Does this sound like a good deal?

TheUser

Active Member
Jul 25, 2003
1,859
1
36
Springfield, MO
Ok, well, I'm kinda at a crossroads here. I have some dough from my totaled Jeep and a guy at work is willing to sell his Mustang. It's a Red 93 LX 5.0 w/ newish paint, cowl hood, pony wheels, 306, GT40 heads (maybe P, maybe not), BBK long tube headers, trickflow upper and lower intake, BBK o/r H pipe, Flowmasters, not sure on the sizes of the MAF, TB, or injectors, though. It's also got a Tremec tranny, aluminum bellhousing, regular ford racing clutch:bang:, steeda short throw shifter, home-made subframe connectors, caster/camber plates, aluminum radiator, aluminum driveshaft, 3.55 gears, autometer gauges and I think a tach as well. The paint is shiney. He said there's a couple rust spots bubbling, but nothing major. I'll definately look the car over and drive it, etc, just haven't had a chance yet (I work 3rd shift, so it's dark when I get to work.) It's also got an F303 cam, which I would probably switch for a better cam for the combo.

The guy is a friend from work who I went to high school with. Another guy in high school bought the car and got tired of it, so it sat in his garage for a year or two and this guy bought it from him. He wants to sell it because he's tired of people always trying to race him and it's loud. He likes Mustangs, but said he would rather have an all stock Mustang rather than a modded one that everyone wants to race. His wife has an LX too, so he can drive it if he wants. Anyway, here's the thing...he was driving it home one night when it was snowing and the head gasket blew and he still hasn't fixed it. I told him to not worry about it that I could do it - I'd rather do it than someone else if I'm gonna end up w/ the car.

My question is...how much sounds fair for the car WITH the blown head gasket? I asked him the other night if he wanted to sell it and he said for $4000 as is (blown head gasket). He's like well, $4500 and I definately would. The car is similar to mine except it has a lot better paint, etc and I really like the way it looks and it has a lot of mods. I'd still like to keep my 90 as a "beater" and parts vehicle, but probably get rid of the 91 GT. He likes GT's better than LX's, so I asked him if he wanted to trade+some cash for his and he said he'd think about it, but I really don't want to sell/trade him my GT because of all the problems I've had w/ it.

Also, how much do you think my GT would go for (combo in sig) considering cyclinder #5 has only 90psi of compression (probably needs rings - or maybe it's a bad valve seat?). Paint looks alright, not shiney unless you wax it, but it looks good, no rust, maybe a few dings, the front bumper cover is cracked by the fog light, small dent in pass fender where I pushed against it, leather interior is good except for the drivers seat is totally trashed. It leaks oil when I drive it (haven't driven it in 6 months) which I think might be the oil pan gasket. It also has the surging idle (kinda) because of the cam.

Sorry for the long post, but I didn't wanna make 2 different threads.

Thanks for all opinions:hail2:
 
you seem pretty mechanically inclined. so im guessing you would do that labor yourself on the head gasket? theres some $ saved right there.

clean foxes are getting harder to find...
 
fiveoho said:
clean foxes are getting harder to find...
Yeah, they are...and frankly I'm surprised what some of the roached out ones are going for. It seems insane to me. I know of a kid who bought a 93GT last summer for $6K. The car was far from mint.

Anyway...I'm guessing the car with the blown head gasket would go for at least that if it were in 100% good working order. Head gaskets might cost $1000 to $1500 to replace at a shop. So, perhaps $4K is a good price for the car...I wonder what other ppl think.
 
Yeah, I'd definately do the head gaskets myself - been there and done that...twice. I even have some head gaskets in my garage. I'll have to scope the car over real good, but he told me it was really reliable before this all happened (before he wanted to sell it). About a month ago, his battery was dead at work and I jump-started him and then the headgasket blew...that's all the problems I know of recently. Kinda wondering why the gaskets blew, though.

I know what you mean about the high prices...there was an 88GT in the paper for $4900ish - don't remember any major mods listed. There was a fox-body convertible at a hole in the wall dealership. The car looked pretty good; the guy was asking $5000. I asked him about it later and he said he ended up getting $4500.
 
Went to look at the car today. He's got all receipts, but I didn't look at them.

Keep in mind I've known this guy for a long time, and I do trust him. He pointed out a lot of the defects of the car. I wish I had pictures.

Good Things:

It's got all the stuff I mentioned above. The paint is really shiney, I love it. It has a rear-disc conversion (not sure the route they went). Ashtray works and sunvisor mirror flaps are actually like new.

Bad Things:

My list here will overwhelm the good things because all the good stuff was listed above. Anyway...

-Head/intake gaskets blown
-unknown heads (appear to possibly be stock E7's - definately not GT-40P's)
-No A/C
-passenger headlight doesn't match (it's yellow)
-front seats have been switched around (actual drivers seat has "gangster lean"
-door locks are all broken - doors do not lock
-passenger window was broken, so it was replaced - needs to be tinted
-shifter ball falls apart (I could put the stocker on there temp, though)
-He put a cheapo autozone fan on it, so that would need to be replaced along with a DCC controller.
-little bit of rust bubbling under the paint over rear tire; paint is also chipped over rear tire
-needs new tires
-F303 cam is probably too big - definately would need to change the cam
-Hole drilled in dash to put wires to tach through (tach still there - he said it works sometimes, sometimes it doesn't)
-top of car has some tree sap on it that won't come off
-he said it had an aftermarket alarm on it, but it didn't work and he just started pulling wires out - no telling how big of a mess that could turn out to be.

There's no way I'd give even $4000 for it. I might consider giving $3000 or $3500 for it, but I would have to spend at least $1000 fixing the above stuff and that doesn't even include getting some good heads for it. How hard is it to put door locks in?

I told him straight up that I probably am not too interested in it now since I didn't realize it had so many problems. The major things for me are the unknown heads, possibly a larger problem than needing headgaskets. the fact that the doors don't lock, and the uninstalled alarm system.