...to start holding onto our cars.
I mean, with eBay and craiglist prices really starting to go up, and the availability of JY cars dwindling even further than ever, it really seems to me like parting anything less than rottwagons is out of the question.
I wish I had been around back when parts and cars for us were as readily available as they are now for the MN12 crowd, but its just not happening anymore.
Not only that, but it seems like a nice car, especially an original, is really starting to be worth something. I mean, think of all the ebay ads we've seen lately for low mileage cars and they want upwards of 8,000 for them. Now whether they sell or not is another issue, but the fact of the matter is that's what people want for them, and they're not willing to let it go until somebody takes it.
I just don't think we can afford to trash and part out anything thats not already trashed. If you wind up with a fox that's even less than perfect, I'd say keep it cause you might not get another one....
Everything has a price...if someone is willing to meet it.
Even my Sport has a number that I'd say goodbye to.
I think we are being optimistic. That nice 87 or 88 bird on ebay has been on 6 times now, and it's still not meeting reserve. I think a lot of people just think because they have an old car in good condition it's worth a fortune. The fact is, most of the guys are hoping for some kid to come along and c00ch it up, but that doesn't seem to happen. I dunno, there is a nice v6 87 tbird near me with low low miles, and the body is actually good. She wants 2k for it, and I know it's too much. I know it'd want to swap out the motor from mine into it, etc. And for 2k and do all that work, it'd be in the hole before I even got it running. It would probably only take me a weekend or so to take that motor out and put the v8 in, but still.
I couldn't give mine away. I guess out here on the left coast they don't have the following that they do on the right coast.
I probably couldn't give mine away either. A kid in town offered me 1,250 for it, but I know if he got it actually inspected it'd be footing the bill for a whole new car, lol.
Some crazy dude offered me too much for my car in January , now he is driving it .
Im the flipside of the coin. Im only 21 and i picked up my car for stupid cheap. probably because the guy wanted his driveway space tho. I even just bought the car as something to replace my bonnie while she was off the road. Now Ive just installed parts worth 3 times what i paid for the car in the first place, and Im selling my bonneville.
Ok, see I don't think you guys quite understood what I meant. I wasn't talking so much about the prices of the cars but moreover the availability. No matter how much you want to pay for them the fact of the matter is that cars in good condition are starting to come up short. What I'm saying is we need to stop parting nice ones and hold onto them. But, like I said, that's my opinion and I'm stickin' to it.
so that's what happened to your car....I was confused when I first saw your new sig.
I agree with Sarjxx, especially up here in canada, they just dont exist. period, even in rough condition.
I also agree. My car has some rust and dents(that I plan on taking care of), but I haven't seen another fox body other than a mustang in Wisconsin for a long time. I also get asked all the time what year my car is, when I say 85 most people ask why it's not rockin collector plates or just compliment me on a nice ride. These cars are hard to find in a lot of areas. On the other hand though we could still keep parting out non-essential parts.
What It's going to come down to is... WHO actually has one left in the world. THAT will make our cars worth anything in the future. We s and part them like there are millions left. In the end it will be about the few that survived. I'm guessing that more than half of the cars here will be long gone in another 10 years, only because no one want's to restore one like they do to mustangs.... I've had mine for almost 23 years, and I will have it in another 20 years. I'm in it for the long haul...lol
I really wish I could still find these things in junk yards. I just found an 86 Cougar that had no usable parts left because, well, the interior of the car had a big fire and everything was melted. It looked like it was an ignition switch failure....
Hell I wish I could find a half way decent one. I know where an 88 Sport in Twilight Blue Metallic with a Shadow Blue interior is just sitting most of the time. The thing is fairly clean but the guy will not sell it. It really doesn't need much resto work but the guy will not sell it, at least to me. He won't even talk price.
I agree with Jerry...... The Sport stays with me. No money can have it. I have put too much of "Me" into building it, and it has a home right here. More will be parted out. It's the circle of life, and we're nowhere near having resto parts (in my own opinion). I'll re-re-re-repaint, recover seats, swap engines and the tranny, whatever, but the Sport stays here.
