I'm currently watching a 68 stang coupe, that I would like for my new project/restomod. I've never modified a car this old. And I need your expertise in what to look for when buying this car, where to look for rust, what Do I have to watch out with this car, etc.
I would also like to see some pics of 67-68 restomod coupes, what i can only find are fastbacks. I love the look of the cougar taillamps in the fastback(Gt500), Do they look as good in the coupe?
Would like to see pics of a Coupe with the chrome trim painted, like "eleanor". To see if its as attractive as a fastback.
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Joined: 7/5/2006 From: Long Beach, CA Status: offline
Looks like a pretty nice car, just check for rust and make sure that engine swap was done right. And if it used to be a 6 cyl before that swap be sure it has been changed over to 5 lug, i.e. new rear end and front suspension.
I think it was a V6, it still is 4 lug and about suspension I just emailed the guy. Is there anything wrong about it being 4 lug, is it hard/expensive to find the parts to make it 5 lug? What about the suspension? How much $$$ Where Do I have to look for most rust?
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ORIGINAL: 4reboy
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ORIGINAL: darvo
Here are some pics of the car.... There are selling it in $5,900! It has a 85 5.0 HO with 3 speed stock transmision.
I would avoid a conversion to a V-8, it means more money in the long run.
Here's what I looked for when I bought my last two 68 coupes.
Rust: First and foremost look at the floor, lift the carpet and look carefully at the toe rest, and the pan, you will not see rust from the outside, unless it's holed.
Using a flashlight, see if you can peer up underneath the dash, especially behind the glovebox and just to the left of the steering wheel. Again, look for deep colored rust. This is the back of the cowling. Be aware the Air Box may be in the way (black box behind the glovebox).
The cowling is time consuming and expensive to fix.
Under the hood, look carefully at the shock towers for cracks or welding and holes on the sides (people used to crudely cut holes to get to the front arm grease zerts), then on the passenger side look very closely at the area below the battery box. This is not hard to repair, but you would have to know how to weld.
Trunk. Look at the two pits right behind the wheel wells. These accumulate rust because they usually are deep in trash from the trunk. Also lift the trunk mat to look at the area around the gas tank and wheel wells. Carefully examine the wheel wells where they meet the fenders.
Body. The area where the roof meets the rear quarter is prone to cracking. Look right near the back of the side rear window for cracks. Look at the outside of all four wheel wells. An inch spot of rust bubbles usually means you will be cutting about a square foot of rust.
Roof. If it has or had a vinyl top, carefully examine the roof. The worst spot is the top above the windsheild.
This is all I can think of off the top of my head. Good luck.
I'm about 1 year into a restoration of a 68 coupe with an in-line 6 cylinder engine, 200 C.I.D. From your pictures, I can see that it has the original four lug wheels, just like mine. All six cylinder versions in 1968 came with the four lug design and an 'integral' differential. The car you're looking at must have the original in-line 6 cylinder engine in it.
The tradeoff, here, is that you will find fewer parts options than you will for a V-8 and fewer wheel styles too. I know that Classic Inlines is often mentioned as an alternative for engine parts for those who want to try to make a performance 6 cylinder engine, but they are about the only commercial option in the U.S. that I'm aware of for the I6. For V-8s, on the other hand, there is lots of competitition and many aftermarket parts suppliers.
If you want to upgrade to a V-8, bring your checkbook and start with the suspension. I found an 8-inch rear end in a salvage yard for $200, and this one came with axles that have 5 lugs. To do the same upgrade in the front, you'll need new spindles and I believe at least one new outer tie rod end. Other things that are necessary: new radiator, motor mounts, fuel line, new bell housing if you're keeping your C-4, and several other things I haven't gotten into yet. Once upon a time, I found a web site that had something like 35 things that needed to be changed to go from an I6 to a V8 in a Mustang.
If I were to do this all over again, I'd look for a 67 or 68 with a V-8 that someone hasn't yet worked on that has a body in good shape, that can be driven.
They guy told me it is a regular 289, it has been always a V8. Did the V8 also came with 4 lugs? He changed the 289 to a 1985 302. its a 3speed MT.It has a 1985 302 stang rear end.
I'm going to see it in "person" on saturday. I'm going to need as much info as possible with these cars.
Thank You all for you knowledge, Darvin Diaz
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ORIGINAL: Jaded
I'm at work, so I can't see the pics.
I would avoid a conversion to a V-8, it means more money in the long run.
Here's what I looked for when I bought my last two 68 coupes.
Rust: First and foremost look at the floor, lift the carpet and look carefully at the toe rest, and the pan, you will not see rust from the outside, unless it's holed.
Using a flashlight, see if you can peer up underneath the dash, especially behind the glovebox and just to the left of the steering wheel. Again, look for deep colored rust. This is the back of the cowling. Be aware the Air Box may be in the way (black box behind the glovebox).
The cowling is time consuming and expensive to fix.
Under the hood, look carefully at the shock towers for cracks or welding and holes on the sides (people used to crudely cut holes to get to the front arm grease zerts), then on the passenger side look very closely at the area below the battery box. This is not hard to repair, but you would have to know how to weld.
Trunk. Look at the two pits right behind the wheel wells. These accumulate rust because they usually are deep in trash from the trunk. Also lift the trunk mat to look at the area around the gas tank and wheel wells. Carefully examine the wheel wells where they meet the fenders.
Body. The area where the roof meets the rear quarter is prone to cracking. Look right near the back of the side rear window for cracks. Look at the outside of all four wheel wells. An inch spot of rust bubbles usually means you will be cutting about a square foot of rust.
Roof. If it has or had a vinyl top, carefully examine the roof. The worst spot is the top above the windsheild.
This is all I can think of off the top of my head. Good luck.
< Message edited by darvo -- 5/12/2008 10:52:08 AM >
There are a few things that make me skeptical about this car:
Only 6 cylinder Mustangs had the four lug wheel design in 1968. They also came with a 7.25" differential, integral style as opposed to the design where the center section can be unbolted from the rear end housing.
If the car was a 289 originally, as the owner suggests, it would most likely have come with an 8-inch rear end and and five lugs all around. I believe that a 9-inch was also available that year for the high performance V-8s.
I don't think it's possible that the car came with a 289 V-8 and four lugs on each of the wheels. I also don't think that someone would do a modification going from the original five lug design to the four lug design.
What I could believe, because I've seen a few of these, is that someone dropped a 302 V-8 into a car originally designed as a six cylinder, and neglected to do all of the hard work necessary for upgrading the rear end, the suspension, the cooling, etc. Maybe they ran out of money. The V-8s came with a heavier-duty suspension, spindles and brakes.
This may be why the car, which appears to have a pretty good body (although it's hard to tell from the pictures what the condition of the sheet metal is under all of that glossy paint) is relatively inexpensive. It may be a project car that really wasn't completed.
For me personally, I saw value in buying a car that no one had every really modified before I got it. I just didn't want the headache of having to reverse engineer someone else's work.
I just re-read your last post and saw that the owner says it has an '85 rear end. (which could explain the four lugs in the rear). If there are also four lugs in the fron, I have to believe that those are original---which means that the car originally came with an inline six cylinder engine--there was no V-6 engine used in Mustangs in the '60s.
OK. So, you'd need to have two spare tires with this car, one on a four lug rim and one on a five lug rim?
What appears to be unusual in the history of this car is the decision to put a rear end from an 85 Mustang in it, with four lugs on the rear wheels. That explains the wheel design on this car--you'd have to look closely to notice that the front and the rears are different.
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Buying 68 Coupe: HELP! - 
Victoria 
