ebay 390 gt/cs has arrived.

[toomanycars]

And what a mess! I remember the seller telling me not to worry,,,, this is a nice car. Well,,, there is nothing nice about this car except that it is a 390 gt/cs and the body is solid!!! Only one spot of rust that is in the lower part of the drivers side fender. The car looks like it was painted outside and they only used 3 feet of masking tape. Most of the chrome is shot. Some one did cut speaker holes in the bottom of the doors, two each. I guess the only way to fix that is to replace them. Headliner is nice and thats about all that is good on the inside.
The engine sounds good, no smoke or scary sounds! I was only able to drive it about 5 miles. It is real hard to shift, it didn't want to stay between the lines and the brakes are not good. But something came over me,, and made me floor it!! That put a smile on my face! Nothing like the sound and feel of a big block with a 4barrel. It does have a 9in rear end, I compared it to my my 289 gt/cs and they are not the same. The 9in has a much larger hump in the housing.
I looked real close at the passenger side shock tower for any sign of any welding. I looked inside and out, very close, and found none. I did find where some one had cut a hole to get to the rear spark plug.
I wish the car had been in better shape, but I got what I got and I am going to make the best of it!!! This is a rare car and is worth the time and money! It is nice to know that every one on this site is here to help. And I am going to need it. If I hurry I can make that reunion you talked about in 2008.
I also want to thank you all for the warm welcome, and the battle some of you fought with you know who!
Thanks, Steve

 

[68gt390]

Steve;
Glad to hear the car arrived. Sorry to hear about it's condition. Keep that smile on your face, it's only going to get bigger. Now at least you have piece of mind knowing what you have and were you'll have to go. The fun begins. You know where we are so let us know if you need help. That's what we are here for. I may have already mentioned but, if not for this site I might very well still be a fish out of water. I'm sure your CS will now get the attention it needs. One more CS brought back from an early grave.

Don :wink:

 

[calspcl]

Steve, as you said it is a rare car, any improvements you make will be worth it! This is a great site with a vast majority of members being very helpfull and knowledgable. Feel free to ask, they will lead you to the correct answers.

Good luck with that BB Gt/CS!

 

[Perkchiro]

Steve, Congrats on your purchase. I know the feeling you have about all that's wrong with the car. I had the same experience when I purchased mine a few years ago. A bit overwhelming at first to say the least. Like others have said, you have a rare piece of history in your posession. Take it one step at a time and feel free to consult those on this website. There's a lot of wisdom and experience here from which I've benefited on many ocassions. Good luck!!!
Steve

 

[390cs68rcode]

the main thing is you have a 390 CS. I would HIGHLY suggest you make a through list of what you want to do BEFORE you start. You can spend a bunch of extra time and money if you have to do things twice. Figure out if you want to use NOS parts as much as possible (highly suggest this) or if you want to go with all repro. The hunt for parts is much funnier when you go the NOS route. If you need help on place to get the good stuff let me know.

 

[6t8-390gt]

Steve,
Congrats on the purchase, sorry to hear you are disappointed. I too was disappointed when I received a car I purchased sight unseen. My disappointment quikly changed as the value increased sharply after the purchase. I heard recently not to worry about spending too much for the purchase of the right car b/c the value is on the rise. In a very short time I think you too will feel you got a bargain.

Danny

 

[hcsstang]

My son purchased a 02 ,390 Rousch sight unseen white with blue stripes. I was suprised at the condition of the car. It didn't have a stone chip on it being white I though that it would. Six speed, three phase.

 

[Mosesatm]

My son purchased a 02 ,390 Rousch sight unseen white with blue stripes. I was suprised at the condition of the car. It didn't have a stone chip on it being white I though that it would. Six speed, three phase.

What is a three phase?

 

[68gt390]

Arlie;
I think he ment a Rousch Stage 3.

Don

 

[Mosesatm]

Thanks Don, that makes a lot more sense.

 

[PFSlim]

Steve

I am glad you took delivery of your car. Keep in mind that there were alot of rusty, needing lots of work, can see the light at the end of the tunnel, cars here on this site before they were restored.

From a guy that had to dig my car out of the grave and shock it back to life, it appears to me that you should be in pretty good shape to make a very nice 390 car. At least, we are all pulling for you.

Ask away the questions. Spend time on the gallery's at this site and get a feel for what other folks did with their car. Sometimes you can see what you need to do right there in the pictures.

Good luck.

Paul

 

[somethingspecial]

Steve, Congrats and welcome to the club!!!!!!!!! My car started as a hacked up drag racer with leopard skin interior. Many many years of work, but she is going to be born again soon, I will post pictures soon, WOW, Tomorrow, 04-05-06 is her 38th B-Day. COOL!!!!! I am restoring her concourse, and would be happy to tell you about my follies of finding NOS parts, and WHO to stay away from. Everyone here are great and have hundreds of years of combined experience and knowledge on these cars. If you have a question, just post it or contact one of us. Good luck Steve. Mike

 

[Mustanglvr]

So Toomanycars, are you gonna give the guy who sold you the car a negative feedback on Ebay?

