To Buy Or Not To Buy...

mike8750 · May 30, 2017

Long story short i owned an 87 Coupe around 02-04 while in the military bought it untouched for 2500 bucks. I poured my soul in that car then it was stolen; i was HEART BROKEN. Well now I want one again and needless to say you cant get them cheap anymore. I cant afford a 'good condition' 5.0 they range from 6000-14,000... WAY TO much. So i figured I'd buy a beat up one ... Well needless to say they are almost all rollers that have been heavily modified or wrecked junk. (Pricing from 2000-4000 for a Coupe, 1500-3000 for a Hatch, and 4clys convertables from 800-1800) So im stuck .Well i run into one, and guy wants 1800 (Its a 5.0 hatch that runs and can drive, more less, motor looks stock) only problem it has a badly rusted out sun roof, some rust on the driver door hinge area and some spot rusting, kinda bad interior. IM wondering if dealing with the rust is worth the trouble, price and time. Im not sure how expensive this could get if I pick it up (money time hole) or is this a good deal on a 5.0? Is it still common enough to run into an unmodified fixer up at a decent price? Or has the market value started to climb because they are becoming rare?

Pics of car:

CarMichael Angelo · May 31, 2017

I'll take a blown up, or completely missing drivetrain over rust anyday. Anything missing can be bought, and replaced w/ a ratchet...Rust requires skills that go far beyond that, and like a cancer is more than likely all over the place in one of these cars.
A leaking sunroof typically takes the door hinge area out with it as your pictures indicate, as that is where the drain tubes dump into,...ONLY if I was capable of the rust repair would this be a consideration.
Unlike a door, fender, hood, or trunk/hatch,....a door bulkhead cannot be unbolted and swapped w/ another.
If you live in a rust prone area, consider driving to pick up a car from an area that salt isn't used on the roads. or have it shipped.
There are places in the US where a fox Mustang is still a hard sell, especially if it's a 4 banger, or I6/V6,.....I just sold a V6 86 hatch that ran great but was an overall "5 out of 10" for 900.00.
I'd find a nice non-5.0 car and completely swap it before I'd drill out one single spot weld chasing rust.

Black1987 · May 31, 2017

mike8750 said:
Long story short i owned an 87 Coupe around 02-04 while in the military bought it untouched for 2500 bucks. I poured my soul in that car then it was stolen; i was HEART BROKEN. Well now I want one again and needless to say you cant get them cheap anymore. I cant afford a 'good condition' 5.0 they range from 6000-14,000... WAY TO much. So i figured I'd buy a beat up one ... Well needless to say they are almost all rollers that have been heavily modified or wrecked junk. (Pricing from 2000-4000 for a Coupe, 1500-3000 for a Hatch, and 4clys convertables from 800-1800) So im stuck .Well i run into one, and guy wants 1800 (Its a 5.0 hatch that runs and can drive, more less, motor looks stock) only problem it has a badly rusted out sun roof, some rust on the driver door hinge area and some spot rusting, kinda bad interior. IM wondering if dealing with the rust is worth the trouble, price and time. Im not sure how expensive this could get if I pick it up (money time hole) or is this a good deal on a 5.0? Is it still common enough to run into an unmodified fixer up at a decent price? Or has the market value started to climb because they are becoming rare?

Pics of car:

I would pick that car up for the drivetrain with it was under $1800, haggle him a little bit. Drive the car and make sure everything is in order. I would buy and drive it until I could save for a nice roller/4cylinder body to swap it over.

I wouldn't recommend buying that car to restore unless you are a painter or just have a lot of ambition, time, and like throwing money into a hole.

I recommend buying the car for a swap and even to drive for a bit. If swapping over is out of your skill limit ( not saying it is) then i would I just save up.

Think of it like this, foxbody are like hookers....the cheap one is tempting....but you know it will end up costing you in the long run.

Mustang5L5 · May 31, 2017

What both said

I'd buy that car as a donor car only while I find a good clean roller for it's drivetrain. Other than that, I'd stay away.

Last summer I tried to find a beater fox to drive around and not give a damn about, and found the same thing you did.....beaters still go for $3k for some reason. Anything cheaper had serious issues and you'd have to soak money into them.

It's almost cheaper in the long run to just buy an $8-10K fox, especially if any car you are looking at needs paint. These cars aren't a dime a dozen anymore...mostly because people treated them like cars that were a dime a dozen.

95BlueStallion · May 31, 2017

I agree, hold out for less rust. Sounds like $ is a concern, and fixing a rusty body will get expensive quickly. Not worth it when you could spend that money on parts!

Nutty 5.o · May 31, 2017

As someone who got back into this hobby again, I'll agree on the buy a good body. I think it's worth to spend the extra on a good body and use that for a donor as well. There's always more rust hidden where rust already is on one car. And keep in mind body work generally takes time to have done by someone and it's better to spend time wrenching (to me anyway) vs. waiting for it to get body work done.

For reference, I got a good solid body car for $3500. It does have a running drive train and many parts on it that I would've added anyway. It had accident damage that I was aware of but was fixed by someone I know and trust. It's been sitting and they just finished fixing some paint areas I didn't like for me with the price of the car. The car is nearly rust free everywhere and I wasn't able to find anything with the body this solid for this much.
Good luck and hopefully you can get this one cheap for parts!

Davedacarpainter · May 31, 2017

Yeah, rust.....it can be fixed. You'll spend more on the tools you'll need to fix it than the cost of the fix itself.

Do you have any welding/fabricating skills?

If not, and you don't enjoy work that in depth on a car, pass it by or buy it for parts.

I would keep looking around a bit, a better one will pop up.

What area of the country do you live in?

QuietOne · May 31, 2017

Black1987 said:
I would pick that car up for the drivetrain with it was under $1800, haggle him a little bit. Drive the car and make sure everything is in order. I would buy and drive it until I could save for a nice roller/4cylinder body to swap it over.

I wouldn't recommend buying that car to restore unless you are a painter or just have a lot of ambition, time, and like throwing money into a hole.

I recommend buying the car for a swap and even to drive for a bit. If swapping over is out of your skill limit ( not saying it is) then i would I just save up.

Think of it like this, foxbody are like hookers....the cheap one is tempting....but you know it will end up costing you in the long run.

"Think of it like this, foxbody are like hookers....the cheap one is tempting....but you know it will end up costing you in the long run." -Black1987

That quote is going in my signature line!

To Buy Or Not To Buy...

mike8750

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CarMichael Angelo

my rearend will smell so minty fresh,

Black1987

my wife Bedazzled my input shaft

Mustang5L5

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

95BlueStallion

My assy trans to myself

Nutty 5.o

Davedacarpainter

Chicks can make things hard if they’re inspired...

QuietOne

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To Buy Or Not To Buy...

New Member

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my rearend will smell so minty fresh,

my wife Bedazzled my input shaft

That is…until I whipped out my Bissell

My assy trans to myself

Chicks can make things hard if they’re inspired...

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