Does anyone else get the itch to find another Fox at this time of year, ie the winter? Every year around this time I get the bright idea that I need another Fox body T-bird to go with the one I already have. I poke around auto trader, cars. com, ebay, and craigslist looking for one. I might find one or two but they are usually rusted out POS at this point. I then realize that buying another one of these cars is a stupid idea. I even have a list as to why.
1. I have a 1.5 car garage, which the T-bird stays in. I have three cars at home right now. The other two are in the wide part of the drive way in front of the garage. I can't house the other "toy" in the garage.
2. Being that I can't park another toy in the garage it will have to sit outside. This means it will be difficult to keep clean.
3. If I have a "toy" sitting outside then I'll have to move the other cars down the driveway. Then I have to play "musical cars" to get out of the driveway :hick:.
4. My 24 year old T-bird is in really good shape because I maintain it. If I buy another one there is no guarantee that it won't need a bunch of work and/or be a huge money pit.
5. Why the hell do I need two old cars to tinker with? One should be enough.
Needless to say I talk myself out of buying another Fox every winter. I'm in the process of doing it right now :rollin:. My logical thinking brain talks me out of it every time. Does anyone else have this problem after the fun car has been put away for the winter?
spend more on your current one.
problem solved :D
i fight this problem non-stop, not just in the winter.. i usually lose the mental battle if i find a good deal or have an idea.. example.. my new TC.. i now have 4 foxes, yet i'm still looking for another capri! i have serious car ADD.. i have 3 trucks i need to finish (1 is a very long term project), my black TC still needs a lot of love (especially since it's getting turned into a trailered race car next summer/fall) and my new TC needs body work/rust repair.. you'd think i'd be happy with what i have, but nooooooo lmao
I own 11 vehicles and the addiction has reached it's limit.
Now, it's time to thin out the fleet and get rid of one. LOL
This past weekend I had to move 5 to get to one. A bit nuts I know, but these cars are addicting.
And yes, I find myself checking CL daily and I have to resist the urge to buy.
That's too bad because now is the best time ever to buy used up Fords at great prices.....:punchballs:
You need to instead be shopping around for a new HOUSE with a better garage or a little shop somewhere else in town that's your two- or three-stall space you cruise over to to perform your mayhem.
That's what I usually end up doing;).
The house is big enough. My garage is a de-tached 1.5 car. I really should just have a new garage built in the spring...
I'm always looking.
In the past four years, I've gone to look at an '88 Turbo Coupe, a '90 Mustang, a '91 Mark VII LSC SE, and a Subaru SVX (don't ask). I never pulled the trigger on any of them, but I came close on the Mark VII. Living in the city allows me for barely enough room at the curb for my '96, and I have no garage or driveway. I need a project car like another hole in the head, yet I continue to search.
And to actually ANSWER the question...look right at me! LOL. I've of course made good on my wishful lust, twice now. Wait sorry thrice LOL. I have waaay more vehicles than a 23-year-old-just-out-of-college individual ought to have, or should even be able to store by all logic and reality. They're scattered about kind of...but there will be a central solution. Stay tuned....hush-hush for now though :P
Don't buy a super nice car, then drive the out of it. Winter driving my old bird while everyone else was putting away their mustangs , is in my opinion, half the fun behind owning one of these cars.
oooooh no you don't! spill it!
I get the itch every other month or so. I usually alternate between looking for a Fox and a MN12. Its really just for kicks though. Its not too hard to talk myself out of it since even if I did find one I like, I've got nowhere to put it, and NOTHING to buy it with. lol
So I've learned not to look very often cause otherwise I just get upset lmao
^Same. I can't even work on my bird right now...
I get this every year around November. I've got it tempered however. I ONLY use proceeds from selling a car or selling parts. Nothing comes out of savings or impacts the family in any way other than dragging them along to help bring it home, that is if I don't have it shipped. And, I don't bring home "projects" anymore. And, I keep my pleasure (not calling them projects anymore) cars to a 2-car limit and I use one as a daily driver. It's all very mature and boring I guess but it has kept me "in" the hobby during the time of my life when my kids are a bit too young to pull into my hobby and I need to spend my free time exposing them to a world outside the garage.
i got a rash! i miss mine and ive found 2 colse to me for a reasonable price. But one problem.... No money! all of it is spread between my bills and children. But if there still around when i get taxes then possiblt i will have me another bird.
that's what i did to get my yota and my new tc.. all parts i sold on ebay or craigslist.. it's great when you don't have to touch your bank account to buy new toys
I have two cars and a house, which is more than a graduate student ought to have:crazy:.
