[builder1]

Here is my question, I have a 1966 A code fastback that is rust pile of you know what, and I have taken to it the body shop to put it back together, and my body man suggested a looking for another chassis that is in much better shape and moving the roof and everything over to a rust free car. He said it will save me a lot of money. What are your thoughts and feeling towards this? And if I go ahead with the swap what will it do to my value of my car?

I am looking at this from a realistic stand point, these cars are 40 plus years old, and are not always in the best shape. I want to restore my car, but not have more in it than it is worth???

THanks

[Veronica]

Hello. : If you are talking about buying a solid coupe or something, putting the fastback roof on it, and then putting the 'A' code fastback vin on that car, that is a felony. If you take the roof off of the car and swap out the drive-line, steering and suspension components, and then send the car to crusher, you have destroyed it's value entirely. ( going through the crusher will do that to a car.) You would have used the A code car as a donor car for the other car, and the other car is the one that you would have. If it started out as a 6cyl coupe, then you still have a 6cyl coupe. It's just been beefed up and modified a bit. To save the A code fastback, you have to fix the A code fastback, not take another car and call it the A code fastback, because it just isn't the A code fastback. Hope that helps.

[andrewmp6]

Yes fix your fastback theres a lot of sheet metal for sell out there and like Veronica said putting a fastback roof on a coupe its still worth what the coupe is. And changing a vin is illegal look at unique performance they got caught doing that.

[builder1]

I am just asking, how is it different if I go out and by almost every panel for this car vs. use parts off of an existing car made by ford that will fit a hundred times better? I have to buy fender aprons...there goes my numbers on them, the door tag is missing from who knows when, the only thing that will still be there is the dash tag, and I have to remove it replace a bunch of the cowl and to have what is left of the car media blasted. I just want to understand this better. thanks

[Veronica]

Originally Posted by builder1

I am just asking, how is it different if I go out and by almost every panel for this car vs. use parts off of an existing car made by ford that will fit a hundred times better?

Hi again. If you don't count the massive legal expense and the vacation in a federal penitentiary, there really isn't a difference. First, your car doesn't have a dash tag. The vin is stamped in three places on the inner fenders, and that's it. It's also on the door tag, but that doesn't count. You can legally re-stamp the vin on the inner fenders as part of a repair. You will no doubt encounter some credibility problems when you get around to selling the car, but you won't have to worry about the legal implications. The sad truth is that, sometimes, a car has disintegrated beyond the point of no return. The only shot at saving that car is to fix that car. A re-body is an altered vin in the eyes of the law, and that is seriously illegal. Exactly where the line is at which it is no longer the same car is hard to say, but an outright re-body is well over on the other side of it. Hope that helps.

[andrewmp6]

You can buy ford tooling sheet metal or cut it off a mustang but the vin on the car shows what body it is so you put your fastback roof on a coupe its still a coupe vin wise.So when you sell it the vin will show its a coupe so its worthless money and people like me wouldn't buy it.The only sheet metal on the early mustang i know no one makes its the rail gutters above the doors everything else they do.Your friend thinks swapping roofs is easier but really its not.Its a unibody car cutting the roof off you can mess the car up fast if you don't know what your doing.Heres a better idea if your gonna cut the roof off the fastback sell it to someone else that will restore it.

[Veronica]

Originally Posted by andrewmp6

You can buy ford tooling sheet metal or cut it off a mustang but the vin on the car shows what body it is so you put your fastback roof on a coupe its still a coupe vin wise.So when you sell it the vin will show its a coupe so its worthless money and people like me wouldn't buy it.The only sheet metal on the early mustang i know no one makes its the rail gutters above the doors everything else they do.Your friend thinks swapping roofs is easier but really its not.Its a unibody car cutting the roof off you can mess the car up fast if you don't know what your doing.Heres a better idea if your gonna cut the roof off the fastback sell it to someone else that will restore it.

Hi again. I don't think that it's really fair to say that this gentleman isn't wanting to restore the car. He's just looking for the most efficient, cost-effective way to go about that. That's why he's asking, instead of just going ahead and doing it. That tells me that he does not have fraud on his mind. It seems that his motives are good, he just doesn't want to be so upside-down in this thing that he couldn't possibly recoup his money if he sells it, and there certainly isn't anything wrong with that. It's just that there are complications with doing a re-body that he was apparently unaware of.

[andrewmp6]

A gm car you could get away with it just fords the vin shows if its a coupe fastback convertible etc etc.Veronica most of it is body shops cutting corners is why he was told that it can be done but its not worth it tho.Never trust a bondo slinger there only gonna make it worse on you find a true body shop or car restorer.

[66vertproject]

I am kind of in the same boat, but I am definately going to fix mine as is. I found a place on EBAY named Laurel mtn Mustangs that sells a complete tooled floor with the rails, trunk floor, and everything for $2200, and am thinking that would be the way to go rather than doing a roof swap. I was actually looking at a 65 fastback that was a fastback conversion, and it is valued at what the origional 65 mustang 6 cylinder car is worth. Maybe less, since it is not origional. The thing about it that gets me is, how much more work is it to start from scratch? I think it is worth buying new metal and doing the car up right. A conversion is fine to me if all you want is a good looking car to drive, but no Mustang enthusiast would ever pay more than the origonal car is worth, so all you really have is the equivalent of a real size Kit car.