I am currently starting my 3rd restore of my 64 1/2 mustang, it was an original 260 4 speed standard car no PS, 4 wheel drum brake, no A/c car

I got the car back in 1984 from the second owner and spent the next for years restoring it only to have someone hit it and almost total it one month to the day after i finally got it done, it took another year to get it repaired again. well i drove it as a daily driver for the next 15 years or so and the motor got a pin hole in one of the cylinders (260 V8 5 bolt block ) so it had set for a number of years.

I found a 302 to put back in it. I would like some advice on what would be the best way to restore it with mods like the engine and still keep the value of the car up. this is the thing that is got me on the fence do i do a restore back to stock or do i do upgrades and make it more of an updated driver. I am not going to have it as a daily driver anymore but i want to keep the value of it up. I still have all the original parts for the car. please any advice would be great.

 

That is a subject of much debate. If you're going for highest value, unless you want to sink lots of $ into it for a full blown restomod, you're probably not going to see your investment again (and probably not even then). And of course the more "custom" the car, the smaller the market of potential buyers becomes. There are still plenty of purists out there who will appreciate a very stock original car, so my guess is that staying as stock as possible will help hold value the best...but as they say, it's only worth what someone will pay for it.

In my mind, since it's not your DD, that really frees you up to plan out what you want to do with it. If it were me, I'd do lots of research, even check eBay and CL and see what people are trying to sell their cars for...and then see how long they sit there for sale. Then make a full plan and budget it out. It would suck to invest time and resources going one direction only to change course later on. Just my $0.02.

 

Those cars just are not fetching any kind or real money. I don't see them bringing more in the distant future either. Unless you build it to be something radical or real special, you're not gonna get your money out of it. Fastbacks still bring money but base coupes are a dime a dozen. A 302 swap won't make it any more desirable either. Those first gen coupes just get no respect if they are not fastbacks. Camaros on the other hand,(67-69) still bring major bank even though there are just as many out there. Honestly I wouldn't buy a 1st gen mustang if it wasn't a fastback either.

 

I am not rebuilding it to sell, I have had it almost 30 years, I do some changes to it on the first and second restore just minor things like changing the color and two tone seats, added dual exhaust and headers, but other then that the car is still stock. I plan on rebuilding the 260 at some point. I am wanting it just to have and one day give it to one of my kids, I plan on restoring one for each of my 3 kids.

I was thinking about adding, A/C, dual piston master cylinder, things like that, and since its a coupe i know its nothing special, I had thought about making it a mock Twister Mustang and doing a few things like stripes, blackout hood, hood scoop, hood pins. I want it to stand out from the crowd a bit but i don't want to do anything i can't reverse to stock it i ever sell it.