Advice on buying a 94 Cobra

They didn't make many 94-95's Cobra's in cloth seats. Not that it adds value, in fact people desired the leather.

For someone who just bought a 94GT in Crystal White rough just like that one you're looking at quite a project.

The mods mean nothing, they don't add value. In fact the TFS Stage 1 cam isn't very 94-95 ECC idle friendly. I bet it has a surging idle. SLP Loudmouth exhaust is horrid, just took this off my 94GT. If you like loud then you'll love it, I just sold mine. Doesn't have mufflers just small resonators. Long Tubes, X pipe and SLP is probably the loudest exhaust ever. What is a ported MAF? Did he cut the bar inside of the MAF. Now I can guarantee it has a surging idle.

Not sure where this car is but if its from salt roads you'll need to check in several places for rust. There are other normal areas for rust so inspect good.

Open the trunk, look at the corners of where the trunk strut is, peel back the rubber a look around the rear windshield, they are famous for rust there.

Not sure what under the hood looks like but at 172,000 miles the motor will need to be refreshed obviously. It has good parts on it so all in working order just the block.

Check for wobbly balancer, the rubber pops out of the back and can cause some driveline vibration.

In that condition it's a $2500-$3000 car normally. I looked at one in that shape but the guy wouldn't budge from $4000 because it was a Cobra.

Good luck.

VibrantRedGT said:

What is a ported MAF? Did he cut the bar inside of the MAF. Now I can guarantee it has a surging idle.

Not sure where this car is but if its from salt roads you'll need to check in several places for rust. There are other normal areas for rust so inspect good.

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I was wondering about what he meant by a ported MAS, although I think it was supposed to say MAF.

Looks like a Texas car, is be surprised if it had a lot of rust. Always a good idea to check though.

Minus the wheel the interior looks pretty clean and the rest doesn’t look like it’s in too bad of shape.

Even if it has idle issues, those can be remedied on the cheap.

I wouldn’t feel bad if I picked it up for $2500.

As a dad who also has a 13 y.o. son I say go for it. The experience, knowledge and mechanical self confidence he gains will last forever

Great advice above. As a project, it looks very doable. I'd buy it. You could probably get him below $3,000 fairly easily.

If you were a bit closer, I'd ask if you want to swap seats. My '95 Cobra has leather. I prefer cloth.

Good decision. A car that needs an engine...no problem. A car that needs an interior....no problem. A car that is rusty....big problem.

bleedinggreen said:

I looked at the car yesterday, and it was pretty rough. The interior looked like there was some mold growing in it, and the driver's seat had a large tear in it. When I pulled the hood release, plastic pieces started falling out from behind the trim. The paint was really bad, but I expected that. I popped the trunk and the whole trunk was stripped. There was a good bit of rust in the spare tire well, two large rust holes at the bottom corners of the rear window (which were filled in with spray foam), and numerous wholes around the trunk rim. I can't tackle all of that rust repair, so I had to pass on it. The guy talked himself down to $2,300 before I even started looking at the car, but I can't take on something with holes like that. So, it looks like I'm still on the hunt for a Mustang!

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Get on the Houston Mustang classifieds FB page, if you arent already. Does it need to be an SN car? There's a large fox market and I know of a clean 99 or 00 for sale by me on the SW side of town.

bleedinggreen said:

I'm on there. I check that, the Facebook Marketplace, and Craigslist everyday. I've really been looking for a fox body, but I was intrigued by the 94 because it was a Cobra. I've found a handful of foxes in my budget, but they're mostly automatics.

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Good deal. There's also "Houston Foxbodys" and "Houston's Foxbodies" and "Houston Area Fox Body Buy Sell and Trade". The latter two were started by folks who left the first group due to politics. The guy that runs the middle page listed has a metric sht ton of foxes for sale.