Them wheels should blow the deal.

Do it! YOLO. Just the thing for the "stay at home during the virus" crowd. You've probably got most of the stuff you need just laying around - and you need to break in that new shop with a new project!

Well s o ing a like you have already made up your mind, well kind of lol

Its troubling that $5k is now considered a good price.  When I started this hobby that thing might've fetch $500.

Two schools of thought on this:

1.) The wrong car at the right price is still the wrong car.
2.) Is there money to be made with a quick flip?  Drop a motor and trans in it, get it running and driving, and what's it worth then?  How much would that take?  How much of what you need to do it do you already have, or could source easily from other forum members?

Sure , what’s one more build to guy of your caliber??  Between the house garage and shop, you should be good for one more car.

Prof wrote:

How is it you come across all the awesomest finds?
That vert rocks! All my spares would complete that car all the way up to body & paint.
Good luck deciding what to do.

And that first line probably explains what you should do.  You keep stumbling across these finds.  How does that keep happening if you aren't looking for them?  Consciously or unconsciously you seem drawn to projects. 
 

Wish I had your troubles.  lol   Great find, I've always wanted to restore a vert.

Did you buy it or did someone stop you ? It's the question of the day

My leg pain was not so bad today, so I drove the half mile to go look at the convertible.  This really is a rust-free car that has never been bent.  The top is shot but the top frame components are in nice shape. The floor still have original paint on them and no surface rust.  Underside is original and not rusty. Doors and fenders are off but in great shape. This is probably the nicest mustang project I have ever come across.
No engine or trans... or title. 

After a thorough walk-around inspection, the A code vin was evident on the passenger side, but the driver side vin had been nicely cut out of the inner fender.  It was gone.   So, I bet there is another Mustang convertible registered somewhere with the vin from this car.  If it were not for the missing vin, I would gladly have bought the car.

Why would someone do this to a perfectly viable car?  Only thing I can figure is they bought this one cheap and placed the vin on another car, probably that was stolen.  Sure was sad to see the missing vin.  That number could turn up in another state or who knows...   not something I need to take a risk on.

Rudi wrote:

Is there no way to work around this issue? Can you use the vin that is still there? I don’t know what rules Texas has.
In Canada you can build a car and have it registered as a one off.

 
The problem is the missing vin is probably nicely welded into someone’s stolen convertible, or otherwise used to clone an A code convertible.  A car with that vin likely exists somewhere, annd I do not want a car with compromised credentials.

Call your local police/ sheriff department and have them run the vin. Just tell them the truth about you thinking of buying it. I've done that with cars and guns.

Sheriff’s office says it is not stolen, per the vin. But that doesn’t mean that vin is not active on a car that was cloned and moved to another state. 

I just went through similar issues on my 68 GT500KR, so I don’t need the aggravation of dealing with it.