Fox Leave it original?

Actually, the cars that get me excited at car shows all have engine swaps. Coyote, LS, Hellcat, Tesla, etc.

I'm gonna edit my original comment. Life's too short to hold back. Go have fun with your car.
 
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I have 2 foxes ATM 1 was bought new and has been modified it whole life as $$ allows. I also recently acquired a completely stock car so I have a something to compare to. The stock car is no fun at all to drive by comparison. It fails in all respects to the modded car. Why keep these cars stock except for investment value by guys who dont drive and truly appreciate the cars? It used to be modded cars had no value, especially Corvettes, most buyers are over this now and modded cars are frequently worth more than stock ones.
 
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Tastefully modded is fine. The only issue I see anymore is when someone takes a clean one and hacks the rear floor out to build a drag car, or takes a mint 93 Cobra and does a Coyote swap. There are plenty of beaters to modify that way without hacking up a clean one.

But, at the end of the day, it's the owners choice.
 
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I have been thinking about this.

Messing up a Cobra or rarer Mustang is a sin. Going rice racer on a nice GT (maybe any Mustang) is morally questionable. Enjoying your car should be the law. Do what it takes to enjoy it.

I took 34 years to really start customizing a car because it was a low mileage original. And so it had two interim caretakers who put on a total of 10k miles. What a waste I took that long to make it enjoyable. It’s getting AC and enough more power (almost double the HP of stock, I did the math wrong the first time) to keep up with traffic. It will be worth far more restomodded to me and my family than as an almost stock survivor.
 
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I still have an '86 GT I bought new, but it was a daily driver and didn't get the best of care. In the last couple of years I've added rear discs, an '87-up front suspension, new bushings, springs, shocks, struts and added aluminum heads, E-cam, Edelbrock intake, headers, etc. It still looks pretty original, and runs good, but not as smooth as it was stock. I still have most of the stock stuff and can return it to mostly stock/original if needed. I see so many original Fox-body cars that have been cut up/torn up/messed up/"customized", etc. that if I wanted to make any substantial modifications I'd look for one someone has already messed up.
What heads did you go with on your ‘86? I know there are very few choices with those stock pistons.
 
Those floors look fantastic I would for sure not POR15 them. I wouldn't do anything to them at all. You could always touch up the few surface rust spots but you have no reason to need to redo it or ruin it with POR15.

That being said it's your car so do as you please of course. As for modding I say do the things you want to do. You can always reverse it later if you want it stock again. The POR15 however not so much.
 
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Those floors look fantastic I would for sure not POR15 them. I wouldn't do anything to them at all. You could always touch up the few surface rust spots but you have no reason to need to redo it or ruin it with POR15.

That being said it's your car so do as you please of course. As for modding I say do the things you want to do. You can always reverse it later if you want it stock again. The POR15 however not so much.
Question: what's the problem with Por15?
 
It doesn't actually stick well on clean, prepped metal. It's name is "Paint over rust" and if you do this, it's rock hard for years to come. On clean metal, it will eventually peel.

I did my entire underside and floors in POR15, and 10 years later it's now peeling off in sheets. My metal was in excellent condition, but even cleaned up and prepped with the recommended materials, it now needs to be redone.
 
I've never used it, a lot of shows that I watched in the past used it on old car/truck frames, of course you never see what those frames are like 10-15 years down the road, good to know.

it was strange. I painted my underside in 2009. Literally last year it started to peel underneath. Up til then, you couldn’t scratch it.

my metal is pristine under it, so I just have been peeling it off as I work under the car.
 
it was strange. I painted my underside in 2009. Literally last year it started to peel underneath. Up til then, you couldn’t scratch it.

my metal is pristine under it, so I just have been peeling it off as I work under the car.
Maybe Rustoleum Rusty Metal Primer is still the answer. Paint sticks to it and it sticks to metal.
 
I’ve used it on floors that I cleaned up the surface rusted areas and stuffed the rest. And on the inside of rear quarter panels inside a trunk. A brush finish was not for show quality, but with a top coat, it has provided more than 30 years of protection so far.
 
I’ve been painting a lot of the undercarriage with this stuff. I’m trying to find it in brush on so I can touch up spots around things I don’t want painted.
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I reality a camry will out run even a mildly modified fox but
#1 the camry won't be as much fun to drive
#2 nobody will brag about 'the camry' in the driveway
#3 you can find a couple dozen camrys in any parking lot in any town
#4 nobody is likely to be driving that camry that is 30 years old and proud of it.
A7F43720-5C0E-412C-8263-CBA082408770.jpeg
 
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