Survivors?

[Koenigderloewen]

Hey, I was wondering if anybody knows why there seems to be so few 81 mustangs still hangin around. Whenever I see a Fox, it is almost always a 83 or later. The closest I have come, was the 1980 mustang I took my new rear bumper off of (btw I still have to paint it.... not too ambitious in the summer). I was trying to look in magazines, and online classifides to see if I could find any, but they are always post 82 mustangs with a V8... unfortunately 81 was a little lacking in the engine department, and I haven't found one. Haven't seen many 80's either, though a 79 pace car pops up every once in a while...

I was thinking about selling my mustang next year, but have no idea whatsoever what its worth. I try comparing it to the 82+'s but with a 3.3 I6, it's hard to compare to a V8, lol. I'll try to post pictures later on today, hopefullyu its not too hard.

[GT350R]

Here is my view.

The cars that are furtherst from the reawakening of performance are less likely to still exist. Further more , less of nice ones remain.

The closer you get to the rebirth of performance the more nice cars you find.
Of course the fact that the newer ones ARE newer cars does not hurt.


Three reasons I can see.
The early cars were just cars. There was little or no stress on performance so they were sold as sporty looking little hatchback , runabouts. They were bought as cars , and driven into the ground as cars.

You also had a huge slump in the economy so less people had money to buy cars to store for the sake of preservation. They were nessesity only.

The cost of the later cars was so cheap. There was not much reason to buy up the older less performaning cars. In the late 80's and early 90's , you common guy could afford a new EFI car with ease!


Just a few points I usually try to make when looking at the older ones. I have about 100 more.

[Mustang Marty]

Build quality was also at an all time low in at that time. My then 2 year old 79 Mustang was falling apart around me: broken weld on pass. door hinge, broken steering column mounts, Tilt wheel mounts broken, cracked sway bar mounts, Rear upper control arm broke. I owned it for 5 years. The person who bought from me sent it to the junkyard 2 years later after the Drivers A-arm mounts broke out of the K-member while he drove it down the road.

[Travis T]

Build quality was also at an all time low in at that time. My then 2 year old 79 Mustang was falling apart around me: broken weld on pass. door hinge, broken steering column mounts, Tilt wheel mounts broken, cracked sway bar mounts, Rear upper control arm broke. I owned it for 5 years. The person who bought from me sent it to the junkyard 2 years later after the Drivers A-arm mounts broke out of the K-member while he drove it down the road.

But that is not typical of a 79, I've got one (2.3 four speed hatchback) and it's been through 190,000 miles with one engine rebuild and transmission swap. Just like GT350R said, these things were bought to be used as cars and driven into the ground. Plus, alot of early Fox Mustangs have become fodder for the local mini stock and dirt track racers, that's what has happened to all of them I knew about that had been sitting waiting to be fixed or scrapped. The more I think about it, the more I think I'm going to hold onto the 79 hatch I have, even though it is a stripper 4 cylinder car, it has a near perfect body.

[Evil86lx]

When I get my current house sold and my next house bought I will be looking for a 79-81 cobra. And I will prob have to go out of the state to find one. We have to many yuppie's around here that just want to drive Hummer's and BMW's. Their are not that many Fox car's left period let alone the early four headlight car's.

If I find a 2.3t car I will EFI swap ip with a T-bird motor.
If I find either a 302 or 255 car it will get a EFI swap.

kyle

[evlgt85]

There seems to be many 79s that have survived, but few 80-81s, and then it picks back up for the 82s. It's really odd.

[Koenigderloewen]

Supposedly its a ghia "luxury" model, but they didn't opt for much luxury options... so it's pretty much the same as any other one, just with a little ghia shield on the hatch. They didn't even put rear windshield wipers or fog lamps on it... :(

The important stuff is in pretty good shape, but I don't know if I wanna just keep it in pretty nice shape, like keep the little rust on there from spreading, and leaving in the few dings, or if I should fork out the $$ to have it all fixed

Thinking about putting CounterAct on it to keep it safe from rust in the winter, anybody hear of it or use it? I saw it on TV and read about it online as a good way to keep rust from spreading / happening by 90% and lasts for years... but it almost sounds too good to be true...

This is a little off topic, but I found it hilarious. I called the paint store to get some paint for my blue bumper, and he asked me fore a paint code. So I tell him and he is like, "Are you sure you gave me the right code, cause bright bittersweet glo came up and I know that was a butt-ugly color that no one bought" I just tried not to laugh and was like,. "That's it, though ford called it just Bittersweet glo..." Then he tried to cover up his remark by saying, "Well I guess it's not to bad of a color.... It is a matallic..."

[Mustang Marty]

Maybe my 79 was an anomaly, but at two years old the passenger door shouldn't have broken away from it's hinges. My 84 SVO and 84 Police Notch were better built and aquired with more miles than the 79 5.0 Ghia.

One reason 79's are more common is prodcution. Basically, 1979 prodcution was double that of 1981 and nearly tripled 1982 the numbers. This fact is interesting... There were more notchbacks built in 1979 (about 213k) than the most year's entire production from 1979 to present. 1980, 1986 & 2000 are the exceptions.

[Koenigderloewen]

Wow... double the production... Even though Notchbacks are rarer, I still think I like the look of hatchbacks more... they look more sporty in my eyes, having the larger side louvers behind the back windows, but hey that's just me.

[GT350R]

Thinking about putting CounterAct on it to keep it safe from rust in the winter, anybody hear of it or use it? I saw it on TV and read about it online as a good way to keep rust from spreading / happening by 90% and lasts for years... but it almost sounds too good to be true...



Have not heard of that one. BUt is it electronic? Is it Cathodic , or anodic? Cathodic does not work as it needs an external conducter. Thats why it works on bridges and concrete. They are always wet. It would work if you stored your car under water , or buried in the dirt. There was only one Anodic that I knew off. While it does work, its only as smart as the install. Anything issolated will still rust. Anything that is already rusty will still rust more (but slower).
My opinion is that just plain caring for your car is the best rust prevention.

[83rsturbo]

we had a 81 and the car just rusted away the front sway bar justed off the frame rail