Thread: Can it be saved ?

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Hey guys,

Here's a question for you body men. Today while I was out I spotted a 70 Boss mustang shell, I went back and checked it out and found that it had been wrecked really hard The car had slid sideways and caught a pole or tree on the drivers side right where the door and fender meet. The damage is bad it has bent the roof post and buckled the roof , cowl and floor.
Do you think the body could be pulled and straightend or is it a lost cause ?
The floor is pushed in about 6 to 8 inches at the point of impact. The sad part is that the rest of the shell is in really good shape The big question is can it be saved

Sure, anything can be saved. A good frame machine could maybe pull it back, or a donor car to cut a good piece out of and replace the damaged section. The real question is whether you want to spend the time and money doing it, it isn't cheap either way. If you can do it yourself it would cost less, but still not real cheap. IMO if it is a real Boss and the rest of the body is in good shape it would be worth doing.... But I'm a bit nutso on old Mustangs anyhow!!!!!

I'm with Dave ,
It can be fixed , a Cowl hit is usually the worst to fix as every thing squares up off it , if its off everything else wont fit right .
Just depends on the tools you have available to you , and your skill level , a donor shell would be good too .
Most anything can be fixed , just depends on Skill , Time , Money & Tools .

Spray

If it's an original, it may be worth saving. However, if all the mechanicals are gone, it will be dang expensive to put back into shape, then it won't be matching numbers. I'm not sure that an original body with everything else from the NOS market or elswhere will have a lot of value when it's done.

By the way, was it a 302 or 429?

yes but a cowl hit are some times are tuff i would have to see it . if it is all rusty? you need to lock the car down and pull on it. if it all rusty you will pull it apart. if you go thru this there is only one way to do this the right way it will not be worth zip if it is half ass and some one could get hurt or killed if it get hit there a again. we called them T bones when hit hard on the side .oh and that side of the car will be shorter so it will have to be pull at many points

There is a guy near me that hauled in a '70 Mach 1 as a project, looks pretty good from the side, but looking at it from the front or back, it's evident where the tree fell on it, needs a new roof, it sits in back his house now, he's got a '50 F1 that had been chopped, as a project too and a '65 Dart for his wife that's all most done, and a '48 Chevy he's got going also, Dart and the '48 Chevy are seeing the most work.

The car is a 302 Boss, and the shell is really in great shape. I pulled back the carpeting and the floor looks very solid as well as the quarter panels and trunk, I really didn't see anything more than surface rust on the floor and no holes in the quarters.
The guy has the whole car there, but I don't know if he will give up the rest. It is a matching numbers car.
I'm like Dave , I love the old Mustangs, I have a 69 Mach 1 with factory 390 and thought the Boss would be cool to have. Looks like I'll have to go out and see if I can talk the guy into giving up the rest of the parts, he only has 4 stangs in his garage and more stock parts than you can count.

Rocky

I know I wouldn't try it with out a frame machine. As mentioned it will likly need to be pulled several ways Just remember First in Last out and that 's not always easy.

I'm still debating if it's worthy it or not, if he won't give up the rest of the car I'll probably pass on it. Maybe I should get it for the quarters and shock towers they're in great shape and start looking for something to put them on.