If I bought another one it would be a nice one and it would just come out on nice days, like the current T-bird does. I have the Focus for DD duty, something it does quite well.
This is why I keep holding off on picking up another one. I don't want to spend money I could save for the future and having more than two cars seems a bit excessive to me. I have this rational voice in my head that usually prevents me from doing anything rash.
I get the twitches thinking about all the clowns on the road endangering me and my vehicles.
Holiday time, which means lots of drunks on the road, increased senior citizen traffic, kamikaze xmas shoppers, and cops looking for their next target.
Then when it snows I swear most of the people on the road lose a good 40 IQ points. At least.
i was thinking more along the lines of 140.. when it snows, people are completely braindead
These are good cars, but for me, what's the point of a car you can't drive 6 months or more out of the year? I want a car I can lean on with out being woried about dents, or the paint, or washing it. If I can't drive it, what is the point of owning a car? I don't keep anything in the car, I don't lock it, and I don't worry if I have a dent or if it snows. I think I get a lot more out of my cars then other people do.
i would normally say the same thing (minus the dents), but i've seen what the salt does to foxes.. i want no part of that on my cars.. this winter, i'm driving my new TC only because it already has rust i need to fix and i refuse to drive my toyota on salty/snow covered roads after i just spent 3 months and nearly 600 bucks fixing all the rust it had.. next winter, all my foxes and my toyota will be put away for the winter and i will drive my sonoma or F150 until spring
Yeah but didn't you inherit the house?
Yep. I've been having fun over the last two years updating/fixing the problems that come with a 50+ year old plumbing and electrical system. I had to have the house rewired because when it was built almost everything on the main floor was wired on one line. So if I turned on the TV and a light in the living room and the fridge would kick on a breaker would trip. Fun. I've had to replace the plumbing to the shower as the pipes up to the shower head decided that they had enough after 56 years and decided it was time to let go. I'm also looking into replacing the garage soon as I've discovered some rot around the base of the garage (it's wooden). Old houses are like old cars, the need attention and $$$.
I always have that itch, but not just for Foxes. Then I look outside at the 4 cars I have that I can't spend the time on that I need/want to, and that pretty much scratches it. I still miss that white '80 XR-7 of mine, and miss the thought of the complete teardown I'd do if I still had the car, and the room to do it right.
There is a slim (like 10% chance) that it might boomerang back to me, but I'm not sure if that will happen.
Other than that, I have too many other oddball automotive itches that I'd succumb to before I'd buy another Fox.
Always do but I think it's bec I got my first car (the predator) at this time of year in 1999 and there's just something about the cool air bringing back memories and I try to relive them I think that's y I made my come back today lol bec it's that time for a new car and it's been on the back burner for a year granted its preaty much done I feal it's time to do something new lol
I'm exactly the same way
I don't know what I'd do with myself if I lived in the snow covered north. I can drive my cars all year loooooooong. Granted, yes its hot as balls in the summer so it kinda sucks if you ain't got AC but then again I never use it anyway....
it doesn't normally snow too much here, but the past 2 years we've had more than usual.. he had a pretty nasty blizzard 2 years ago (nasty for this area).. hopefully this winter isn't too bad
Variance time!!!! :evilgrin:
Maybe. I have to see how much the garage costs ;).
Best of luck, that city if they can't sympathize with our cause.
I know I'm limited on width due to a city ordinance but length, I'm pretty sure, can be what ever fits on the lot.
most ordinances require you to be a certain distance away from any property lines.. it's 'supposed' to save from future 'zoning problems,' but they never get any of it right.. they can't survey worth a
So I went to look at this today: http://www.autotrader.com/fyc/vdp.jsp?ct=u&car_id=311792915&dealer_id=72496&car_year=1988&systime=&doors=&model=TBIRD&search_lang=en&start_year=1981&keywordsfyc=&keywordsrep=&highlightFirstMakeModel=&search_type=both&distance=50&min_price=&rdm=1324427801619&drive=&marketZipError=false&advanced=&fuel=&keywords_display=&sownerid=565083&lastBeginningStartYear=1981&end_year=1993&make3=LINC&showZipError=y&make2=MERC&certified=&engine=&dma=CHICAGO_S2&page_location=findacar%3A%3Aispsearchform&body_code=0&isFlashPlugin=true&transmission=&default_sort=priceDESC&max_mileage=&model3=MARK7&color=&address=60638&sort_type=priceDESC&model2=COUGAR&max_price=&make=FORD&seller_type=b&num_records=25&cardist=20&standard=false
It's in pretty good shape. The only mechanical problem I found was a stretched gas pedal. However the thing washiznit hard in the front at some point. The passenger side inner fender was bent back into shape and the driver's side frame rail in front of the strut tower had been bent back into shape. Car fax and auto check made no notes of an accident. The dealer mechanic who inspected the car made note of the things I saw as it was in the evaluation report the salesman showed me. The rest of the car is in nice shape and pretty much rust free. I offered $1500 for it, as really that's what it's worth, maybe. The dealer said $3000. I said thanks but no thanks and left. I think $1500 was probably too much for the car. It's not like I need another one so I can be picky and wait for a good one to come along, if I ever find one.
