1983 GL, project: Cheap Thrills

Threw a set of tailights on and covered over the CHMSL. Just to make it closer to what mine would look like:
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That's not bad, not bad at all. But it's a fine line between clean looks and treading too much on the "ricer side".....lol!
 
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Couldn't resist throwing a proper plate on it:

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;)

The more I look at that rendering, the more I like it. Now I just have to walk away and let it stew for a while and see what it looks like to me when I open the pic in a day or two....
 
Nope. Plans are for the 1983 oem red. Black is such a pita to maintain and I've already got a big black crew cab to keep looking good.

Although, the underside and under hood are going to be black........hmmmmm.......
 
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I like # 2 in this post. With single pipes, something is missing. Quad fills in the opening nice.

And you were right. the pic in the previous post bordered on Ricer.
 
Now this is very tasty:

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Would be a lot of work to build it though....
 
Interesting read, but will never apply to my car. Mine started out as a lowly 3.8 v6 GL and has been heavily modified from stock. Its a hodgepodge of different years and aftermarket parts. Those type of cars never have a lot of market worth, or at least lag far behind the "collector status" examples Their only real value is to the owner who modified them.

Cars that bring big bucks to collectors are bone stock originals or rare option models. Mine is neither. I'm perfectly happy with that too.

But you've also hit on a "pet peeve" of mine, so please dont take this as a personal commentary.

Truth be known, i actually dont like the collector market much, bordering on contempt for a it. All they do is drive up the prices on cars that otherwise should be driven and enjoyed (which includes alterations). They make it impossible for a young lad to buy something and get started in the hobby, unless they want to build a Honda civic, chevy cavalier or ((shudder)) a Scion. I mean really; 100's of thousands for early mustangs? Shameful in my opinion and that sort of thing is choking the bottom end of the car hobby to death.

Same as those assholes like on gas monkey garage where they buy something for a thousand bucks, do nothing to it and sell it for 8 grand. A guys gotta make a living for sure, but that sort of thing is just sucking all the juice out of the orange and throwing the rest away. You're not a "car guy" at that point, youre a shyster and a greasy, slimy profiteer.

People are free to enjoy them as they want, even if that means spending stupid money on buying them. But that kind of money on something that was built to have fun with and appeal to low income earners (at the time) like secretaries is ridiculous in my personal opinion. Its a lot of the reason why i typically dont watch things like barrett Jackson nor go to them. Just makes me more and more disappointed or bitter about where my favorite hobby has gone and how people with more money than brains have pretty much ruined it for people like me (Ie: greasy paws).

Personally, i hope the fox chassis is never worth anything of any real value. That way, they can be enjoyed as summer drivers and "hot rods", modified without concern for "collector value"...
 
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Angie's '83 GLX convertible will never be worth much as a collector car and I know I'll never get back the coin that we put into it, but that's not why we got it. She gets to drive a secretary style Mustang from our youth and I get the enjoyment of maintaining it and looking for parts.

One of the sad things about the collector car racket is too many cars get parked and looked at instead of being driven and properly enjoyed. I can assure you that Mr Shelby had a very dim view of owners who trailer queened their vintage Shelbys, his view was that they should be driven and driven hard.

Someday the Old Girl and I want to go to a Barret Jackson auction in person, if one was canny in bidding it's possible to get a nicely done 66 or 67 Mustang convertable for reasonable money and a whole lot less than it would take to build
 
In todays world, most kids can't build anything.
they never learned, its a different era.
I want to collect cars, not for the money, to drive them.
technically I have one now, I drove just under 12K last year.
( most every got on summer toy) I would be surprised if I hit that number again.
I do believe there is something out there for everyone.
I seen a kid driving a 68 fastback today, looks good.
I doubt he paid what a mint one would bring.
Up close it may not be perfect, but he had a big smile and proud
look on his face. The car world is still alive even if its not as much
as it once was. Max is a great example of this, he is young and very passionate
about Mustang, the future is safe, at least in my life time.
 
Yeah so true Trevor. I wish there was more of the younger generation into the muscle cars. I Try to involve my son and daughter as much as possible. All we can do I guess.
 
My son likes cars, but not like I do and not very mechanical.
Stepson is car crazy, but also not mechanical.
I guess unlike many of us, we had to fix them to drive them.
 
Next update is...time for a slowdown.

Riding season is precariously close to going into full swing and I've decided to get my FJ1200 healthy and into final paint.

I'll still be picking at the mustang, just it's dropping on the priority list.
 
Did a little work today.

Finished installing the ebrake, finished up some welding on the floor pan, put the floor carpet back in on the driver's side and installed the driver's seat.

Humidity was crazy, so that's all I got done. I'll have to put the AC back in the garage window.

I also found time yesterday to put some 3d carbon fiber vinyl wrap on the inner panels of the FJ. A po had body filled them and painted them a blue black with some kind of fleck paint and the body filled was cracking. I sanded the cracked smooth and the vinyl wrap made the rest of his sins disappear. Came out pretty good IMHO:
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G-d m-fin' sob!

went to put the driveshaft in today. The f'n drive flange on the 31 spline trac lock must be the one from the explorer because the bolt hole spread is larger than the mustarg unjoint flange!


grrrrrrrr............
 
I guess I'm going to find out what it's like to set pinion preload while the axle is still in the car....grrrrrrr!
 
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