I'm not selling mine ever. I just want to find another nice one that's local. Mine came from California. I'm pretty sure I'm not going to find a nice Fox Thunderbird locally though......
Califorina and Florida cars man. That's where you'll find the nice ones:D If you really get serious about wanting one I can do some digging down here and probably find you a nice TC or something. Seriously. Contact me sometime if you're interested.
I considered the fact that one day the sh.. might hit the fan and I might have to get rid of my cougar but even if I do, its not going to the syard and its not going to get parted out. Its going to someone on here or someone else whom I know for a fact can and will appreciate it the way it's meant to be appreciated.
Come out here. The pickings are good. How about a 20th for $500 with 120k? I should take some pictures this weekend at the junkyard for you guys.
I'm not partial to just one car considering I have a destructive habit involving trees, utility poles, and ditches. So far the 84TC302 has held up to me using her. She's down for a minute due to the input shaft on the tranny but once that's fixed it's summer time with the windows down! w00t!
time, money, machine. Takes all for a hobby like old cars.
Here are some of the ones I've had to sacrifice. A little bit of each car is in the current ride. Recycling. :P
Blu84302, get a py car that runs decent and practice your driving skills until you are good enough to drive a T-Bird or Cougar without wrecking it. LOL.LOL.
They were sacrificed...not wrecked. The silver one I was letting my girlfriend at the time drive it when that damage happened. (Lesson)
The black T-bird (Blu84302) and the Yellow cat (Ya'll know her) had seen incidents with me behind the wheel but could have been fixed. They were sacrificed before their time but each contributed parts and the torch was passed. I am sad that I let those cars go because all of them could have been fixed. However practical doesn't always allow for what is wanted.
I gots mine... (84TC302) Still need one more snowflake though. :(
I'm slowly inching closer to being done with what has turned into an almost year long restoration......This car is staying with me.
I'm with a few of you guy's. I've had mine since 1990 and it's not going anywhere. It's gone through alot of tough times with me, I've had to refinance it to lower the payments so I could keep it when I wasn't making much, it's out lasted 2 marriges. And everything done to it came from me.
As far as parting them, the parts from them are keeping the others alive. Although I couldn't part a perfectly good car. That would be a waist.
I learned the hard way to never say never, I thought I would never sell my Mustang , but sometimes life kicks you in the nuts:punchballs:
Very true. If it ever came down to it (knock on wood) and I lost my job and was on the verge of losing the house and having a hard time feeding my kids my car(s) would be gone before I could blink. So, I think hypo is right in saying never say never.
I still see fox cars around occasionally, about as much as first gen Tauruses for the most part. But I've started ding up the uncommon parts for these when I find them, that's for sure. TC and XR-7 stuff especially is getting scarce. I practically stripped the whole interior out of an 87 XR7 I found last weekend.
Though I'll agree the asking prices are getting higher, I maintain that these cars will never go up in value until people like us are willing to pay the prices. Because if a bunch of guys that love the cars won't pay them, nobody will...
I'm another who sold the car he never thought he'd sell. I figured I'd be buried in my '88, but instead I found myself not liking it (for reasons outlined on this forum before). Take it from experience, those of you who would settle for a "lesser" car only because it becomes available and because you think you won't find the one you really want: Don't. If you settle on a car it'll never be the car you want. I'm not talking about things that can be changed, like engines/trannies, etc. I'm talking about body styles. If you like cats don't settle for a Bird. If you like a 4-eye don't settle for an aero. Hold out for the right one. You might pay more when you find it, but in the long run it'll be worth it because you'll be happier with the car.
And my search for an 87/88 Cougar, four-eye Bird or 88-92 LSC continues...
Where is your car? Are they still working on it? It's been like for-evar......
I have a decent snowflake you can have for $6.00 plus actual shipping charges.
until there's only a few left.... Then they become a rare find for collectors.
It could happen. ;)
It's all in your mentality.
For years, I and you and everyone else here got used to the fact that we could stop by the boneyard and get what we needed. Or wanted.
Then about 10 years ago our supply of used parts started to dry up.
About 5 years ago, my local supply completely went away.
Our collective wad is offically shot.
