I’ve wanted a 1967 mustang since I saw the movie gone in 60 seconds. I know this is the movie that sparked interest in the car with a lot of people and I can credit this movie for the large discrepancy in the price of 67 fastbacks compared to coupes. When the 67 mustang first came out you could buy a coupe for $2,461 a fastback for $2,592 and a convertible for $2,698. Adjusted for inflation in 2024 that’s $22,945, $24,167, and $25,155 for a coupe, fastback, and convertible respectively. I’m trying to ignore the outrageous discrepancy in relative cost of the car to our median income in today’s dollars.*

For less than 6% more you could have been the owner of a 67 fastback *ikr wow*. Contrast this with the price these vehicles command today. A rusty beat down shell for a coupe with a straight body will sell for $3,500-5,500 depending on the level of rust and included parts. A rusty beat down shell for a fastback with a straight body will sell for $25,000-35,000 OR MORE depending on the code of the car. This is before considering any body work or mechanical components and assembly.

So obviously I decided to make my own.

I figured if I’m going to spend money on a car it might as well be one I like. After all, I like to think there’s a little purpose behind everything I do. I refuse to work for no good reason. I cant imagine going to work if I was just going to spend the money I made at work on a car to get to work… I don’t have to image.

The plan is to get a coupe, cut it in half from the top of the top of the front windshield frame (the ‘A-Pillar’) to the bottom - rear of the main cabin doors (the rocker panel). Sounds easy enough right?

Well it should be in theory. Yet to be determined but so far I’ve spent the last 2 years preparing in some form or another to get this done. So far I’ve managed to learn the four most common forms of welding starting with stick and flux core then evolving to MIG and TIG. I’ve spent a few thousand dollars on tools and fixtures I figured I’d need long term anyway like a inserta clamp welding table I made. And I’m taking automotive collision repair classes. All good in theory though the only consistent thing I’ve learned is there’s no substitute for experience when it comes to shaping metal.

So this is what we’re working with. I bought this car from a body shop from a car that seemed like a friendly uncle but turned out to be a frog. The body shop has/had (?) a good reputation but it seems has decided to burn me.

When I found the car it was listed on facebook market place as having ‘“straight lines from hood to fenders“ and “ready to paint“. When I met the owner of the car it turned out he was also the owner of a body shop, a rather big one at that in a busy part of town. He was very very friendly and answered all of my questions reassuring me of the quality of his worksmanship and the state of the car. Q:“My plan is to cut it in half to convert it to a fastback so I really just need the body to be straight. Is this a good car for that?“…A:”yes yes the panel gaps are good… its very hard to find cars where the panels align so well… I bought this car at an auction during the last Olympic games in Canada as something for my employees to do in their spare time and we put a lot of hours into it before we just got too busy and now its taking up space for my insurance money… We put rhino coating on the car because I wanted it to feel like a modern ride… I WENT TO ART SCHOOL AND MY DAD ALWAYS TOLD ME THE BEST WAY TO BE A BETTER PERSON IS TO WORK WITH YOUR HANDS BECAUSE IT TEACHES YOU CARE AND DISCIPLINE ”. Alright bro well obviously it doesn’t teach you to be a good person or a good liar. Yes you might have created the ideal conditions for someone wide eyed like me to buy the car off you and trust that you as an owner of a body shop with a frame machine and BIM software would have the basic know how to restore a car in good faith.

When I purchased the car I immediately ordered it delivered home and started inspection. It was just a shell with no motor or transmission and keeping in mind it had been stored for over a decade without paint I had modest expectations of the work set out for me. What I found should not have surprised me. I paid extra for the car because the panel gaps were good and I took it for granted that the frame on the vehicle was also good. The car is what’s known as a unibody car meaning everything in the car acts as a structural component to provide rigidity and strength against multi-axial stresses placed on the car. Opposed to a body on frame design where the cabin of the vehicle sits on robust frame rails, a design typically chosen for more funcitonal purposes like pick up trucks…Good gaps between panels means the car has a straight frame because NObody would fit panels to a bent frame and create more work for themselves trying to add and subtract metal to the panels to get the gaps right… right? Wrong.

I immediately disliked that I could not or did not raise more questions at the time of the sale. But it was difficult to inspect the car in the position they had it in. I had seen a few vehicles up until that point that were literally sinking into the ground from how long they had been sitting so just the fact that this one was stored on actual concrete in a body shop was reassuring. But the front left tire was deflated making it impossible to get underneath and parts were crammed around the car and overflowing the inside. Plus the ‘rhino coating‘ they had put on the car was absorbing the light making it hard to inspect the frame rails . I had to trust the listing and the words of the man. When thinking about what more I could have done to inspect the car I’m short of answers. I think the methods you’ll see below will show themselves to be rather complicated and involved, not something you would expect to encounter within the normal course of getting a car from a body shop. Consider the following language from UCC Uniform Commercial Code § 2-314 stating that “a warranty that [] goods shall be

merchantable is implied in a contract for their sale if the seller is a merchant with respect to goods of

that kind.” “Merchantable” goods must be “fit for the ordinary purposes for which the goods are

used.”

Now unfortunately for me in his facebook listing the language at some point casually says the words “as is“ which typically provides the seller an inordinate amount of leeway in disclaiming responsibility for claims made about the car that could have been detectable upon reasonable inspection. But again, what is reasonable? And they certainly do not provide protection for him in the case of overt misrepresentation.

When I finally got the car on big 6 ton jack stands I immediately noticed