Fox T-Bird/Cougar Forums  

for that price spend a little more and take it to ziebart and
have them shoot it. they have a used car system. if that
was a bird and not a cougar i bet you wouldnt dd it, lou.
looks too nice to run in the winter. its not my money so
go for it.--irv

Man, I love the two tones. 

Can you get around in rear drive up in Chicago?  What it your long term goal for the car?

Do you want to keep the car forever?  It will last many years if you keep the salt washed out when you can.  It will eventually creep into every area though, just a matter of time.

I daily-drove my 88 T-Bird for three years, and an '87 Sport for a few years before that (and even drove the Sport in winter) and liked it enough. The Sport was a tank in snow with four good snow tires.

If you don't want it to rust, undercoat the bejeesus out of it. And I mean remove the door panels and spray inside the doors, and remove the trunk liners and spare tire and spray inside the quarters. Take the plastic front inner fenders out and spray inside the front fenders. Spray the inner strut towers down where you know they rot. And remove the lower inside quarter panels (by the back seat) and spray in around that seam that these cars tend to rust on. It might take a full day, but it'll be worth it to not have the car fall apart. In other words, protect everywhere that you know these cars are pr0ne to rust, because an undercoating shop is just gonna squirt stuff where they can reach, and generally, if it's accessible enough to spray like that it won't rust there anyway (rust forms where water gets into confined spaces and stays there, such as between two sheet metal panels bolted or welded together such as door bottoms, seams, etc).

Undercoating is tough stuff BUT it's also made of rubber. Which can dry rot, chip, crack, you get the idea. Ive a friend with an old Land Rover that restored it.....to use it as a DD and off-road it, beat the hell out of it, and that includes subjecting it to the nasty winter! :eek:  He uses stuff from Rovers North (look up the site) called Waxoyl. It's clearly got the right carbon chain that as a petroleum product it's between, you guessed it, a wax and an oil. It sprays on but dries like candle wax. And stays there. Really expensive though. Undercoating, as Carm said, may not get in everywhere. And if it chips, it'll let the elements in.
 

I was going to bring that up about someone hitting you.  People are idiots and cant drive well in good road conditions, let alone snow and ice.

Here is as far north as I would ever drive a car year round that I didn't want to rust.