Now, we have each other, and eBay, and sometimes swap meets.
And we don't get to pick and choose. We have to take what we can get sometimes.
Far cry from the way things were not long ago.
I almost had a cow last week when I passed up an all black '88 XR7 on the road here in town.
Trust me...I live 70 miles from where these cars were built. There were so many of them back in the day that you couldn't drive 2 miles without seeing one.
Now, I have to say out loud that I saw one! I saw one!
It hurts.
But you know, I grew up with these cars, from being a mere 17-year-old kid fresh out of high school, to over the hill now.
And these cars are like a pair of old slippers: a little beat up, but worn in like no other, and comfy as hell.
So I see them as my friends. And I don't turn my back on friends that deserve my respect.
It takes the most special kind of stupid in the world to love an orphan car that nobody else gives two s about, search high and low for the dumbest parts imaginable, rebuild it with your own hands (because there isn't another soul around that's stupid enough to help you), and drive it like it's the last of its species.
Don't know about you but I signed that deal for the rest of my life. :hick:
Yes, and we're the collectors :hick:
Sadly, even many members of this site who claim to be big fans of the cars will move on when it becomes even less practical to own them. It's happened already - there are many old members who would have been considered high profile members back in the day who have sold off their Thundercat and moved on to different pastures...
Every time. I even have my wife doing it now. I saw an 87-88 bird at the Wal Mart gas station the other day, most of it was covered up by the gas pumps/other cars, but I saw the body side molding and knew right then what it was. My heart leaped, does every time, and I had to drive around the station to get a closer look. There is an 87 bird who's owner works at a local CeeBee foodstore, and I purposely take the long way home everyday from work just to see the car and see if it is still there.
And Thunderchicken is right, we are the collectors, 10-15 years from now we are going to be the ones looking for and paying the big bucks for these cars,and if we don't they will be even closer to extinction then they are now, which isn't seeming so far off.
I apparently am in the minority , but so far I have not had a hard time finding anything yet, and I see cougars and birds all the time driving around here .
And on this page here on any given day there better than 200 of them for sale
http://www.jaxed.com/cgi-bin/mash.cgi?cat=cp&itm=thunderbird&loc=&fil=&ys=1983&ye=1988&ps=&pe=&pgs=100&submit=++++go++++
I'll be right there with you till the end. I've been there since I was 20
We have witnessed first-hand the changing times of cars in yards being used for parts, to cars being appliances thrown in the recycler to become a Chinese tv. Not just our Tbirds and Cougars, but everything. The "green" mantra is to recycle everything and not let anything touch the Earth through any harmful means. 10-20 years ago, it was plastics. 20 or more years ago it was a Native American standing on the side of a road crying 'cuz of litter. It's a perpetually growing bandwagon. Hell, in another fifty years we'll all just be walking everywhere. And in about 20 years, auto hobbies will be only museum types. That said, the time to save parts that you have or find, is now!
I saw a fox cougar today on my way home...had to do a double take to make sure. I'm in this for the long haul, I'm already working on fixing the body up so she won't fall apart. Hopefully this is the last winter she ever has to see. I've even contemplated moving to a state that doesn't have snow;)
I'm with you on that one. I've always kept an ear to the ground for an LSC SE that isn't rotten from northeast winters.
I've been thinking about calling this dude just to see the car. I would have no interest if it were any other model, but I have a soft spot for the '88 XR7 and this one looks like it could be brought back from the brink. Plus, it's nearly identical to the '88 XR7 I had 10 years ago.
That car would actually turn heads if it were cleaned up and driven daily.
Who wants to sell me an engine harness?
http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/cto/2267092950.html
For thunderchicken and cougarcragar
http://phoenix.craigslist.org/evl/cto/2285509394.html
Here's a perception of collectability, lol: http://duluth.craigslist.org/cto/2285318658.html
Hey Cougarcragar, if you get it I have what it needs here and I'm close. Just let me know so I don't sell it. It's from the 87 Sport 5.0. I still need to pull the engine harness, and the mastercylinder will need to be pulled as well. But it's here.
You got it, Jay, and thanks. I'll see if he still has it.