NEED Some Help Please

I am going to look at a 68 CS that needs to be restored. The body is "excellent" (arent they all) but I need to know some of the question I should not leave without asking. I am going to question things such as mileage, previous owners, clear title, options, tranny, receipts for work done?, look to see what kind of carb and those types of questions. But this is for my son and husband to do as a project that we are thinkin they will take their time on and spend at least a couple years redoing things to their original condition it they have been changed so the boy can be real COOL on Friday and Sat nights. What should I not forget to ask?:icon_pani

See already forgot to ask: What is the inside of this vehicle is basically empty, what can we look at as far as cost to restore or do you need to know what options it had and what was there originally. The reason I ask is cause the buyer is impressing the fact that it has got a body you can go over with a fine tooth comb or a magnifying glass and not find a blemish however he keeps saying it needs an interior, which as far as I can tell can mean a whole heck of alot, of course he is practically giving it away so if the Boss 302 and body are what he says they are then possibly it could be a good deal

If you want a real CS

Get a marti report!
And someone correct me if I'm wrong- but I don't think there were any CS's with the Boss 302.
Now all you purist GT/CS people turn away and don't look- but are you going to restomod the car or go for totally stock? Maybe somewhere in between? If you are going other than stock, keep all the pieces! Do not throw them out- they can be worth a lot!
You should know that the Mustang GT/CS is one of the cars you should not permanently modify in any way if you hope to resell, or enter into any concours type of show.
Happy CS'ing - this site is great for opinions, questions, and answers!
T

...As you're going to look at it - please give us the VIN number and door tag info, plus any photos for starters. We can at least determine what powertrain, interior, colors, etc... the car was produced with. The Marti report will verify if it is a true GT/CS. Once you jot down the VIN#, visit: www.martiautoworks.com and order a basic report based on that number. You may request they fax it to you as opposed to waiting 2-weeks or so...

By Boss 302, do you mean that it the engine is a 302?

-RJ

I advise everyone to pour a glass of water into the cowls (forward of the windshield) and watch where the water runs out. It should run out @ the bottom rear area of the front fenders. If the water runs out INSIDE the car, the cowl vent(s) have rusted through. Repairable, but a BIG job.
Since the interior is removed, check the condition of the floor pans for signs of rust. Again, repairable but a fair size job requiring cutting & welding. If the floor pans ARE rusted look very closely at the frame & torque boxes (a large metal panel that supports the frame).
Where are you located? Perhaps a C/S owner is nearby to assist you in evaluating the car. A MARTI Report is a MUST to authenticate it as a C/S. Hope this helps.

Neil Hoppe

PS- Interiors are no big deal. New/used/repro parts are easily available.

Minor repairs or major restoration?

As mentioned several times above, make sure that you know what you are buying first, get a Marti report on it, and have a hard look at it's current overall condition. If you don't have enough automotive mechanical knowledge to evaluate it yourselves, then take someone with you that is qualified to advise you on the purchase of the vehicle. Determine if it needs minor repairs or a major restoration job. Decoding the VIN and dataplate will help you to determine the car's eventual value as a restored vehicle too.
Just our two cents worth, but our "S" code GT/CS is still in pieces as I write this, and is off the road from what started out as a "simple" task of replacing the 40 year old wiring harness with a brand new harness. When we started working on our car the external condition was really quite good, and it was a really decent "10 footer" to the average eye. As we disassembled the interior of the car to do the wiring job though we found a LARGE number of other unrelated mechanical problems, with some parts missing, badly worn or broken, or poorly repaired by the previous owners over the years. We also eventually found out that 40 years of progressive rust had destroyed the front frame rails, torque boxes, and front floorpans exactly as mentioned in one of the responses above.
At this point we are spending most of our weekends in the driveway fixing and replacing parts that we hadn't really planned on having to spend money on when I bought this car. In the past two months or so the parts and labour costs have now skyrocketed to about $8,000.00 and we're still not quite finished yet! On the other hand, owning and restoring a car such as this IS a labour of love, and this particular car has great sentimental value to my wife and I since it was used as our wedding car nine years ago. In addition, I bought this car from my very best friend and hunting partner of many years who had owned the car for the past 10 years. We just lost him to cancer this week after many months of his battling the disease. At this point, the actual dollar value of what I've spent to restore this car has not become terribly important to me anymore, although I'm sure we could have spent that money on some other important things instead. The value this car will now have to us will be mostly sentimental, but it will also have a relatively high monetary value even though we don't plan to sell it until old age and senility have taken their toll on us both!
You just have to make a personal decision as to whether a project car such as the one you are considering will be worth the money spent after it is completed from a purely monetary point of view, or if it has a much higher value to you as a project for your husband and son to work on together. A lifetime of family memories from doing such a joint project might have a much higher value in the end than a few thousand dollars spent on the parts needed to restore an old car.
As my friend Terry always used to tell me: "It's just money, spend it and then go out and make some more!" I plan to do exactly that with this wonderful car of ours and then we will enjoy it thoroughly whenever my wife and I take it out for weekend drives or to local "show and shine" events.
I hope the car you are considering turns out to be everything that you are hoping for .....
Please keep us posted as to how it all comes out in the end.