Bought a '91 LX convertible last spring for a pretty good price. It's Calypso Green with white leather sport interior. The seller said it had a new top on it. I'm sure it was new.....at one point in it's life! It was a cheap top, poorly installed with a totally roached vinyl window. The leather interior was also totally shot. There had been past accident damage to the front as well as the left rear quarter. The up side was there was no frame damage and nothing tweaked. The down side was he had tried to work on the rear quarter and made the damage worse.
I was able to use all of the negatives to get a decent amount knocked off the asking price and he wasn't asking a fortune to begin with. Bottom line was it was a highly optioned car 5.0 car, complete and unmolested and in a fairly rare color combo for '91 (106 made according to Kevin Marti). I was specifically looking a Calypso Green Fox when I found this one.
When I bought it:
I began working on it in hopes of taking it to Foxtoberfest last year. I went, the car didn't! Weather really screwed me. I succeeded in rebuilding the door hinges with new pins/bushings, rollers, check springs and striker bushings. I also ended up buying new front and rear bumper covers, used original hood and both front fenders and a pair of good used hood hinges. I also had to replace the A/C condensor but fortunately had a spare original in my parts stash. All of the front end light assemblies were pretty much toast as well as one rear tail light. Replacements were added to purchase list. The costs began to grow! Once all of the sheetmetal was on and lined up I was able to get the majority of the body work done and the first coat of primer surfacer laid down. After the first blocking work came to a halt due to weather.
In the past few months the weather started to cooperate again and I was able to pick back up on the body work. I was able to finish the basic blocking, address any issues and lay down another coat of primer. I also got all of the trim that was removed and salvageable cleaned, prepped and repainted. Man there is a TON of black trim parts! Of course the most expensive trim pieces on a convertible were junk..the hockey stick moldings. Cha Ching..more costs!
In the past several weeks I finished off the final block sanding and it was ready to head to the painter. Taking into account that all of the primers, sandpaper, tape, masking paper, fillers, sealer, paint, clear coat and associated reducers/thinners/activators aren't free, the costs continued. I'm sure glad I volunteered to work a lot of overtime and holidays last year!
A big plus to the cost savings, or so I thought, was I had a painter lined up who volunteered to spray the car for me for free. He's well known in the area and is an excellent painter who worked at his family's paint and body shop. The car was FINALLY ready to go in to be sprayed last week. I tried contacting him to arrange a day, nothing but crickets was heard! Since he had offered to do it for free (though I was going to slide him some green anyhow), I couldn't complain but I was stuck. Fortunately my father and some of my friends worked or have worked in the paint and body business. I am blessed with having a lot of contacts. If my father was still with us the car would have been done last year (he painted all of my cars when I was younger). I reached out to another shop and worked a side deal with the owner. I was able to drop the car off this past Wednesday and was able to pick it up today. While I got a really good price on having it sprayed it certainly wasn't free. No complaints here because the result was fantastic. Just more added costs..uggh. I was able to pick the car up today and seeing it in paint damned near brought tears to my eyes.
In between everything else I was able to get a spare set of wheels for it which I was to restore. Mustang5L5 (Mike) got me motivated when he repaired and repainted a set awhile back. They got new rubber mounted and are waiting to go on. They'll be one of the last things on though. I also bought all of the interior stuff I needed. Thank goodness the door panels were in great shape and just needed a good cleaning. I recovered the rear seat this past winter but haven't touched the fronts yet. New carpet is also ready to go in. The interior rear quarter trim panels were in poor shape with the plastic cracked and the vinyl in rough shape. I have one panel stripped down and the plastic all repaired. I'll be recovering it within the next few weeks and then doing the other one. It's also off to the upholstery shop for a new quality top. I have a quote and it ain't cheap. It'll be my biggest single cost outside of the purchase price for the car! It also needs a new windshield installed. It had deep scratches on the drivers side from worn out wipers..too deep to polish out. To add to it I cracked it last week accidentally so there's no other option now.