 

[BroadwayBlue]

Congrats on getting your baby home.

I think many of us found some surprises as we started to take apart our cars.
Site unseen or not.
I was disappointed about a few mis-representations on the car but overall
I got a great deal on it and I'm able to enjoy it as is while I get it back to where I want it to be.

Good Luck and now is when the real fun begins!!!

 

[toomanycars]

So Toomanycars, are you gonna give the guy who sold you the car a negative feedback on Ebay?

No I don't think so.... I think he really thought it was a nice car. He had the car for 11 yrs. Who keeps a car around that long if you didn't think it was nice?? A few of my friends saw it an they thought it was a nice car. They are not car guys, nor did they shell out $36,000. So I think appearance is a matter of opinion and it's kind of hard to give feedback on that.

 

[Midnight Special]

No I don't think so.... I think he really thought it was a nice car. He had the car for 11 yrs. Who keeps a car around that long if you didn't think it was nice?? A few of my friends saw it an they thought it was a nice car. They are not car guys, nor did they shell out $36,000. So I think appearance is a matter of opinion and it's kind of hard to give feedback on that.

...I can agree w/ that. As we've seen here; there are times when bad feedback only brings more bad results. If you felt the guy deliberately tried to shaft you then Yeah - go for the throat! $36K is alot to do based on opinion in any case, so we do have to take some responsibility for not inspecting firsthand. I've been lucky w/ that, but lucky only... The good news is your graceful demeanor will reward you far greater from now on vs creating more bad luck. You're truly among friends now.

P.S. I used to think some of the cars I had many years ago were the absolute greatest! But after spending time w/ this bunch - I wouldn't want to share too many details 'bout them, rather adopt a new standard of preservation & restoration excellence. ;-)

 

[BroadwayBlue]

No I don't think so.... I think he really thought it was a nice car. He had the car for 11 yrs. Who keeps a car around that long if you didn't think it was nice?? A few of my friends saw it an they thought it was a nice car. They are not car guys, nor did they shell out $36,000. So I think appearance is a matter of opinion and it's kind of hard to give feedback on that.

I can relate to that as well. In the case of the previous owner of my car he really felt it was more than it was. I was realistic and don't get me wrong - it's a great car - but I learned that "all original" is often not what you think it is.
To this day he still hates that he had to give the car up. I work with his son and I give him updates now and then and he fills me in on how his Dad is still sulking about the car. But the point being, I know he wasn't trying to screw me and represented the car as best he could and what he knew of it.

In any case - I respect your viewpoints about how you will handle the feedback and all.
There are people out there that are trying to pull one over on you intentionally and those that trying the best they can to represent what they have.

This was my first dip into classic car ownership so I have learned a lot this time around. I even had the car inspected by a 3rd party company. They were accurate in their assesment but still there were some things you don't find out until you start "peeling the onion" as we say in IT. No regrets whatsoever but will handle it differently next time.

As they say ... buyer beware ... we need to look out for ourselves.

 

[PFSlim]

I remember when we bought our car. The guy that sold it to us did not think it was as bad as it was either. However, we had the chance to stand right there and look at the car.

I think two things are clear here. First of all, the seller does not know what we are going to do with the car. How much money we plan to spend on the restoration or what we expect the car to be when we are restoring the car. Some sellers may think the car looks great for a 68. I know our seller was taken back when he first saw the car almost restored. He said "I had no idea you guys were going to make a car this nice". His expectations was that we would just fix a few things, put in a grease covered motor, and drive it. And to be honest, we didn't know either when we first started. We hoped for a okay Cal Spec that would provide reliable transportation and be fun. Once we really got in to it, we made different decisions along the way by saying "that will never do" or "we can't leave that like that".

Second, we sometimes don't know the true condition until we break the car down ourselves and media blast the car. What sometimes looks like surface rust turns out to be a much larger issue.

But this is nothing new to any person who brings a car home and starts a restoration. I would prefer to think that the guy did his best to represent the car and maybe didn't know what we truly expect, would want to see, or what our final expecations of the car will be when completed.

Just my thought.

Paul

 

[Mustanglvr]

Gee MCA, looks like you`ve had that pic for a long time. It looks like a nice car. You should of held onto it.

 

[toomanycars]

Gee MCA, looks like you`ve had that pic for a long time. It looks like a nice car. You should of held onto it.

Rhonda, I can't find where mca sent a picture. I would like to see it if it's the car I bought.
Thanks Steve