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How To Decide What Muscle Car To Buy

Let's say that you have decided to buy a classic muscle car, and maybe you and the family plan to restore it and go to the local car shows, but since you this is to be your first muscle car your wondering what car you should buy, this really is up to you, but I will give you a couple of hints.

First of all you might want to consider a car that you have always wanted, most people have some preference about what they like in a muscle car, but if this is your first restoration, you may want to consider a few things, this isn't meant to sway you one way, or the other, it's just good to know.

If your working with a budget that may help you to make your decision, there are a few things to consider if your going to run on a budget, first of all the most expensive cars to restore are Mopars, the parts are hard to find a lot of the time, and people know what they want for them.

I restored 1970 Dodge charger R/T for a client some time ago, we needed upper and lower control arms for the front suspension, it turns out that at the time nobody was selling them in the after market, so we went looking for some used ones, and we found them at a price of $800.00 a piece, that is $3,200.

They just didn't build a lot of the Mopar muscle cars, and they got in to the market late, so they are very rare and hard to find, and this means more money to restore, but that about enough of that, I'm going to talk about some other key points to think about as you look for your muscle car.

I'm going to look at some issues that may be good for a first time car restoration experience, these are things that may answer some questions about which cars are harder to restore for a first car restoration, these things will be to do with the body restoration.

First of all if you want to start out with the cat that is the easiest to restore I would say that you should be looking at a first or second generation camaro, let me explain why I say this, first of all when you restore a car, that first thing you do after you get it, is to build a list of the parts that you need.

The first thing with the camaro is you can get almost every part you need from the after market, most of them are readily available to you, and because of this you can get parts for great prices, so it may fit your budget a bit better.

Just in case a camaro isn't your idea of the perfect car to restore, I'm going to cover some body problems that Ford, Chevrolet, and Mopar all had, and this should help you to decide on you idea of the perfect car to restore.

Up first is the camaro, this will apply to first, or second generation camaros, you should always inspect the body of any classic car before you buy it, especially if it's your first restoration job, what I will do here is explain the problem areas on each car.

First of all I'd look for bad body work, because this is one reason why a car will rust, make sure that you have a note book with your, so you can document what you find on each car, and use your note to compare that cars to find the best one for you to start with.

Camaro Problem Areas: This is a general Chevrolet problem area, as with most classic Chevrolet's the camaro like to rust in the rocker panels, and these are a major structural part o the body, if you see any rust you should replace them.

The rocker panels can be found just below the doors on any car, take your time as you inspect them, make sure that you don't miss anything, next we'll move to the front end of the car, and take a look at the sub frame, and engine compartment area of the car.

Sub Frame & Engine Compartment: The sub frame of most camaros really isn't that prone to rust, but I would still inspect it to make sure, the area that I would concentrate is the radiator support, and the firewall, you should also look at the wheel wells, although I have never found them to be a problem area.

Floor Boards: This can be a problem for any classic car, but it seems to affect the camaro less then the mustang, and most Mopars, although I would still put the car up on a hoist and look at the floor boards, these are areas that can make your first time restoration a pain in the butt.

Rear Wheel Wells: This is another one of those areas that you should look at on all classic cars, the rear wheels drive the car, and therefore tend to throw more rocks in to the wheel wells, this chips off the undercoating and causes them to rust, so you should always look at these.

If you look in wheel well and can't see any problems, be sure to open the trunk and look at them from there also, the rust can't hide from you in there, will will see it if it's there, take you flash light and make sure that you look at this really thoroughly, these can be another problem for a first time restoration project.

That covers the major stuff on the camaro, for both the first generation, and the second generation of them, now for the reason other then parts availability that I say that the camaro is easier for the first time restoration project.

Plain an simple the camaro has a removable sub frame, technically the other do to, but you have to drill out the spot welds that hold them in the car to remove them, the camaro sub frame is held in by four bolts, and is really quite easy to remove.

Up next the Ford mustang, this is probably one of the most popular muscle cars ever built, and it has some areas that need to be looked at before you buy one , it's no better or worse then any other choice, you just need to think of your skill level, but this applies to all of them.

Mustang Problem Areas:

Sub Frame & Engine Compartment: Mustangs are notorious for rusting in the radiator support, and if you can't just patch the rust and leave the original part in the car, you'll be spending time drilling spot welds to remove the radiator support, this in my opinion makes it harder then a camaro to restore.

