know there's about $20k in 2001 dollars into the motor and trans. I assembled the engine and trans and paid for those out of my own pocket. I don't expect to get much out of them, maybe $5k or so. I'm just not interested in that stuff anymore. I've raced enough and broken enough parts where I'm good now lol.
 
Thanks for your feedback!

Do you think the car shell (body, doors, trunk, hood, fenders, grill, new bumpers, etc) with complete perfect black interior and a clear title is worth maybe $10k as package to the right buyer? It's more than just a bare shell. It's a complete body and interior.

I'd prefer to sell the car as one lot of parts. There are other cars in pieces to deal with as well, so getting a fair price while minimizing the number of trips I have to make to complete the deals is a consideration.

I know there's about $20k in 2001 dollars into the motor and trans. I assembled the engine and trans and paid for those out of my own pocket. I don't expect to get much out of them, maybe $5k or so. I'm just not interested in that stuff anymore. I've raced enough and broken enough parts where I'm good now lol.

I would say it is(assuming the body isn't rotted away)...or at least that you could probably get that for it based on some of the other listings I have seen.

A new front frame-rail+shock tower+fender apron assembly is $600 per side:


A new one-piece floor pan is $500-ish, add in rear frame rails, trunk floor pieces, radiator support, strut rod braces, and whatever other misc pieces I am forgetting and you are probably sitting at $3000-ish in metal that needs to be replaced. Installed by a body shop the cost will come out right about the same as a new Dynacorn body...but with a full interior and a good portion of it is an original car. Plus whatever other pieces you have(hood, fenders, doors, etc). The key is finding the right buyer able to take on a project of that size.
 
There's no rust at all. It was a California car and it hasn't been outside in 50 years.

I'll get some pictures and take another look at what's missing from the floor pan. I know the front is completely cut off at the firewall, but the rear is mostly there, there's just a couple slices through the floor to incorporate the new frame rails and I know the trunk floor is gone.
 
Based on your description, I would think you are in the 10-15k for everything except engine and trans. I'd sell those separately.

You might also post up on Vintage Mustang Forums (different, specific forum). Lots of builders there, would probably get more interest.

You need a lot of pictures to get a real value.