I had been thinking of a name for this project since purchasing it. On the way to the painters the other day it came to me...the Calypso Cash Pit!!
Stay tuned.....
I was able to use all of the negatives to get a decent amount knocked off the asking price and he wasn't asking a fortune to begin with. Bottom line was it was a highly optioned car 5.0 car, complete and unmolested and in a fairly rare color combo for '91 (106 made according to Kevin Marti). I was specifically looking a Calypso Green Fox when I found this one.
When I bought it:
I began working on it in hopes of taking it to Foxtoberfest last year. I went, the car didn't! Weather really screwed me. I succeeded in rebuilding the door hinges with new pins/bushings, rollers, check springs and striker bushings. I also ended up buying new front and rear bumper covers, used original hood and both front fenders and a pair of good used hood hinges. I also had to replace the A/C condensor but fortunately had a spare original in my parts stash. All of the front end light assemblies were pretty much toast as well as one rear tail light. Replacements were added to purchase list. The costs began to grow! Once all of the sheetmetal was on and lined up I was able to get the majority of the body work done and the first coat of primer surfacer laid down. After the first blocking work came to a halt due to weather.
In the past few months the weather started to cooperate again and I was able to pick back up on the body work. I was able to finish the basic blocking, address any issues and lay down another coat of primer. I also got all of the trim that was removed and salvageable cleaned, prepped and repainted. Man there is a TON of black trim parts! Of course the most expensive trim pieces on a convertible were junk..the hockey stick moldings. Cha Ching..more costs!
In the past several weeks I finished off the final block sanding and it was ready to head to the painter. Taking into account that all of the primers, sandpaper, tape, masking paper, fillers, sealer, paint, clear coat and associated reducers/thinners/activators aren't free, the costs continued. I'm sure glad I volunteered to work a lot of overtime and holidays last year!
A big plus to the cost savings, or so I thought, was I had a painter lined up who volunteered to spray the car for me for free. He's well known in the area and is an excellent painter who worked at his family's paint and body shop. The car was FINALLY ready to go in to be sprayed last week. I tried contacting him to arrange a day, nothing but crickets was heard! Since he had offered to do it for free (though I was going to slide him some green anyhow), I couldn't complain but I was stuck. Fortunately my father and some of my friends worked or have worked in the paint and body business. I am blessed with having a lot of contacts. If my father was still with us the car would have been done last year (he painted all of my cars when I was younger). I reached out to another shop and worked a side deal with the owner. I was able to drop the car off this past Wednesday and was able to pick it up today. While I got a really good price on having it sprayed it certainly wasn't free. No complaints here because the result was fantastic. Just more added costs..uggh. I was able to pick the car up today and seeing it in paint damned near brought tears to my eyes.
In between everything else I was able to get a spare set of wheels for it which I was to restore. Mustang5L5 (Mike) got me motivated when he repaired and repainted a set awhile back. They got new rubber mounted and are waiting to go on. They'll be one of the last things on though. I also bought all of the interior stuff I needed. Thank goodness the door panels were in great shape and just needed a good cleaning. I recovered the rear seat this past winter but haven't touched the fronts yet. New carpet is also ready to go in. The interior rear quarter trim panels were in poor shape with the plastic cracked and the vinyl in rough shape. I have one panel stripped down and the plastic all repaired. I'll be recovering it within the next few weeks and then doing the other one. It's also off to the upholstery shop for a new quality top. I have a quote and it ain't cheap. It'll be my biggest single cost outside of the purchase price for the car! It also needs a new windshield installed. It had deep scratches on the drivers side from worn out wipers..too deep to polish out. To add to it I cracked it last week accidentally so there's no other option now.
I had been thinking of a name for this project since purchasing it. On the way to the painters the other day it came to me...the Calypso Cash Pit!!
Stay tuned.....