You also want to pay close attention to the side skirts in the engine compartment, this is where the fenders bolt to the car, the mustang loved to rust there, and there again these are not removable without drilling spot welds out, this is why I say to take you skill level in to consideration.

Floor Boards: Moving on back, the floor boards are a problem area in most classic cars, you should always look at them, I do find the mustang to have a worse problem then the camaro when it comes to floor board rust.

Rocker Panels: Over the years I have noticed that these aren't really a huge problem on the mustang, but you should still look at them, and just like the camaro, if you find any rust at all, you should replace them without question.

Rear Wheel Wells: As with most cars these are a problem, you should always look at them, if you can't see them very well just looking in from the out side, open the trunk and look there, the rust can't hide from your eyeballs there.

Trunk Floors: This is another area that seems to be pretty solid on the mustang, I don't see them rust here a lot, but it does happen and you should inspect it, this takes care of the problem areas on the mustang, and it should help you decide what car to buy.

Dodge Charger Problem Areas: As for as rust in the body the mopars seem to have a worse problem then any other make of classic car, this isn't by any means bashing on mopar, I love them, these are just observations from the cars that I have restored.

Mopar Problem Areas:

Sub Frame & Engine Compartment: In the charger the battery sits on the passenger side of the engine compartment, and these cars always rust where the battery tray is, they also rust on top of the fender skirts where the fenders bolt to the car, and moderate in the front wheel wells.

The radiator support seems to be pretty solid, most of them have a small patch-able rust hole or two in the radiator support, and after you fix them you usually don't find any more problems in this area, mopar seems to have done a good job of protecting the radiator support. Floor Boards:

These are a huge problem on the B body cars, on the charger that we restored, it came in with no floor boards left in it, this seems to be a pretty normal thing, so you must look at the floor boards on any mopar muscle car.

Rocker Panels: I didn't find these to be a big problem at all on most mopars the rocker panels seem to be quite solid, but as I keep saying, it doesn't mean that shouldn't look at them, and like the other two cars above, if you find any rust, replace them. Rear Wheel Wells:

These are an area that should never be left out in your inspection of a mopar muscle car, I have found these to be a big problem over the years of restoring cars, and I think that you will to, so please look at them closely.

Trunk Floors: These are in my opinion the worst part of a mopar muscle car, and should always be replaced, you should inspect them to see if they have been replaced already, and if no you should plan on doing it when you restore the car.

Tail Lights: These cars also seem to have a problem with rust in the tail light area, usually in the curved area below the tail lights, but you should inspect very carefully around the tail light area, and plan on some repair work there also.

Well that's about it, I truly hope that helps you make an educated decision when you go shopping for your first muscle car restoration project, I really enjoy writing these articles, and I hope that they help you in some small way to make your classic car dreams come true.

Muscle Cars

About the Author

I've been in the automotive industry for about 25 years, and over that time it has given so much to me, I figure that it's about time for me to give some back, and that is what this is all about.

Car Restoration

What are your top 10 favorite muscle cars?

I saw a video on youtube about this and I disagreed with their list... big time. It's always a good topic to debate. And I'm not even defining "muscle car" here... I'm just curious as to what kind of answers I'll get. If anybody says anything I've never heard of... Here's my top 10... (I'm a MOPAR man... if you can't tell...)

10. 1974 Plymouth Road Runner
9. 1966 Dodge Coronet R/T
8. 1969 Ford Mustang Boss 429
7. 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle SS 396
6. 1970 1/2 Chevrolet Camaro SS 350
5. 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T
4. 1969 Plymouth Road Runner
3. 1970 Chevrolet Chevell SS 454
2. 1968 Dodge Charger R/T
1. 1970 Plymouth Hemi Cuda

What about your favorites? This ought to be interesting...

1970 AMC Rebel The Machine
1966 Pontiac GTO
1970 Pontiac GT-37
1970 Pontiac Tempest Magnum 400
1970 AMC Horonet
1968 Pontiac Beaumont
1974 Roadrunner
1968 Olds 442
1957 Amc Rebel
1971 Pontiac GTO Judge

MY TOP 10 AMERICAN MUSCLE CARS!!!