Picked up this ‘68 Mustang last week for $5600. It runs, but needs some refreshing to be safely road worthy. Torque box on the drivers side is rusted, but not through to the floor. Body is very rust free, and the interior is 90%. Do I wish it was a fastback? Sure, but you can’t even get in a fastback she’ll sitting in a farmers field for decades for under $10k, it seems.

Plan is to get the steering, suspension, and brakes up to par and drive it around this summer/fall. Next winter, I’ll get the minor rust areas repaired. I’m in no hurry, though, so if it takes longer to get some stuff done, so be it.

Specs, originally a C code (289) car, that supposedly has a 302 in it now. C4 transmission with a B&M Quicksilver shifter, everything electrical works, car has been sitting in a garage for the past 20 years (last road registration was in 2001). It’s an older, late 80s restoration that someone really loved at some point. The respray on it is very thorough, and given the lack of interior rot, it was thankfully preserved in a garage.

Anyway, here it is...

Nice looking car. How's the underside?

I'm finally going to jack the car up and get to cleaning. I'll take some underside pictures once that starts. torque box/floor support rail will need repair. The rest appeared solid, but I'll find out for sure soon.

That is awesome! Looks like it's in really good shape from the pics. I always liked this style over the fastbacks.

Since I’m here, I’ve managed to get a few things done on the Mustang. Swapped the front drums for a KH disc setup. Refreshed all of the hard brake lines, new master. I left the rear drums, but replaced all of components. While I did the brakes, I replaced the front steering components, tie rod ends, pitman, idler arms.

Replaced the Centerline wheels and Cooper Cobra with some 15” Magnum 500s and BFGs. It still needs suspension and a steering box rebuild. I’m hoping to have this ready to be a summer daily driver this year.

Oh that looks good. We need to do a meet this summer.

Mustang update. One day pulling out of the garage, it decided it didn't like turning anymore. I installed a Flaming River manual steering box to fix that issue. I also installed a new pitman arm and rag joint since I was already taking it all apart. It was simple and everything disassembled easily. The car was also missing seatbelts (boo!) but I found the rear ones tucked under the rear seat (yeah!) but they were nasty, painted over, goopy, etc (boo!). So, I ordered new ones and installed those yesterday. I also ordered a set of 3 point belts for the front seats, they'll be here next week. The car is a factory 3 point seat belt car, so the new ones will hopefully just bolt in with minimal effort.

I'm purposely limiting what I am doing mechanically until I pull the drivetrain out next winter. I've been driving it at least weekly, but just around the local area. With nicer weather, I do a few loops of the neighborhood a little more frequently. Eventually, I'll give it a go going a little bit more of a distance. It runs strong (it's in better tune than the Cougar, but I should probably still do a minor tune up), shifts ok (previous owner said transmission was an issue, but I really think he didn't know how to operate the B&M shifter. It was also overfilled when I got it), stops ok (i need to do another bleed and adjust the proportioning valve). It should fit the bill this summer as a neighborhood cruiser, so that's good.

It does need a full suspension replacement. And some rust repair, and some chassis stiffening, and...well, we'll see. I'm not going to go crazy with it until I know it's something I plan to really keep.