If it was done right, there wouldn't be any profit in it. Never buy a resto from a flipper.

Don't know if it's true or not, but I've heard there are more '57 Chevy "convertibles" registered today than were built.

This occurs because the prices of all classic cars have reached ridiculous levels. This invites the unscrupulous. The prices for garbage cars from the casual enthusiast are, as a result, way overpriced.

I worked at a British car resto shop, and the old part owner was selling a drophead 150 project. He had us get under it and tack weld a piece of flimsy sheet metal on the frame then coat it with spray on liner. He was laughing about it because he knew if he could sell it to someone, they would likely have the shop restore it, and he could report that it turns out the chassis needed major work. Such a ripoff. I now own an upholstery shop that does NOT rip off customers. We don't put cheap covers over old and we can sew straight seams. But just as bad as those wanting to flip and rip off are also those customers that watch too much TV and think we can do a full interior over the commercial break. Drives me crazy most of the time.

I went to Mecum auction in Indianapolis last year.. the amount of cars that were hacked together with junk.. I mean junk, then covered in bondo and painted is unbelievable.. I got pre approved as a bidder, and after spending an entire day looking at the cars I was interested in, I left and didn't even watch them cross the block.. it was sad..

One thing my dad taught me early on is a common sign of poor workmanship is looking the rockers over. Fly by nighters and wheeler dealers rarely ever invest any time or effort into the areas that aren’t readily visible. You’d be surprised how many ostensibly “nice restorations” have rockers that look like they’ve been worked over with a ball peen hammer. And on closer inspection are absolute turds

How to do a 427 swap: Buy a beat down 390, they put them in trucks all the way to '76. Install in car Swap valve covers and air cleaner sticker with ones that say "427" ????? Profit

This makes me remember many years ago, my dad had a 50 something Ford pickup, that had its roof removed. My sister had a house trailer that was not tied down, and a storm caused it to flip on the truck. We had to remover the top. It was no longer road worthy, but we used it for years to haul pulpwood. I wore goggles to protect my eyes, as it had no windshield. What a sight we were coming down the road!

Tony you remind me so much of the guy's i used to run with back in the day crusin and fixing our heaps. Makes miss the old days and the friends i had. Thanks for being you dont change for anything

This is sad that people are getting stuck with some bad cars or poor workmanship. Thanks for sharing this information. Really appreciate the videos, Uncle Tony.

That is insane! Definitely the work of a flipper with no regard of safety to the driver and devaluing a classic. Another great video Tony!

Ruined that Mustang to make money, and screwed the customer. Nobody wins except the crooked shop, short term.

You don’t need fancy camera when your content is honest and interesting. Thanks Tony & Kiwi!

I work next to a shop in Scottsdale down the road from where Barrett Jackson is held. They routinely conduct inspections on auction cars. You would be horrified at the butchery that happens.

Everyone is a flipper these days. Cars and houses, and 95% of the work they do sucks ass.

People used to bring the car for a look over before the purchase , now a days most people bring it after

We did that exact thing in high school with a 71 Buick elytra 225 4 door with the 455. Such a fun beater. We weren’t trying to hide anything though. Just kids having summer fun doing 200 yard one wheel peels.

This reminds me of that video you did when checking out that red car for that lady that had the serial numbers welded into a car with a different year front clip guy was "selling for his brother." Showing us what to look for. Thanks for sharing your expertise.

The fellow has a good point at around the 8 minute mark. A lot of folks get mad at the messenger, when they get told that they bought a dressed up turkey.

I stopped going to car shows because the cars were either mudded over classics that were rust buckets underneath or high dollar restorations by someone that threw stupid money at stuff that I just couldn't relate to. Neither interested me.

There's another, unintended lesson here as well. If you add the convertible-only reinforcements, Monte Carlo bar, and export brace you'll get a far more rigid and solid-feeling coupe or fastback. Step up to the Boss 302-specific shock tower reinforcements and belly bar to really transform the car.

We are truly screwed as a culture....no more skill sets.....but we like our pretty lights....pretty lights..... pretty lights.....

I feel bad for those guys getting ripped off like that. So many scumbags in this world.

