68 Torino Fastback, should I buy

Once again I humbly seek your best advice. I looked at a 68 Torino Fastback GT on Saturday. 302, C4, Dark Green Metallic, black interior.

It was in nice, heated roomy indoor storage so I was able to crawl all over it.

Mechanically, I only heard it run, but it started right up and ran very smooth. It is currently licensed and the owner says he drove it until winter set in. He has only owned it since last spring. He put a rebuilt trans in it and it leaks ATF badly. He thinks he knows what he did wrong, but has not had time to correct it.

The body appears solid all over. The only rust I could find was a thin coating on the bottoms of the doors and on the bottom of the rear bumper. There is a crack in the paint in front of the driverside rear wheel that I think is showing me some reapir work. The pain is original color, but not original. Where it is chipped, light blue paint is visible, so this is at least its third paint job. The windshield is cracked.

The interior is worn, but serviceable. It has buckets and a console, but the buckets are not original. The seats were mounted by drilling through the floor pans and running bolts down through, so there are eight big nuts under the car where they shouldn't be.

The door tag codes check out that it is a real GT.

He listed it at $3500. I never mentioned price and he said he would take $3000.

I really like this car and I can afford it, but I want a reality check from you guys. What do you think?


[addsig]

If it runs drives and is not full of Bondo, it sounds like a fair price. if you like that body style buy it.

What do you mean by a thin coating of rust?
[addsig]

dragman64, I struggled for how to put it. There is rust there, but has more area that is not rusted than is. What is there is not crusted and thick. It looks to my inexerieced eye like it would sand off. I hope I am making sense. If not, ask me more questions or teach me some more about rust.

1970galaxie, is there a good way to spot bondo through paint? It looks solid to me, but my x-ray vision hasn't worked for years.

Thanks.

_________________
Looking to buy a 66 - 67 Fairlane
Right now a Fordmuscle wannabe

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Tim1859 on 2/26/02 3:06am ]</font>

I have seen alot of guys use magnets to pick out "bondo bucket" cars?


[addsig]

Is it just surface rust, like the paint had been removed at one time? Or are there bubbles under the paint?
[addsig]

Sounds nice, I would check the floor around the seats very carefully. Does the console fit proper, is it floor shift or column. If its column, it was a bench seat car and the guy put in the buckets so I would check the seat holes, not usually a problem, but cracks can start. Not safe. If the car is straight and real good shape, it is worth 3K, hows the trunk, rocker panels and torgue boxes, they rust there badly, and those parts are available new. Good luck deciding.

Rick
[addsig]

Sounds like a pretty good car. Price is good enough that you can stick a couple grand in it and still make out OK. Oh yeah, I like the color[img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_smile.gif[/img]. Good luck on your choice.
[addsig]

Well, it took me a while, but today I decided definitely not to buy this one. I took a more experienced friend with me and he showed me flaws I had missed, chiefly a lot of bondo in the quarters. The owner only owned the car since last spring. I just couldn't shake the feeling that he got into the project and found it to be worse than he thought, so he is looking to dump it on someone else. On to the next one...
[addsig]

Very possible that is the case. Always beware unless it is a trusted/known source from which the car is coming from. Too bad you aren't interrested in my 53,000 mile '65 Fairlane wagon w/351W. It has to be the ugliest body style Fairlane ever made and I need to sell it to finish my solid roller aluminum head 466 for my '68 Falcon wagon. Look in the Ford Trader or Classic Ford Trader national issue. There are usually very nice Fairlanes/Torinos in there and some at great prices. E-bay is a gamble not worth taking when it comes to old cars.
[addsig]