Well, I can offer some advice on the Mustang. Having owned a 71 Mach 1 (and 2 other classic stangs), I can tell you that they are the least poplular of all the "classic" Mustangs (65-73). The usual rust rules apply to these cars as all classic years of Mustang (Rustangs after all), floors, trunk, trunk drops, rear quarters, rockers, and even the bottoms of the A pillars can go bad. Rust is a major problem in these cars as they are unibody and bad rot can potentially effect the structural integrity of the car. I've seen a few Mustangs with extensive rot sag in the middle. Watch the doors, they are very long and heavy on the 71-73's, more so than any other year Mustang, and as such when the hinges wear they will droop and not close correctly. Motors are typical Ford V8 bulletproof, but they do wear and lose compression and blow oil as they age same as any other. If it's a 351 then you are in luck, the Cleveland motor is in my opinion the best small block V8 that Ford ever put in the Mustang. The old sales line was "the small block that runs like a big block" and boy did they mean it. I had some minor mods on mine and man did that sucker fly, even for a large heavy car. Oodles of torque to be had. Only problem with the Cleveland is they tend to not get good lubrication to the rear end of the cam and rockers, so be mindful of wear in that area of the motor has miles on it. Watch out if it's an automatic, the 71-73 cars used the FMX transmission on the small blocks, not the older, tried and true C4. The FMX was supposed to be a better performer, but turned out to be not as rugged as the C4. As such today it is less popular and, hence, more expensive to rebuild and harder to find performance parts for. I actually had to get my local tranny guy to basically build me a shift improver kit for mine as there wasn't one available comercially for the FMX. It does shift nice though when set up correctly, I could get rubber between all gears in mine letting it shift itself. Be careful about the owners claim of it being a Mach 1 though. All of the exterior body pieces that made up the Mach 1 package are readily available and could be installed on a plain jane fastback and claimed to be a Mach 1. The only items that are hard to come by these days are the Mach 1 flip open gas cap and the ram air hood with the functional ducts. The hood itself is pretty easy to get hold of but the baffle and aircleaner to make it functional are hard to find. However, it could still be a Mach 1 and have the none functional hood (mine did). Anyway, easiest way to save yourself some trouble is to just run the VIN. For 73 it breaks down this way:
Example:
3F05HXXXXXX
The 3 is the year (1973), the F is the build plant (Dearborn), the next two digits are what your are interested in, the body type. In this case 05 is a Mach 1. If it has an 02 it's a plain old fastback, and I'd say walk if the guy is touting it as a Mach, unless you call his bluff and get him to come way down on the price. It might still be a nice car, just not as collectible, and potentially valuable, as a Mach. The next letter, H, is the engine code. A Mach 1 would be a V8 only, but it could have the 302 or either the 351 2 barrel carb or 4 barrel carb (F=302, H=351 2V, Q=351 4V). The last 6 digits is the build number of the car.
I really love the 71-73 cars, I dearly loved my 71. Sitting in the thing is like sitting in a torpedo. It's long, low, wide, and you sit really low in the car. The windows are gun slit narrow, and the rear glass is so horizontal its pretty much useless. I had louvers on my rear glass and together with the black interior the car was like a tomb inside, very cool. I always said that if Darth Vader ever drove a Mustang it would be a 71 black on black Mach 1. If it's a rust free car and has a 351 in it, and even better a manual trans, I'd say go for it if it's a good price. Hard for me to pin a price on this car, I've been out of the Mustang market for a few years now, but as I said these cars are the least loved of the classic years and as such the prices can be considerably lower. However, if its a real Mach, and the ownner knows that and knows that the Machs are somewhat more rare these days, he may be looking to really get top dollar for the car. All the rage over the new Stang isn't helping you either, as every guy out there with a classic stang for sale is trying to cash in on the nostalgia.
Sorry for the long post.
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