Thnks guys
Got my heart set on a Mach 1....although wife wants a vert. Hmm one container, two cars (add in cost of divorce).
Been looking hard at craigslist and ebay US to get an idea on what is around. 71's seem light on the ground compared to 73's (@ same production number in total).
Although I have a 408c stroker in parts to put in the car, I do want as rust free a car as possible with matching numbers (an M or Q code really) as I think the 71-73's will go up in price a fair bit in the next 10 odd years - the market cant sustain the difference in price to the 69-70 once that segment gets saturated and full priced.
There has been a lot of good tips about filling the car with parts before its shipped to save $ which is great, and the chart I got was really helpful in laying out all of the extra costs.
I fully expect that this is a $40k project when its finished, it comes down to how much I want to put out up front vs in build. I have the $ to spend so that its about the car.
I was in the same situation! I preferred a Mach 1 and my wife a convertible!
I found a 1973 Q-code convertible in my own country instead of importing and decided to buy it instead of a Mach 1. It is a solid car but it needs a lot of work to look perfect. My plan is to restore it completely. I am buying lots of new parts at the moment (I try to benefit from some good discounts some of the web shops in the US offer occasionally. I bought a lot of parts in one go, with 30% discount recently. At least you can cover the shipping and import tax with it ).
My estimate for my car to have it restored is around 40-45k .
I think you are realistic with your expectations.
It would be nice if these cars go up in value in the future,but at the moment it looks like everybody still wants a 1965-1966 model. The 71-73 model is much rarer. From 1965/70 I think around 244000 convertibles were build. from the 71/73 only around 24000 convertibles so investment wise it could be interesting.