I was the one that made the comment about walking past the green Camaro. I dropped a timestamp and mentioned I'm a huge Camaro nut. There's something about the 2nd gens, they look so good. I had a '71 with a high comp 350 with a mean cam. Of course I slapped a high rise intake on it and long tubes. 3.73 gears 4-speed. The thing about these cars that surprises most people is how good they handle. Really fun cars. Not real fast but quick enough. I'm not a huge Mustang guy but whoever sold that red hack job convertible should be exposed. That ain't right. There's a few places up here in Northeast PA that were pulling crap like that in the early 2000's. I almost bought an '86 Monte Carlo SS until I realized it wasn't a real SS. It was a 4.3 V6 car that someone put SS parts on and dropped in a junkyard 350. It looked convincing for about 10 minutes and the paint was real nice on it. The motor mounts didn't look right and that's what made me dig deeper. The car wasn't worth half of what they were selling it for.

I mean surely the new owner checked the vin tag? Classic New owner didn't look past the fast red paint.

THIS is why the only way I'll own a classic car is if I do all the work myself. There is a VAST difference when the person who does the work actually drives the car and thus is responsible for their own life. Besides, I think the best part of owning a classic is doing all the fixing yourself.

One of my neighbors knows that I have an MGB, and he was looking to buy one. He asked me if I could have a quick look at it for him, since he figured I would know if it was junk or not. Well, the first thing I do is tap the rockers, and sure enough there was a little rust pile falling out of the "new" rockers. They were also trying to tell him that the gearbox was a racing unit, and you had to double clutch every shift up. I asked them to start it, and it was in dire need of rod bearings. Sometimes it is nice to do things like the for someone who clearly would have gotten ripped off.

As a classic mini owner the first thing I look at on a car after a look at the sills is the boot/ trunk. If someone has really restored and made that nice it is a pretty good bet the rest is well done too. I've seen a staggering number of lnicely presenting cars where when you look in the back it looks more like a trash heap.

I just remembered that I stumbled across UTG when the video of the meetup to look at that red car the dude was saying was his uncles or someone's but it was clearly a hack job by all appearances.

Well , resale red is always a red flag to me, It makes me suspicious immediately. Mustangs and Camaros have to be the most commonly hacked cars just due to production and desirability. Great PSA Tony, keep em coming as you find them. There's a whole lot of people that just don't have a clue..... and alakazaam!...the money's gone. Thanks for sharing

My cousin is an A body Barracuda expert. There was one for sale at a car show, top dollar 'professional' restoration. The more my cousin looked, the more he found that was wrong. Sobering experience.

Funny thing. I bought my car years ago and made all the worst mistakes and ended up getting really lucky. While my car had some issues it was/is a really solid car that has all of it's original panels, floors, trunk pan, etc. That being said, if I ever bought another classic I'd be way more careful than I was the last time, especially with how high the prices are now.

I am not a fan of muscle cars or any American car whatsoever however I am a fan of uncle tony!

If I'm not mistaken even the sheet metal in the floor on a convertible is thicker than the coupe sad someone destroyed a nice looking coupe to make a fake convertible

It'd probably be smarter to just put a roof back onto the mustang coupe where it should be.

I about spit out my dinner when you mentioned the backyard hacked Oldsmobile delta 88 with the roof sawed off because I actually had a 1976 Olds 98 Regency 4 door, 455 that my grandmother stopped driving in favor of a much more efficient car.....she gave it to me so I got out my uncles 4" Makita Angle Grinder and convertiblized it. The addition of single Flowmaster muffler and flpped air filter lid made it a muscle car. Krylon slate blue spray cans replaces the appliance white original paint. Me and all my buddy's drove it from May to October 1997 before I yanked the 455 for a cutlass swap and scrapped it. Best thing was that it did seat 8 to 10 people comfortably. Lol

If you think a fixer upper is expensive then try a "restoration".

Mine was a 75 Lemans with a big block 350 . I ripped the headliner out , laid down fire blankets and used a torch to remove the roof. Drove it all summer 1987 . The best $50 car I owned in highschool. BTW, it never sagged, I made sure it had a full frame first

The owner should go back to the seller and demand his money back.This is fraud and a jail time crime.

You can tell the side oiler from the lower sides. There's 3 bolts at the bottom because it's a cross bolted mains design. Although you can cross bolt any FE, you can also bore out a 360 IF it measures up, or sleeve any FE to 427 bore.

