09-26-2011, 05:38 PM
I am excited to be here and have a good source of information for my questions as I go through my restoration. My mustang story goes as follows.
I moved to Maryland from Massachusetts in 2000. I bought my first starter house in 2002. My neighbor was an old man in his eighties. This man was from the depression lifestyle and had sheds and scrap everywhere. His own daily driver was his first car from the 50s. One day I noticed the nose of a muscle car in a hand built garage that was falling apart. It had no door and a dirt floor. I check it out and it is a mustang. Not knowing too much about it, I did know it looked like the 70s muscle car era.
The cars story after some mechanic uncovering is the car is a 1972 Mach 1 mustang. It is an R code wich in that year came with the HO engine at 275 hp and a 4 speed mauel transmission. I saw a 1972 numbers break down once where it broke down how many mustang types by year and it stated the 1972 R code was 1 of 336 off the production line. The engine was undesired due to the lower hp and loss of the Boss title. The was a driverside accident at some point that warranted a replacement of the driver fender and the reforming of both engine compartment fender pieces. One was reserected, but could no longer hold a battery due to damage. It was placed back together, repainted, made it an automatic and my neighbors son used to race it and had large racing engines in it, so I was told. Apparently the son blew the engine and transmission in a race and took them out leaving just a rolling chasis. The son died in the early eighties before it could be put back together again and there it sat until I found it in 2002, almost 20 years later. The truck lid and driver floor board is all the rust I have found so far. It was an imaculate find. I bought it for $300. It sat as life got busy until I deployed overseas in 2010. My wife took some of the extra money I was earning and had my mustang shipped up to a high performance and restoration shop in Massachusetts. Expensive work but overall very happy with the end product. The spent the year I was gone rebuilding the entire mechanical drive train and engine from nothing. It now has a 351M block dipped, bored out, and rebuild with aluminum cleveland heads, edelbrock intake manefold, it is a stroker engine with 425 hp now with a manuel 5 speed transmission. The interior needs a full restoration and a new paint job. My wife and I flew up to Mass and drove it down to MD when it was done and I was home.
So now it is starting a whole new chapter for the rest of its life. We are calling it Phoenix for its ability to die and come back multiple times, better than the last one. It was the jump start I needed to get moving to finishing it. After what I have invested so far and what I estimate it will take for me to finish the rest myself, I believe to be around a $25k investment for a full new restoration.
Questions I currently have and I will repost as a seperate post too.
1. Is the site I found stating my car is 1 of 336 accurate and how due I know what is correct?
2. I thought I saw the average price of the Mach 1s going for $25k, but a few HOs I found were listed at $35k for value. Does the HO model bring the value up $10k;does the HO engine need to be in it for that value?
3. It appears as though the hood is original. The black hood paint does not tapper in at the ram air ports, it runs straight down the hood. I have seen few pictures of that hood paint job. What does that mean?
4. Current top mechanical issues looking for advice.
The new engine is now overheating. The mechanic placed a relay for the clutch fan to run all the time, but now thats not working.
There is a vibration at 70 mph. We pushed it at first and it started at 90 mph, but now starts at 70. We were told it was a thrown driveshaft weight that was repaired, but still a vibration.
The exaust back fires horribly. We think we found the electric choke to be sticking on the carborator. When we romp on it it can unstick and go away.
I look forward to using this site. Pictures will be coming. Mike
I moved to Maryland from Massachusetts in 2000. I bought my first starter house in 2002. My neighbor was an old man in his eighties. This man was from the depression lifestyle and had sheds and scrap everywhere. His own daily driver was his first car from the 50s. One day I noticed the nose of a muscle car in a hand built garage that was falling apart. It had no door and a dirt floor. I check it out and it is a mustang. Not knowing too much about it, I did know it looked like the 70s muscle car era.
The cars story after some mechanic uncovering is the car is a 1972 Mach 1 mustang. It is an R code wich in that year came with the HO engine at 275 hp and a 4 speed mauel transmission. I saw a 1972 numbers break down once where it broke down how many mustang types by year and it stated the 1972 R code was 1 of 336 off the production line. The engine was undesired due to the lower hp and loss of the Boss title. The was a driverside accident at some point that warranted a replacement of the driver fender and the reforming of both engine compartment fender pieces. One was reserected, but could no longer hold a battery due to damage. It was placed back together, repainted, made it an automatic and my neighbors son used to race it and had large racing engines in it, so I was told. Apparently the son blew the engine and transmission in a race and took them out leaving just a rolling chasis. The son died in the early eighties before it could be put back together again and there it sat until I found it in 2002, almost 20 years later. The truck lid and driver floor board is all the rust I have found so far. It was an imaculate find. I bought it for $300. It sat as life got busy until I deployed overseas in 2010. My wife took some of the extra money I was earning and had my mustang shipped up to a high performance and restoration shop in Massachusetts. Expensive work but overall very happy with the end product. The spent the year I was gone rebuilding the entire mechanical drive train and engine from nothing. It now has a 351M block dipped, bored out, and rebuild with aluminum cleveland heads, edelbrock intake manefold, it is a stroker engine with 425 hp now with a manuel 5 speed transmission. The interior needs a full restoration and a new paint job. My wife and I flew up to Mass and drove it down to MD when it was done and I was home.
So now it is starting a whole new chapter for the rest of its life. We are calling it Phoenix for its ability to die and come back multiple times, better than the last one. It was the jump start I needed to get moving to finishing it. After what I have invested so far and what I estimate it will take for me to finish the rest myself, I believe to be around a $25k investment for a full new restoration.
Questions I currently have and I will repost as a seperate post too.
1. Is the site I found stating my car is 1 of 336 accurate and how due I know what is correct?
2. I thought I saw the average price of the Mach 1s going for $25k, but a few HOs I found were listed at $35k for value. Does the HO model bring the value up $10k;does the HO engine need to be in it for that value?
3. It appears as though the hood is original. The black hood paint does not tapper in at the ram air ports, it runs straight down the hood. I have seen few pictures of that hood paint job. What does that mean?
4. Current top mechanical issues looking for advice.
The new engine is now overheating. The mechanic placed a relay for the clutch fan to run all the time, but now thats not working.
There is a vibration at 70 mph. We pushed it at first and it started at 90 mph, but now starts at 70. We were told it was a thrown driveshaft weight that was repaired, but still a vibration.
The exaust back fires horribly. We think we found the electric choke to be sticking on the carborator. When we romp on it it can unstick and go away.
I look forward to using this site. Pictures will be coming. Mike
Yes, it is worth considerably more than the "regular" models but only if all the pieces are there. The $10,000 more value would be with all the pieces and would probably be more than that.
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