Question for the Mustang people

[Kevin54]

I may have a chance to get a '91 Mustang convertible. The guy that has it takes car of it, but he is not the original owner. All I know about it is how the owner treats his other cars and this one has 72,000 on the clock.

My question is, what do I or should I look out for? BTW...it is a 5.0 and triple black. The wife and I are going to look at it tomorrow. And in being honest, I don't know squat about Fords. I owned my last Ford 36 years ago.

[racinfarmer]

Price it by weight or what the local scrap yard is paying for cars.

[NUTTSGT]

Look underneath the bottom of the car to make sure the floor pan isn't cracked under the driver's seat. Being a vert it should have the reinforcements to prevent that.

Wear on the driver's seat from somebody sliding their butt in and out.


Check the engine compartment around teh shock towers, rust is starting to show itself there now. . . .thanks to brine in the winter.

Rust corrosion under the battery tray.

Check the rear wheel lip for rust, about the 10'o clock position.

Make sure all the body lines line up, if the car was raced, it might have a twist in it.

Headlights may be hazed up. You can buff them out or buy a new set relatively cheap.

More than likely as a vert it's an automatic, check the trans fluid.

There should be a tag on the core support and should have the VIN on it, maybe compare that with the VIN tag in the dash.

[BigAl62]

Look at the rear seat mounts for the drivers seat, the floor boards are known to crack or rip completely through, pull the dip stick and look if it's clean (dirty indicates a lack of oil changes), look for oil leaks - most people never change the pvc breather (it's "cleverly" hidden beneath the pcv valve at the back of the intake manifold and can be a real bitch to get out if the oil hasn't been changed regularly), the bottoms of the doors and the bottom edge of the trunk are prone to rust, if it's been "modified" I'd pass on it as a lot of people only end up messing them up and buying the stock parts can get expensive nowadays. If I think of anything else I'll post it. Let me know what you find if you do look at it. I've owned 2 Fox body Mustangs (a 1980 and a 1988) and 1 SN95 mustang (a 2000).

[Brownsfan]

Rust in the trunk. GT or LX? Check ALL the electrical stuff (pwr windows/locks etc). Check for oil leaks. And the ash tray door. I am not kidding. If it is not broke other fox body guys will stare at it in utter disbelief that it actually works. If it is a GT the map pockets on the door panels will most likely be sagging. If an LX they should not be there and look much better imo. Also is it modded or pretty stock? These cars are getting harder to find without being modded and rode hard and put away wet. They are very fun and cook cars. You will really enjoy it. If it is nice you will get tired of all the mustang guys asking you to sell it, almost forgot 5 speed or AOD?

[boostedgt]

check the rear torque boxes especially if its a stick, make sure the rear windows operate ok and arent all floppy(most are, you can knock down the price a few bucks) if he claims it to be stock make sure the intake silencer is still in the fender lol.

they are pretty simple cars overall, the only huge pain is replacing a heater core

[NUTTSGT]

Ashtray door. . having an '86, I forgot about that. lol

air silencer, I didn't mention it, to the novice, it's hard to see.

[coolreed]

I guess I have owned / built about 15 fox bodied Mustangs and still have a trick 92 Coupe. Check the normal body panel spacing and look underneath for rust. Look at the rear lower control arms where they bolt to the body and make sure there are no stress cracks. The speedos in the Fox Bodies are easy to replace so mileage may or may not be accurate. Black will show every scratch and imperfection. Is it heavily modified with aftermarket parts? Some mods are good some bad.

It all really depends on if you want a stocker or a modified Stang. I look at them a little different than most as I can fix anything on them so if something is wrong it's no big deal I just fix it.

I think they are great cars and offer very good value (ie: bang for the buck). Easy to work on and there are alot of great aftermarket parts out there. If you gear them right they are very quick (3:55 or 3:73).

Good Luck with your quest.

[mustanginky]

check for rear main seal leak. on 5 speed cars check the torque boxes and seats. check the top for leaks, check the trunk for rust. stock will have headers btw, so just because you see them doesn't mean that they aren't factory. check for rear pinion seal leak as well, it will leak oil down the front of the rear differential out of the front of the diff. pretty common on the 8.8's. it won't drip while sitting probably, check for oil residue soaked onto the diff cover.

also, just so you know, the 5.0 cars odometer did not read into the hundreds of thousands. a real clean car may have 172xxx miles and you may not know it based upon the odometer. they just roll over and go straight back to 000000 again lol.

