not sure where I should ask this question so I'm trying here. came across a 1971 coupe rolling carcass, lots of body work has been done, has rust and a lot of removed parts are in the car. No title, engine or transmission, it's a 302/C4 car and the owner (a scrap yard) is asking $1000 for it. I know it's nothing special but what would be a reason a reasonable price to offer, he's not going to crush it and has not been advertised for sale yet.
1971 coupe value
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I paid $500 for mine about 30 years ago with no parts, motor tranny and interior were gone. The body was complete with rust
It's worth whatever you feel comfortable offering for it. What I've found is if I wait long enough another deal comes along. Except for that 69 Boss 302... I shouldn't have sold the first one. 
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If the car has even a little rust showing, you can bet there is more deep in areas you can't see without pulling trim parts off. As for a fair price for a rusted car, even an otherwise First Generation Mustang would be coming in at a negative dollar amount. We picked up a nice looking 73 Mach 1 a few years back. It had some nominal rust in the typical areas. We purchased it, and I promised the heartbroken seller we would always do right by the car, nd I would come by with it as we did some work on it here and there (he owned it over 35 years, and was only selling it because he had a debilitating disease, he could not drive any longer. and was looking for a buyer who would take care of "his baby" at least as good as he did.
He purchased it used from a Navy sailor who was stationed at Virginia /Beach, and he would be deploy on one ship or the other a lot, so the Mustang sat, undriven for a lot of years in the salt air. After we acquired it we did some nice upgrades, then decided to address the little bit of rust we saw. Well, it turns out that as the shop was pulling off trim pieces they began to come across significant rust that was way deep down inside various seams. The more they dug the more they found. Anyone else would have put it back together and sole it for crash derby use. But, we made a commitment to the seller, who could not hve possibly know of this deeply set rust. So, we opted to have the shop correct all the rust in the car, to include the typical rust ares.
In short, we put over 6 figures into a car worth maybe (at the time) $25k just to bring it back to truly excellent condition. We used the original metal anywhere we could, which meant a lot of resectioning and welding, lead soldering joints, etc. The Mach 1 turned out beautifully (see link below for a walk-around video in its last day of the restoration project, 13 1/2 months later). Why did we opt to restore it for such a huge amount of money? Because we made a commitment to a really nice gentleman, because we could, and if for no other reason than for love of the breed. We have no regrets, but I share this as a forewarning of how costly it can get to fix a car with rust, especially rust deep down where it can't be seen until pieces begin being removed.
Below is the deeply restored Mach 1. It is a wonder vehicle, and had its C4 auto tranny replaced with an AOD.
https://youtu.be/_Fl0B-qmlLI
This is a series of photos during its restoration, put into a video:
https://youtu.be/y0MiVAFj_sQ
My gut tells me the $1,000 Mustang will cost many times that to fix correctly. I might be wrong, especially never having seen it, but this is not a rabbit hole anyone would want to go down. Unless, you feel you can part it out with non-corroded parts, and earn back more than $1,000.
He purchased it used from a Navy sailor who was stationed at Virginia /Beach, and he would be deploy on one ship or the other a lot, so the Mustang sat, undriven for a lot of years in the salt air. After we acquired it we did some nice upgrades, then decided to address the little bit of rust we saw. Well, it turns out that as the shop was pulling off trim pieces they began to come across significant rust that was way deep down inside various seams. The more they dug the more they found. Anyone else would have put it back together and sole it for crash derby use. But, we made a commitment to the seller, who could not hve possibly know of this deeply set rust. So, we opted to have the shop correct all the rust in the car, to include the typical rust ares.
In short, we put over 6 figures into a car worth maybe (at the time) $25k just to bring it back to truly excellent condition. We used the original metal anywhere we could, which meant a lot of resectioning and welding, lead soldering joints, etc. The Mach 1 turned out beautifully (see link below for a walk-around video in its last day of the restoration project, 13 1/2 months later). Why did we opt to restore it for such a huge amount of money? Because we made a commitment to a really nice gentleman, because we could, and if for no other reason than for love of the breed. We have no regrets, but I share this as a forewarning of how costly it can get to fix a car with rust, especially rust deep down where it can't be seen until pieces begin being removed.
Below is the deeply restored Mach 1. It is a wonder vehicle, and had its C4 auto tranny replaced with an AOD.
https://youtu.be/_Fl0B-qmlLI
This is a series of photos during its restoration, put into a video:
https://youtu.be/y0MiVAFj_sQ
My gut tells me the $1,000 Mustang will cost many times that to fix correctly. I might be wrong, especially never having seen it, but this is not a rabbit hole anyone would want to go down. Unless, you feel you can part it out with non-corroded parts, and earn back more than $1,000.
We really need some pictures. Its too hard to say with so little information.
I agree that if you are trying to restore it, you will spend more than it will be worth when you're done. But thats typically how it goes with car guys. You may be able to break even or come out ahead if you catch a really sweet deal like a parts car that has a ton of usable parts, or you have a wrecked one you can transfer everything over to the new one.
Even as parts, there could still be some money there. If it has a urethane front bumper in good shape, thats $600+ by itself. Glass, fenders, lights, interior, yada, yada. They all add up. It may be something you could triple your money on, depending on what all's still there in usable condition.
I agree that if you are trying to restore it, you will spend more than it will be worth when you're done. But thats typically how it goes with car guys. You may be able to break even or come out ahead if you catch a really sweet deal like a parts car that has a ton of usable parts, or you have a wrecked one you can transfer everything over to the new one.
Even as parts, there could still be some money there. If it has a urethane front bumper in good shape, thats $600+ by itself. Glass, fenders, lights, interior, yada, yada. They all add up. It may be something you could triple your money on, depending on what all's still there in usable condition.
detritusmaximus
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As Giantpune mentions, are you looking to do a really nice restoration, or fix it up for a cool, old driver? You can build a fun play car that won't win any awards for a lot cheaper, depending on what body work was done and what is left to do.
The other question is are you paying or doing/learning? If paying, it's always better/cheaper to just buy a finished car. If doing/learning, it doesn't have to be perfect or even "correct" as long as you are happy.
Just so long as it's safe.
The other question is are you paying or doing/learning? If paying, it's always better/cheaper to just buy a finished car. If doing/learning, it doesn't have to be perfect or even "correct" as long as you are happy.
Just so long as it's safe.
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I get how a Mustang in need of a facelift can $ing to one's heart. Ours sure did. But, wow, the cost of the singing lessons were really high! I am still glad we did the restoration. But, if we were not in the financial position we are in I doubt i would or even could have taken that route, regardless of how pleased I am with how it turned out.
