re: Anyone here ever restore a car? Or fix an oldie?

12v, right? I suggest completely replacing the wiring harness. You can find restoration harnesses out there, but since you know a good bit about electrical stuff, I suggest making it yourself. You can buy the connectors, conduit looms, friction tape, and even cloth-covered wire separately and put it together yourself.

As for the painting, you could do it yourself, if you had a sizable air compressor and enough space to put up a makeshift booth, but it may be easier to do the prep work yourself and then take it to a body shop for the topcoats.

If it's been sitting for that long, I imagine that all the seals and fluids need to be replaced. Even if they look like they're okay, once the shafts start spinning, you're likely to see leaks (on the other hand, nearly anything that used rope seals from that time period is going to have some leaking).

Can you even buy refrigerant for a 1960 factory air anymore?

ETA: I restore antique Ford tractors, parts, and implements in my spare time. Like another poster said, you do it mainly for the fun of doing the work (and the thrill of the hunt for the parts...don't know about how the car world is, but in tractor restoration, OE parts are usually cheaper and better fits. In fact, a lot of guys get tired of the restorations and move into the parting-out business). It's definitely not something that you are going to make a lot of money doing. In fact, unless you're doing something that's going to end up at a Mecum's auction, you'll lose money, particularly when you figure your time invested. On the other hand, there's nothing quite so satisfactory as looking at something that's been restored to original, pristine condition, especially when you know what it looked like beforehand.

You can get your money back. Don't buy a run of the mill car. Spend a little more on the front end, and buy rust free and complete. It pays huge dividends later. The piece of crap that has been yard art for years is not normally worth the effort. Has to be super rare, and valuable.

The inertia switch went out.
I couldn't reset it even, was odd.
I replaced it an it was fine.

Mustangs are the cheapest to get parts for, there are so many.
Those are Pony cars though. A pony car was built on the platform of a compact car, and generally a muscle car was built on a mid or full size platform.

Camaros aren't bad for parts. I just remember in the late 90's there being tons of places to get parts for my mustang.
60's camaros on Hemming's

Don't throw out the gas tank as a matter of course. The repops are expensive as hell and it is possible to clean out the one you have. I've cleaned out and reused several. If you know someone at a radiator shop, find out when they are getting ready to change out their boiling vat and see if they'll dip the tank right before they throw it out. If not, you can actually fill it full of vinegar and let it sit for a week or so. Drying it out is a bitch, but if you have a blower you can set it up to force air through it. I've run across some that people put sand peddles in and shook. They never got them all out, but it ran. Took me forty forevers to get all of them out with a shop vac.

I've coated them with Por15 (which is expensive as hell), Red Kote, and Northern. Northern was the easiest in terms of getting it to slosh around. Por15 leaves the prettiest coat. Red Kote was somewhere in the middle. All three worked, though, but you need about twice what they say on the bottle if the tank has baffles.

Cheapest Shipping quote came in at $497 garage to garage.

I was going to take my trailer, but it has no brakes and is rated for up to 5000 pounds. This car has a curb weight dry of 4900 pounds so that is close. Plus my truck is rated to 6500 pounds and van to 7500 pounds and while both have brake controllers my big trailer has no brakes.

$497 doesn't seem bad, especially if it saves me another trip to Houston.


Already ordered some new air-tools and some blast media, component stripping will start next weekend. Can't wait.

What's the price of the Mustang?

Coyote = Big Money. Lot of work goes into that conversion.

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Tornados were cool, the first front wheel drive American cars if I remember right.

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Good guess, the Toronado was the second, the Cord L-29 was the first.