Restoring My 1973 Mustang Convertible 351C

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dianto2k

New member
Joined
Nov 5, 2014
Messages
1
Reaction score
7
Location
NY
My Car
1973 Mustang Convertible, 351C, Factory AC
Hi All,

First and foremost, I am very happy that there are so many like me in love with the 71-73 mustangs. In 1990 I had two of them. The first was a1973 Mustang Mach1 Q-Code that I sold in 1997 to some dealership in Texas after a lot of pressure from my wife that the car was at fault that I was not spending enough time with her. I admit I was at fault since I happened to get married in the middle of me restoring the car and putting it back together. The dealership purchased the car and picked it up sight unseen and with no questions asked.
The second, which is the subject of this post is a 1973 convertible 351C 2BBL which I have always loved. For this one, I stood my ground that I will not sell. The convertible ended up being the one that both my daughters grew up to enjoy and love. My older daughter now is mid 20s old and she remembers well the good times in the car. My younger daughter is upset and jealous because she dies not remember her experience with the convertible. Over the years, the car has aged and in the last 10 years, it has been sitting outside covered but collecting rust. Financially, I was not able to resurrect it, so it just sat there. Not a month went by without my daughters confirming with me that I will never sell it and always asking me when to get it restored and running again.
Moving forward in time, my older daughter has done so well, now in her third year of Medical school. So proud. It is now time to bring the convertible back to life as that will be my daughter's graduation gift next year.
Now, I can do all of the mechanical and electrical work on the car, and I plan to post videos of all to give back to the 71-73 mustang community. The problem is the body and frame rust work. I have tried to engage some body shops around where I live, but either body shops did not want to touch it, or the the estimates just came back astronomically high. I got to think that there are body shops an enthusiastic skilled people that are willing to do this work at a more appropriate cost.
I live in Mahopac, NY, an hour drive from New York City. I greatly appreciate this forum's recommendations on how to approach this, if you know any place or any people within 60 miles or so from where I live that are willing to take this job on. Thank you.
Here are a few photos of the car's current state. I know I have photos of the car when it was red and looked beautiful saved somewhere and will post them when I I find them.
 

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Great write up on the history of the car. I also have a 73 yellow vert that has been in a local junkyard since 1986. Fortunately they kept it inside the whole time since the yard owner planned on restoring it. It looked very similar to yours. Mark
 
Welcome from SoCal, my experience on body work is you get what you pay for. Many of us choke to pay $10k for a fantastic motor, but for most 50 year old cars, that gets you 1/2 of a complete body and paint job, if you want a quality job. The school angle worked once for me. Good luck in your search, and way cool car!
 
Yellow now. Are you going back to the original red?
 
My wife's car is medium bright yellow but she wants red so red it will be.
 
welcome I also have yellow 73...not sure how close to original color it is.
Did 73 yellow mustangs have metalic in their yellow paint?
 

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