I moved FAST on this one! 1970 Fastback!

[waketek516 10]

Hey Guys,

 

Well after the disaster of a car I looked at last weekend:

http://www.1969stang.com/mustang/forum/showthread.php?t=13266

 

I found another - this time a lot farther away in Texas. From the description it looked good, and after talking with the owner on the phone several times we settled on a deal. Turns out he used to do mustang restorations, and retired a few years ago. He had two cars left, and finished one for himself, and decided to sell the '70 before finishing it.

 

The good news is that its an original Nevada car, and spent the last decade in Texas. Both quarters were professionally repaired and one was replaced. The rails and boxes are in amazing shape, and the car has never been hit or cut up. He had started to replace the floors but didn't do the finish welding yet. He just has them tacked in. The car was sprayed in primer a few years ago, and there is really only minimal surface rust on some spots.

 

He has ALL the parts for the car except a hood, decklid, carpet, and dash pad. Other than that he's sending me every single spare 69-70 spare parts he has so I'll have the pick of the litter. He's also got a decent 351w block that I can either "see if I can get going" as he said... or just rebuild it.

 

He said it was originally an Auto, but somewhere in its life it was changed to a stick since it has the clutch pedal installed. It's also got an 8.8" rear. I ordered the Marti Report, so I'm hoping to learn more when that comes in a few days.

 

I'm super excited to start the work, but will have to wait ~14-days for the shipping company to pick it up and get it out here!

 

Here's the pics he sent me... more to come as soon as I get them!

 

 

I'm going to start a progress thread in the other section as well! So look for that coming soon!

Edited April 5, 2013 by waketek516

[390mach1 49]

Good luck with your build.

[rawlinss 14]

sweeet. best of luck!

[69FB 12]

Looks like a great starting point. Far better than the other one you were looking at buying. Good luck with the build and keep us posted on your progress.

[waketek516 10]

Got the Marti Report!

 

Looks like most of what the seller thought was true is in fact true! (good news)

[waketek516 10]

Ew.... haha

 

 

This WAS my interior:

 

And THIS was the exterior (not as bad)

[Restomod 10]

Wait are those pics of the car before the guy tore it apart? Or did you just grab those to show the colors from another car?

 

I must be crazy because more and more I am liking all these weird colors with different interior than black. Just seems like we went through a time where everyone changed the paint to something more popular and put the interior to black. I think having the weird combos should be the new cool thing to do, everything comes back around again eventually?

[Mike65 476]

I sorta like that interior color.

[Fordrevhead 29]

I would buy that interior in a heartbeat.

[waketek516 10]

No, I just pulled that from the interwebs. Someone had painted the car red at one point, and put a black interior in it. You can just barely see some of the red on the hinges that weren't media blasted.

[waketek516 10]

Good News!!!! The shipping company is coming to pick it up in the next hour!

 

My seller in Texas has it all packed up! LOL

[Pakrat 1,043]

I'm not a big fan of the Ginger personally but I like it much better when there aren't 5 different shades of it sprinkled about the cabin. Leaving the dashpad and carpet black for example goes a long way in making it look nicer. I also find the wood grain to be a little too much with this color.

[waketek516 10]

Well... we've hit our first hiccup.

 

Yesterday I got an email from the transport company saying that a driver is on his way to get the car. So I think - AWESOME! So I call my seller to let him know, and I'm happy to hear they called him as well to give a heads up. He says they should be there in an hour.

 

After an hour, my seller calls me back, and says that the driver threw a fit when he got there and started yelling and cursing at him. Saying "They didn't tell me this was a non-running piece of sh!t!" When my seller showed him a copy of my invoice that clearly stated "NON-RUNNING PROJECT CAR", he got even more mad saying that he's not hauling garbage across the country. He then jumped in his rig, and left without calling his dispatcher or me.

 

So.... Now I'm FURIOUS and call the shipping company and tell them what my seller just had to deal with. They were quite surprised by what I was saying, so I don't think they had any idea what happened. They start apologizing and saying that the driver WAS made aware it was non-running, and that was NOT an issue. They tell me they'll call him, and then call me back within the hour.

 

When they do call back they're apologizing to me even more (my guess is that the driver fucked up and never read the invoice). They tell me that they're expediting the search for another pickup, and even had me email them a pic of the car so that a driver would know EXACTLY what to expect. So now they're hoping to find someone today, but said it might be as late as this weekend.

 

Needless to say - I'm not too happy about this, but will hold off on passing judgement on the company until I see how quickly they resolve it.

[MustangGT 11]

Hopefully a part of their resolution will be a price reduction. If not I would 'complain' loud enough to force the issue and get a price break -- then you could use that $$$ on your build.

[Pakrat 1,043]

Did you have an ETA for it's arrival based on the original pick up date? If so then once they call you back confirming the new plan I would tell them something to the effect that the body shop you contracted cleared space for you starting on a certain date and wether the car is there or not you have to pay a fee for each passing day, that should get a dsicount or at least speedier service since you can force the issue that you shouldn't be liable for these fees for their mistake.