The first thing you do with an old car is check the VIN. I thought everybody knew that.

I feel like if I searched "topless triplets" I would get a completely different video. 🤣

Interesting thing. I think the wheel arches being beaten down is a factory thing on the 1st generation. I owned 2 73 convertibles and both had the top of the wheel arches smacked down pretty hard and factory paint over top of it. This car isn't factory. But the used a factory procedure. There's was probably one big dude on the convertible line with a sledgehammer who's job was the smack the wheel arches till the tops fit

I do like the content and you're exposing the people doing bad work. I would say that is a stellar success.

Last time I was this early my parents found out what oops meant

Not sure if it was mentioned in an earlier comment but not only was this not a factory convertible but not likely a factory GT either. Factory GTs did NOT have the metal trim on the side nor the rocker panel and EXTREMELY unlikely that an owner would add these after the fact

Videos like this kill me. Car prices keep rising because flippers do shoddy work like this, and guys with more money than brains run out and have a bidding war over a car that's pretty on the outside but rotten otherwise. Roached out rust buckets are selling for the price that decent drivers were three years ago. I'm glad there's honest people like Kiwi out there who are doing right by these cars and really preserving them, so that maybe someday the ego maniacs who only drive these once a month to go get ice cream and flash their cash, will someday end up in the hands of real enthusiasts who can enjoy them. Like you said tony, it's one thing to have fun with a car for personal use, but another to purposely try and dress it up just for a quick retail buck. I feel bad for these mustang owners, it sucks to get ripped off!

Man I got to say always impressed by the vast amounts of knowledge. Great content.

Screw that ordinary Camaro, what's up with that awesome Mercury next to it. What's it? Possibly 58 turnpike cruiser?

Amen!!!! Finally someone who knows what work hardening is and how it works! Uncle Tony, you know your stuff!

One of the first things I learned about what to look for when buying a used car of type but especially something that you know has had work done is to look at details. If you see spots where they cut corners like Tony showed here with the rockers and paint runs left in trunk and even left over compound from where they buffed it and didn't take the time to wipe off the excess out of the cracks and crevices there is a good chance the whole car was done shotty so walk away.

Im just wondering if a car is bought from a classic car dealership is there a comeback? Would a new owner have a 90 day warranty to cover situations exactly like this? Years ago I went to look at a classic car that had a "nut and bolt " restoration a month prior to it being in the showroom.I asked the dealer could I have a professional independant inspection and report at my own cost?This request was absolutely refused and they wouldn't let it be checked out! His exact words were you can have it inspected when you've bought it, needless to say I walked!!!

Weird that the body work, which seems impossible to me, is so beautiful and yet the unseen strengthening parts which any hack like me could weld-grind-weld-grind-weld were skipped.

Man Tony, i rewatched the red 1971-1973 duster video again from 4 years ago and it will never cease to amaze me how douchie humans can be brother. Thank you fair being the mopar words of wisdom sir. You are appreciated

The black Mustang needs the engine placed properly and they might as well use a hydroboost brake system to save space. A rear sump pan might be in order as well.

My buddy rolled his 51 Ford shoebox 2 door sedan on graduation day 1967. Easy roll just caved the top for a ways behind the windshield, which also broke. So we torched (never heard of a sawzall or hand grinder in 67) the roof off just above the door seam on the B pillar. Winsdhield as well, but left the A pillars. Welded a 36 Ford windshield to the driver side A pillar and a home made angle iron extra A pillar to hold it on the drinker's side as it was about a foot short of the real A pillar. He drove it all summer, but eventually the highway bulls nailed him because the top of the windshield was about 2" to low above the seat...(they claimed...like who ever heard of that???) so we took out the seat bottom padding to lower it LOL They were not amused, but had to sign off on it. But they were out to get him after that.

Tony sounded like beavis near the end, “I want play with Fords.”

Hey Uncle Tony, excellent show. I had 3 Chevy trucks inspected by an independent company in the US before I imported mine to Australia. It cost me approximately $500 AUS each time but it was worth it. In reality it saved thousands of $$ & a big headache. Cheers😊

The result of a shop owner who does no actual work pressuring his employees to "get it done by next week, I have a buyer coming in to see it finished". Many times it comes down to "you can't leave until it's finished". Guys in the shop say screw it and let's get it done. Add to that, shop owner most likely screams, cusses, and throws tantrums when he don't get his way. I worked under similar conditions painting big trucks. We turned out some jobs we were not proud of unfortunately.

