Warning: That barn find 1967 Mustang I bought turned out to be a total rust bucket under fresh paint

Warning: That barn find 1967 Mustang I bought turned out to be a total rust bucket under fresh paint. Honestly, I was pumped when I snagged this old Mustang for $3,200 off a guy in rural Kansas last spring. The body looked clean in the photos and he swore it was garaged for 20 years. Well, I got it home to my storage unit outside Omaha and started poking around with a screwdriver. The floor pans were basically gone, the frame rails had holes big enough to stick your hand through, and the quarter panels were packed with bondo. I found out later from a classic car forum that the seller was known for flipping cars with quick paint jobs and hiding rot. It sat on concrete for 6 months while I saved up for repairs, but the moisture from the slab made the rust spread even faster. Now I know to always check the underside with a magnet before buying and never store a damp car on bare concrete without a barrier. Has anyone else gotten burned by a slick paint job hiding serious rust issues?

2 comments

2 Comments

spencer66421d ago

Used to think a repaint meant someone actually cared about the car. Then I bought a 73 Charger that looked cherry in the ad. Got there, threw a magnet on the door sill and it stuck to bondo about an inch thick. Guy had literally rattle canned it in his driveway to hide the cancer. Learned real quick that a shiny paint job is usually just a bandaid for a car that should have been scrapped. Now I do a full magnet test on every panel before I hand over a single dollar.

paul_morgan21d ago

Oh, come on, a rattle can job in a driveway shows more love than some overpriced shop restoration. You can tell the guy spent every weekend cussing and sweating over that thing, and that's a kind of care you don't get from a checkbook.