Gettin' Foxy In Nebraska

RATX5

Member
Sep 30, 2016
1
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Hey, all! I'm an 18-year-old college kid from Nebraska, who picked up an 89' Mustang LX Convertible at the beginning of October as my first project car. Cars go way back in my family. My grandfather owned a large dealership in Dallas, TX, and my dad has worked at dealerships in management for most of his life. As a result of this, I've been lucky enough to be around a ton of really cool cars and trucks growing up. Admittedly, I'm more of an import guy, but if you were to look at what I own right now you would have no clue. I daily drive an 03' Jeep Liberty Limited edition, which is also a bit of an ongoing project. Anyways, on to the fun stuff. Correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've read my car's spec is semi-rare for its year with only about 380 made with the same paint color/trim. I'd been itching for a project car for a while because I wanted something that I could fix because my Jeep was too reliable (such a tragedy, right? :p) Anyways, It was by pure luck that I found my Mustang. Nebraska has a state-wide yard sale event called the Junk Jaunt every year, and a lot of people just drive around going to yard sales. I decided to go out browsing some of the sales and was about done looking for the day, but I decided to check one small town about 10 miles from where I live before heading home. On the edge of town, I found my mustang sitting between a guy's house and a handyman shop. There was a for sale sign on the car, but no number and there was nobody about. I decided to call the number on the shop's sign and I left a voicemail. A week later I was sitting in my room and I got a call from the guy that owned the car. I went out with my dad and checked it out that week. Everything on the car looked good. The floors were suffering from some pretty bad rust, the clearcoat was peeling, the door handles were broken, the top didn't work, it didn't run, and it had no battery. The guy had kept the passenger window down so he could use the interior door handle to get into the car. The car came with a spare top frame, a spare set of wheels with pretty much brand new winter tires on them, a brand new donut spare, and a spare set of window motors. So far, I've cleaned the living hell out of the interior and engine bay, replaced the starter solenoid, changed the oil, put in new spark plugs, put in a battery, fixed the hood latch so that the hood can fully close, dumped the water out of the driver's side headlight and replaced the bulb in it, and temporarily patched the holes in the top with scraps of denim from old blue jeans and hot glue (which is surprisingly durable and water-tight.) This is primarily a father-son project, but my dad has been out of commission for the most part since I got the car because he injured his back while we were unloading the car from the trailer. I was able to pick up the car for an absolute steal because the guy just wanted to get it out of his garage so he could have a place to park his tractor. It originally belonged to his step-daughter who he traded cars with because she changed jobs and had a 50 mile commute and the mustang was too cold for that in the winter. So far, I've been able to drive it about half way around the block my house is on before it overheated. The radiator fan doesn't work, so I'm pretty sure that's what caused it. After that, I haven't been able to get the car to start. I believe that the problem is electric and not related to that, though. Currently, I am just trying to figure out how to get it to start, and how to get into the trunk. My electronic trunk latch works 90% of the time I press it but the trunk doesn't open, I've drilled out the rivet on the plate underneath the lock cylinder and I was still unable to get that plate out, and I've even drilled the lock on the trunk to where I am able to unlock it with a screwdriver, yet to no avail. If anyone has any insight as to what I might be missing in relation to the trunk, that would be much appreciated. Essentially my goals with the car are to restore it to the best of my abilities, sell it, and buy a 4 eye 5.0 vert or hatch with the money from the sale. Now that you've sat through my rablings it's time for the fun part: pictures!

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and as a bonus, a video of me gently slapping the floorboard in the back seat while filming the underside of the car.
http://vid1191.photobucket.com/albu...X Convertible/20161009_172812_zpsidut27an.mp4
 
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Welcome to stangnet.

Now there's a story with details!

You should snoop around our fox subforums, post a new thread there with questions you have.

We'll help you out with anything you need, from replacing the floor pan to making the engine run.

Good to have you with us.