Spot on about the structure differences between a hardtop and a convertible...and it's not exclusive to unibody cars, either. Most full framed cars have differences as well, like in 60's gm a bodies. It's common for the frame to be boxed further along it's length, etc. to accommodate the soft top.

if he really bought it at a dealership. he needs to make them handle it. they would have known it was unsafe and cant sell that. he could sue or most likely settle out of court as they could get in big trouble for it.

This shop is around the corner from my house in Franklin, TN. Always busy, always cool stuff out front.

Bake in the day(1976), my buddy had a 68 BB Mustang FB and he twisted/cracked the frame. I had a 67 Mustang FB and put a 302 in it from a Maverick and a 1 piece front clip w/ teardrop hood scoop. Man I miss the 70s ✌

The guy with the black fast back should have left it a small block. I bet he agrees at this point.

It's amazing how many people spend a pile of money buying a 55 year old car and don't bother to have it checked out or inspected.

This is why I'm subscribed to you! Love this this old school stuff! Helps me alot! Thank you! You always never fail to give info that no one else does. Again, thank you.

You guys are performing a GREAT service to everyone out here! You are wising people up when it comes to buying that "DREAM" car. I think that you should go a step further and start reporting these crooks! They are still out there ruining nice classic cars just to put money in their pockets and not even thinking about the safety issues/Hazards that they are creating... And taking people's hard earned money!!!

That is like the MAACO of engine swaps!

Hi Uncle Tony, these types of videos are just awesome, keep em coming, there's a car lot not far from Kenosha, they make 68-69 chargers, I've looked, and they're def not right

Not bad since it hit a moving train at 120 mph all that was left was a vin tag and a valve stem cap.

Just brilliant catch on the reverse carbs Tony,much respect. i missed that under the cleaner!

When buying a car, you have to be so careful and know what to look for ! "Flipper Farm" ... Just hate these people.

Grew up around dual quad 427s. I look forward to seeing you tune one.

If anyone tells you they just want the car to go to a good home, most of the time some catastrophic failure is imminent and they're trying to get rid of the car before it becomes their problem. (just my two cents)

UT...in an older video, you talked about a car having spray on under coat when it shouldn't, you should walk. the red convertable is one of them.

Tony live and tony here.... UTG^2.

It's not a lemon. It was common to chop tops back in the day. I'd say they did a pretty fantastic job for the most part. Does it suck? Sure but these old cars are always hacked over the years. How to fix it? Weld the top back on and if it's a true gt car this will add to it's History

I see bad body/paint work a few times a year when folks bring them to me to look things over after buying. It's typically poor color matching, blending and poor clear coat adhesion that I see from wrecked auction cars. It baffles me to spend to buy the wreck, spend to buy the body parts, spend the time pulling the car back straight but skimp on using seem sealer. I rack the bad paint blending, color matching and poor edging in the clear up to laziness or a failed management pushing too fast.

Hydroboost the breaks on the bigblock and save a huge headache trying to make room for the booster

The worst paint and body work you'll ever find on a vehicle will be on the bottom edges of body panels. Bondo runs/cracks, paint runs or no paint at all. Its always a good tell tale sign of some fishyness goin on

Theres no reason that car cant be stripped down and the proper supports welded in.

My Ex Wife’s uncle has a 73 Camero and a 73 Firebird. The Camero is a regular driver so not in the best shape but not bad either. The Firebird is a good local car show car. The story behind the Firebird is kinda cool though. It sat in a field back home for over 20 years. People tried to buy it all the time and they just never wanted to sell. Joe went up one night and didn’t ask to buy it. He says hey I will take the car off your hands if you’d like. The gentleman says what will you give me for it. Joe jokingly says $25. The guy was like get it the hell out of here. They spent more to get it towed to his shop than to buy it. Sprayed some oil in the cylinders, put clean gas in it and it fired. His buddy is a body guy so they spent about $3500 in body work and rebuilding the motor and he has himself a nice car to hand down to his boys.

