First of all here's the car i'm referencing:
1986 Ford Thunderbird Elan - Dark grey metallic with grey interior, 107k miles, 5.0L V8, AOD 4-speed Automatic, every feature available in that year, including the digital dashboard.
The back story behind this car is that he bought it brand new, it was also one of the first cars I ever learned how to drive in. It's been meticulously maintained, but has hardly been driven since he purchased his 94 Lincoln Mark VIII in 2000. The car is in good shape and has been covered up, under a carport most of the time. It was painted about 10 years ago, but the paint is still in really good shape, as is the interior. Mechanically, it was always serviced regularly, and only would need new belts and hoses to get it road worthy, since he put new tires on it not too long ago either.
Obviously they weren't the best looking cars, but can be made to look decent and they were based on the same Fox platform as the Ford Mustang was from 79-93. It also has the same 5.0L HO V8 and automatic transmission as the Mustang as well. I am VERY familiar with Mustangs, so working on it would be no issue for me and they're dead nuts reliable too.
Of course one reason i'm interested in this is for nostalgia purposes, but I also love the Mustang platform from that generation and while it may not be a Mustang, it's pretty close and it's been cared for well. I know these cars well and they can be built into something fun for fairly cheap, plus nearly everything aside from body parts are interchangeable from any 79-93 Mustang.
The other reason is that I can attain this vehicle for around $500-750 at the most(NADA Classic says it's worth $3,718 at Low Retail), but it's likely than I can get it for free, so the only money I would have to invest is getting it road worthy and driving to GA to pick it up, which is a 7hr trip from here. So in the end, I would potentially end up spending fuel costs to and from, and some basic maintenance costs, which I could preform myself.
So am I nuts for wanting to pick up a somewhat ugly Ford from the 80's to have a little fun in?