 

I have shippeed my car around the country 3 times all with the same company and almost every place I looked into originally had a big disclaimer that they will only take running cars, large carriers just aren't normally set up with a tow cable to load it and often the cars don't come off in the same order they go on with sub contracted drivers so loading it on and off again is a pain when it doesn't run.

[waketek516 10]

Did you have an ETA for it's arrival based on the original pick up date? If so then once they call you back confirming the new plan I would tell them something to the effect that the body shop you contracted cleared space for you starting on a certain date and wether the car is there or not you have to pay a fee for each passing day, that should get a dsicount or at least speedier service since you can force the issue that you shouldn't be liable for these fees for their mistake.

 

I have shippeed my car around the country 3 times all with the same company and almost every place I looked into originally had a big disclaimer that they will only take running cars, large carriers just aren't normally set up with a tow cable to load it and often the cars don't come off in the same order they go on with sub contracted drivers so loading it on and off again is a pain when it doesn't run.

 

I've played that sob-story so far (I'm paying for storage out here based on the original Monday delivery date), they said "We'll see what we can do", but I haven't pressed them hard yet on price - I just want the damn thing picked up. Technically they have 1-5 business days to find a carrier from the first date I stated which was 4/10. If they don't have something by Tuesday - I'm going to throw an even bigger fit, and ask for a major refund on this.

 

As for your latter statement - they KNEW it was non-running. I talked to two customer service people before I placed the order, and when I did finally order the shipment - I had the sales guy put it on the invoice which I have a copy of. It clearly states "NON-RUNNING PROJECT CAR - NO MOTOR - ROLLS/STEERS - PARTS INCLUDED SECURED IN CAR"

 

I'm really hoping to get this picked up again today.

[Restomod 10]

Is this one of the national companies or a smaller place that bid on the job through a broker?

[waketek516 10]

Is this one of the national companies or a smaller place that bid on the job through a broker?

 

Smaller place through a broker I think... they keep saying "we're still looking for a driver"

 

 

.... I'm getting fed up.

[Pakrat 1,043]

Oh I know you made sure they were clear on the cars condition, I'm just saying that finding another company willing to take a non runner might be difficult because most won't even consider it, at least that was my experience. Unless you hire a private or enclosed trailer or are doing a transit that is a regular run like say east to west or northeast to Florida most of the companies use sub-contracted drivers who happen to be passing by around abouts where you are and want to be and have an open slot along the way. These are all supposed to be pre-approved and fully insured drivers but you obviously either got stuck with an A-hole or this company doesn't use enough scrutiny. Even though I used the same company 3 times I had one guy that was an ass about it, he still did his job at least but gave me crap and he was the one that didn't get a tip at the end either.

[waketek516 10]

Oh I know you made sure they were clear on the cars condition, I'm just saying that finding another company willing to take a non runner might be difficult because most won't even consider it, at least that was my experience. Unless you hire a private or enclosed trailer or are doing a transit that is a regular run like say east to west or northeast to Florida most of the companies use sub-contracted drivers who happen to be passing by around about where you are and want to be and have an open slot along the way. These are all supposed to be pre-approved and fully insured drivers but you obviously either got stuck with an A-hole or this company doesn't use enough scrutiny. Even though I used the same company 3 times I had one guy that was an ass about it, he still did his job at least but gave me crap and he was the one that didn't get a tip at the end either.

 

That's exactly what's happening now... I finally got escalated to a manager, and while kicking and screaming about cancelling my order, he offered to send it via enclosed transport at a discounted rate. I told him to get someone fast, cuz I'm sick of dealing with them.

 

My rough break-even is like $1,300. That's what I estimate it would cost me to rent a trailer, drive out there, and drive back. So as long as they come in under that amount - I'll still do it. Right now he's well below that which is the only reason I'm even entertaining still dealing with them.

 

Now they have my order re-opened so that an Enclosed transport can come get it... I'm back to playing the waiting game.:death:

[Restomod 10]

I used Intercity which is national and enclosed. They also went from place of origin to my door which was important to because some companies play hide the car at depots.

 

Any way it only cost me 1100 from Texas to upstate NY and that was enclosed to start. Not sure where you are going to or from though. Just as an opinion if you ditch this company eventually I would call the 4 major lines or so and find one that makes a run in that area. I had such a better experience just dealing direct than using those bid broker places. Some of the guys calling me weren't even in this country and just wanted to schedule it.

[waketek516 10]

Yeah... I'm giving them till Monday.

 

We'll see what happens

[Pakrat 1,043]

Wow, so they tried to just cancel and walk away eh? I'll bet they don't usually take non-runners either and the person who took your order F'd up big time. That his a pretty high ceiling to hit for doing it yourself, in the end it is far better to leave it to them and I just can't imagine it costing close to that. I used AAA Transporters each time and my last time (2002) was 3 cars from N. Texas to E. Boston and it was just around a grand.

[waketek516 10]

Update as of this morning... They've got me an enclosed transport, and refunded my deposit as well. I'm still not happy its taken 2 weeks just to get the car on a damn trailer, but at least its finally getting picked up!

 

They're supposed to pick it up today, and it should be here in SoCal by Saturday.

 

**Crosses Fingers**

:001_huh::001_huh:

[Pakrat 1,043]

Good luck! Keep us posted.