This car goes all the way back to my childhood. When I was 11, my dad bought a 1986 Mustang GT. I didn't have much exposure to cars at that time so, of course, I thought that was the coolest, fastest car in the world. I remember being in my Uncle Jeff's driveway working on my bicycle when his buddy Rem pulled up in this LTD LX. It had Enkei mesh wheels on it and was converted to a carbureted 5.0 and 5-speed from an '85 Mustang GT. This was around 1991 so the car wasn't that old at the time. They told me it had the same running gear as Dad's Mustang!
My uncle bought the car and used it as a daily for years. Lots of good memories, beach trips and road rallies. He drove it like a mad-man, it was always fun. My cousins have a bunch of great stories from when they got to drive it as teenagers. Most of which I won't repeat, in case my uncle reads this. My cousin, Lucas, got busted doing burnouts in the school parking lot. When they called my uncle into the principals office the teacher was trying to say that Lucas did a 360 and roasted the tires all the way across the parking lot. Uncle Jeff interrupted the guy and said, "Don't BS me. That car won't do that. I know, I've tried." When the '85 roller motor wore out, Uncle Jeff put in an '84 flat tappet motor from an SSP Mustang.
Uncle Jeff gave it to me in 2010 with the stipulation that I give him back the engine and tranny when I get around to swapping it out. I shot these pics the day he dropped it off at my house.
It sat in my side yard for six years before I got around to doing anything with it. Last year my wife took off and I needed a car to get the kids to daycare so I drug the LTD out and got it running. This thing was run into the ground and needed EVERYTHING. The major push now is to get it mechanically sound but eventually I'd like to fully restore it to it's former glory.
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