Am I Being Too Ambitious?

Hi all,

I am new to the forums and the Mustang community in general. Though I am a die hard Ford guy, I have never had the opportunity to own a Mustang...until now. I've always loved the 80s Mustangs and have oft dreamed of getting one of my own, and all of a sudden I am presented with an opportunity to pick one up for a bargain.





The vehicle is a 1983 Ford Mustang GT 5.0 hatchback with presumably 105,500 miles on it (it has ticked over such that it reads 05500, which I suppose could mean its possible it has either 205 or 305k on it as well but I'm being an optimist ). It also has what I presume is a 5-speed manual transmission.






The car appears a little rough from the outside, having a fair amount of missing or oxidized paint. The trim around the doors is dull and faded, as well as the bumpers. The rubber trim on the sides is warped and in need of replacement. However the car is fairly rust free and I didn't see any major areas where there was significant body damage, aside from a pretty crunched up area on the roof just in front of the hatch and some dings in the hood.




With regards to the interior, most of the dash pieces are broken in some way and in need of replacement/repair. The seats are decent though dirty (nothing seat covers couldn't fix) and the carpet may need to be replaced. It is also missing a head liner.






One of my buddies help me to get the car started, and it actually fired up relatively well for a car that had been sitting a while. Of course it put out a fair amount of white smoke but once it got going and idled down there was the occasional faint puff of white smoke out of each pipe (concern here?). It idled alright at around 500-600 RPM (indicated) and actually sounded pretty good when some throttle was applied. I did notice that the motor shook around a bit, wondering if this is a motor mount issue. I made sure to check the strut mast towers, and they looked to be in great shape. Apparently the carb that's on there is a fairly good one (so I'm told), it's a Holley 4 barrel (and I'll admit I don't know much about carbs, so I haven't the slightest clue with regards to more specs on it).

Random other thoughts/issues:
-Pretty cracked windshield
-Older, mismatched tires
-Door alignment/gaps are pretty messed up (easy enough to fix?)
-Broken motor mounts?

The thing is, this guy is probably willing to sell the car cheap. He basically got it for free and tends to have a lot of random vehicles sitting around and is always looking to get crap off his property. With decent bones and an apparently decent engine/drivetrain, it could be a good project. My two goals from posting this are the to figure out the following:

1. Is this car too rough to bring back to decent condition as a hobbyist's project? Or will it require much more work than I realize and just become a huge pain? Basically, should I run away screaming?

2. How little cash can I offer him without being insulting? I know the "what's it worth?" threads are frowned upon, but I promise this isn't a disguised attempt at getting my own car valued. I want to make a fair offer but I also have to be realistic in that I don't believe this car, in its current condition, is worth very much. But I need your thoughts.

Thanks all, excited to hear your feedback and thoughts.

Thanks for the speedy replies. It's better to know in advance that this may not be the car for me than to buy it and find out later. I am fairly handy with cars but this may exceed my level of time and experience to make it a nice car without spending serious cash.

For the time being I will pass, but I don't see this car going anywhere soon. If I suddenly develop less sense I'm sure I can go make an offer on it later.

Also, if you're talking going 86 or newer, what year do you think was best? I heard the 86 had its own issues because it was the first year the vehicle was fuel injected. Thoughts?

Was poking around locally and found the following: http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/cto/4084950858.html

If only it were a manual...

At the moment not a ton out there, and I don't have a ton of capitol to spend right now. This one is tempting though: http://portland.craigslist.org/clk/cto/4077544895.html

I agree that the car probably wasn't well cared for. Someone who doesn't think to list the mileage when listing a car obviously isn't too well in tune with cars. I agree the body kit is beyond awful and the interior needs help, but with a decent body and a potentially solid engine it might be a nice find. I'll get more info.