Wow another grey two-tone what are the odds? :rollin: How did things look? Like...you could tell those things were fixed? In that case yeah the asking price is ridiculous and 3 is still too much. Your offer isn't out of line I'd say...definitely would have to see it myself to conclude...I mean if it goes down the road good with no unusual front end noises, alignment is fine, then you could argue it's worth a little more if the thing was repaired 100% right. Obviously they're sure someone will come along and not look so closely and just be sucked in by it's nice outward appearance.
Edit: You know, thinking about your original post some more...it's just winter boredom. You'd like a project, SOMETHING to do and not only that, something to do and thus show off and enjoy come the car season once again. Maybe not, just a guess, as far as it alwayshiznitting you at this time of year. Yours is essentially finished, or seems so to your standards...you maintain it and drive it. That's plenty of fun in the summer but the thing is useless now, doesn't even NEED work. Keep an eye out. I love just seeing what's out there and marveling at some of the shocking things that come out of the woodwork from time to time. They're OUT THERE. Hiding, waiting, unbeknownst to you. Your winters are harsh on cars, Upstate NY ain't toooo far behind and I'm surprised frequently enough. Window shopping is fun and free. Maybe at some point you can find a good deal on a storage unit, lock into a long-term lease or just a month-to-month place, whatever, not like those places up and leave all the time, but a good safe storage facility nearby. And you could grab one up and keep it there until the day that you can upgrade your own storage! If it's climate-controlled, hell put the LX there for the winter (again a SAFE solid one that ain't shady I'm not saying you should just up and store that jewel at joe blow's run-down ghetto garage complex haha) and then you have the whole garage for your project.
Just some thoughts. How many of us WOULDN'T love to have multiple birdcats...space is at a helluva premium unless you're in the boonies and can just scatter vehicles everywhere like the stereotypical redneck (I can't hate, I'd be guilty of the same thing guarantee it :rollin:)
From the outside you couldn't tell it was fixed. Opening the hood on the other hand I spotted the repairs right away. I know what the inner fender and frame rails are supposed to look like. It was pretty obvious that the passenger side inner fender had been bent and then straightened. It did drive fine. The fact that it was damaged and repaired "properly" makes it worth no more than $1500 to me. I use "properly" in quotes because if it was done right the passenger inner fender would not be bent up.
I do think that winter boredom plays into me wanting another Fox. In the warmer months I can drive the LX. Now I can't. One thing needs to be done to the car, the valve springs need to be swapped out to FRPP A50 springs. That's getting done in the spring when I can get to my friends shop with an air compressor. Till then I've been making up things to do to the car while it sits. Right now I'm cleaning and detailing all the electrical connectors under the hood.....
HEY! you leave my hopes, wishes and dreams alone! lmao :mullet:
I dunno I might beat you to 'em then it'll be fisticuffs for sure lol
Ugh.
Well, I just was told over the weekend that the white '80 is available for sale...and I most likely won't be able to take it back.
Nope no itch to buy but I have a itch to sell the Mach1 red TC...
i just got the itch for another TC after seeing this on my way to harbor freight this morning.. i DO NOT need a 4th TC.. hell, i don't even need the 1 sitting in my driveway now.. but this car lot always has good deals and i know i could get it for a decent price..
http://southjersey.craigslist.org/ctd/2750247386.html
i'd buy it back and stuff it in a storage unit until you can have at it.. as long as the money for the unit isn't a problem, sounds like a good idea to me :)
I get that itch every few days. Lately its been a Cherokee, Scrambler, Bronco, Toyota, B-Series, or most recently 60's Cadillacs. Usually I find one then realize I have 2 project cars now and no money or space for another.
I'm wanting another notch. Regret selling the one I had. If I knew then how easy a 5 speed swap was :disappoin
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