09-29-2014, 09:40 AM
Here's the deal...
I bought this Mach with the intentions of bringing it back to its original glory over the winter. It was available after having been stored(in a barn) since 1977. Story goes it got parked due to trans problems. Trans was out of it and not going to be use able so I found a numbers matching(well date correct) donor however out of a full size car, installed that along with a shorter driveshaft, new gas tank, fuel lines, brake lines, brakes all around, oil pan,valve cover, tans pan gaskets, starter, and filters, & fluids . Guess what...it starts, runs, goes down the road, stops and even does burnouts all very well.
Now I took it to a three day swap meet and car for sale corral local to me this weekend to offer it up as is and see what would happen. I got a bunch of low ball offers, a few for 15, couple for 16, and one for 17K. My number is 18,500. The over whelming consensus was NOT to paint it, which is what I planned on doing. I heard a lot of "they are only original once", "it took 44 years for it to look like this, don't change it now" and "if you paint it you have the same grabber blue Mach as everyone else".
SO, to paint or not to paint?
In my mind it is to far gone to not redo it. SO, to paint or not to paint?
It does need some minor rust attention, the typical shock tower top apron overlaps, truck drop panels at the bottom, and there is a quarter size hole in the bottom of the passenger side lower rear quarter. That is the hard one to fix with out paint, but maybe a blended repaint in that area could be pulled off, just difficult with all the little rock chips, or should I use the over used TV word...PATINA. Also worth noting is the dents in the passenger side door and overall aged paint appearance. On a very positive note the interior is A1+. Not a split seam or crack in dash pad to be found. All lights work, A/C items under hood missing.
I bought this Mach with the intentions of bringing it back to its original glory over the winter. It was available after having been stored(in a barn) since 1977. Story goes it got parked due to trans problems. Trans was out of it and not going to be use able so I found a numbers matching(well date correct) donor however out of a full size car, installed that along with a shorter driveshaft, new gas tank, fuel lines, brake lines, brakes all around, oil pan,valve cover, tans pan gaskets, starter, and filters, & fluids . Guess what...it starts, runs, goes down the road, stops and even does burnouts all very well.
Now I took it to a three day swap meet and car for sale corral local to me this weekend to offer it up as is and see what would happen. I got a bunch of low ball offers, a few for 15, couple for 16, and one for 17K. My number is 18,500. The over whelming consensus was NOT to paint it, which is what I planned on doing. I heard a lot of "they are only original once", "it took 44 years for it to look like this, don't change it now" and "if you paint it you have the same grabber blue Mach as everyone else".
SO, to paint or not to paint?
In my mind it is to far gone to not redo it. SO, to paint or not to paint?
It does need some minor rust attention, the typical shock tower top apron overlaps, truck drop panels at the bottom, and there is a quarter size hole in the bottom of the passenger side lower rear quarter. That is the hard one to fix with out paint, but maybe a blended repaint in that area could be pulled off, just difficult with all the little rock chips, or should I use the over used TV word...PATINA. Also worth noting is the dents in the passenger side door and overall aged paint appearance. On a very positive note the interior is A1+. Not a split seam or crack in dash pad to be found. All lights work, A/C items under hood missing.