He looks like such a Amiable and smart man. I subbed to his channel. Looking forward to watching his videos.

Dude you should have stopped that Aries K lil blue wagon and filmed it. I had one 88 model 2.5 it hauled all kinds of mopar crap back and forth to the swap. Fun was had by all. I miss that car good fuel mileage and room to boot

My high school car was a '70 Z28 4 speed in that same color, but no vinyl top. I loved that car and drove it into the ground in just 5 years.

The old muscle car scene was always a big grift because of all the old people spending their retirement savings on overpriced American cars from their childhoods.

I knew a guy from high school that was killed when a brake collapsed causing the car to go sideways into oncoming traffic. The original car had a 6 cyclinder in it that was swapped for a 351C. ALWAYS check the brakes and make sure they are up to dong the job

Not a mustang I know but years ago we bought a 1949 Morris minor convertible as we loved it,it didn’t take long to realise that something was up with this car,on the occasional bump in the road the drivers door would pop open! We found a Morris expert and he told us once inspecting the car that it had no bracing whatsoever. It was in fact a two door sedan with a chop top roof. We paid good money for this and we were pissed off to learn that it was going to cost us another couple of thousand to make it right and legal. We had it fixed and it was much better after this and even drove better so I feel for this mustang owner as I’ve been there,done that. Still sucks though

In the 43 years of owning and driving a 68 gt coupe I've never seen any thing so poorly constructed, I can't help but wonder what outcome they expected ,cutting the roof off removes 60% of of structural integrity, feel bad about owner, if I were to buy another mustang, I would get a Marti report on it,bummer.

This is why people my age dont really even mess with these older cars. Finding a good starting point for a personal build is almost impossible either due to the car being rare or all that are for sale are hacked up bondo wagons.

Wow!! a 1 of 1 spec R Stang with loads of weight reduction done to it. Probably was in a Stallone movie in late 80s. The big block just became Big Bullocks

Who wants to bet that “427” is really a 352 with a dress up kit?

KIWI/UT- is that car really not salvageable? What would it really take to make it a usable car? I know they make frame mid sections for these so they can basically body on frame and unibody. If they secured the seats and everything they need to in there they might be able to add frame midsections under it, sway bars and strut bars front and back, and maybe a roll bar to stiffen it up. I know it would stick out but if it makes the car usable then why not?

Horrible. Why are people so greedy as to put some others lives in danger?

You simply MUST exercise due diligence when looking to purchase classic cars (or ANY car for that matter) as the outright fakes are definitely out there. I work in the film business and came off a pilot for a tv show in Arizona late last year (2021). It was set in the 70s and was supposed to showcase all sorts of rare cars of high pedigree that the production spent MILLIONS on. Among them were supposed to be 1970 Ford Torino Cobras in metallic green- obviously super rare, super fast cars. In fact, part of what made them rare are the engine options for that trim level, which consisted of 429 big blocks (Cobra Jet variety as far as I know). Imagine my surprise when I saw 351 Windsors sitting in both of them (they weren’t particularly good running ones, either). So I texted some friends who were much more well-versed in classic Fords than I am and turns out they were standard ‘71 Torinos that were dummied up to look like Cobras- whoever bought the cars for the show got duped into buying what they thought were high-falutin’ Cobra cars. (Not a first for the show as there was a LOT of mismanagement going on.)

In older American convertibles, the manufacturers double walled the bodies for strength, not for racing.

No one runs Vin numbers through old forums or Marti reports for ford cars. So it will be a given that more and more people buy old cars that are bolted together from other cars etc. I found a 69 torino that was closed to be a cobra and the guy refused to send me a Vin. So when I came to check the car out I decoded the vin there and it was a 302 car cloned to be a cobra. Only thing he did wrong was left the vin cards, sad mistake on his part but good effort on mine*** keep up the good work in teaching Tony, I'm 21 and have a mopar mentor myself and it means the world to experience cars this age and not have to worry but it's 2022

Flippers should never have classics, they only want profits and nothing else.

The Abbot and Costello of KZfaq classic car channels. Freakin’ awesome pair, these two are.

There’s a good chance that “427” isn’t a 427, my money is on it being a 390 or a 428 dressed up like a 427. Just like how chevy guys dress 454s like 427s or 350s like 302s