[Crazy Car Guy]

all good advice. personally i do not mind those that are modded with all ford parts as long as its done right. after about 4 years of searching i finally found a clean 90 lx 5.0 vert AOD with a non working top last Saturday and brought it home monday. it is going to need some work but the spots these guys said to look at are in good shape on it and it was stock. i picked up a 86gt 5 speed project car that came with a ton of new in the box parts that will all be going in to the 90. i love the fox body verts

[superspec]

makes me wish i still had mine. 93 with 200ishK miles and was the absolute most reliable car ive ever owned. ill have another some day.

[Kevin54]

This is a pic of the Mustang. I'll be sure to look it over real well. I know the guy personally and he has always taken meticulous care of anything he has owned. I guess he got it for his wife but she has a Ford Flex she drives all the time.

[jrherald420]

Id buy it if she checked out, looks good. Im also kinda bias....lol So far ive owned a 68 coupe, 93 notch, 94 GT,95 V6 and a 2002 GT.

[Brownsfan]

Where in Ohio are you? Because if you dont buy it I will. Check carfax if you can. That should give you at least a good indicator of it is 172k or really 72k.

[James E]

That's a sweet looking GT. I am usually an LX 5.0 fan but the later GT's with the monochromatic paint scheme are pretty sharp.

[bgott]

Is it a five speed? If it is, hammer a couple of third gear shifts to check out the syncros.

[sirsloop]

Get under the car and check for any and all rust. If you can see some especially on the doors then its certainly rusted up around the GT ground effects. If you still see the distributor boot and intake silencer on there you may have found a rare unabused stang! Check for rear main seal leaks (oil under car by flexplate). Check tha A pillars for cracking. The headlights will most likely be foggy if originial. Check for saggy doors. CHeck the door gaskets. Get under the car and check the control arm mounts... see if there is any torn up shit there. WHile you are under there see how much rubber is caked up on the plastics. THe more rubber, the more burnouts the car did! HAHA seriously. See if the dogbone is still bolted to the rear diff... another clue if its was raced a lot. Keep an eye on the power steering rack. They got a tendency to start leaking when this old. See if its got a 2G or 3G upgraded alternator. If its been swapped to 3G thats a plus cause the charging system with 2G BLOWS. See if there have been subframe connectors welded up. If yes, thats a plus cause verts twist like a fuckin hoola dancer. Ask him if he replaced the headlight switch with relays to fix the dimming headlight problem. IDK... just give it a real good looking over. Its a 20+yr old car so its not gonna be perfect. The price depends on how beat it is and how much shit needs fixing

[wafrederick]

Have to watch it on dealer only parts too called obsolete.Called on a window switch for a 1987 mustang from the dealer,Ford discontinued it.There was no aftermarket window switch either.

[Murphy4570]

Originally Posted by wafrederick

Have to watch it on dealer only parts too called obsolete.Called on a window switch for a 1987 mustang from the dealer,Ford discontinued it.There was no aftermarket window switch either.

Yes there is. Aftermarket support is large enough that you can practically build a whole car with nothing but a shell.

If local parts stores don't have what you want, call up Mustang parts suppliers, like www.50resto.com , or www.CJponyparts.com , or http://www.foxresto.com/ etc etc ad nauseum. Early Mustang suppliers who cater to 1964-1973 Mustang owners have been getting into the latemodel parts business as well.

Window switch:

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/...ehicle=Mustang



As for the car the OP is looking at, it if really only has 72,000 miles on it, it is probably a creampuff and has little, if anything wrong with it. Under 100K miles is considered "low" miles on these cars, as most were used and abused to 150-200K regularly.

If the car is in perfect shape, expect it to be worth $6-8,000 or so. 5 speed option will raise the value slightly over automatic, and the black interior raises the value as well. It is a GT model, as all 5.0 convertibles were GTs. 1991 was the first year for the Pony 16" aluminum wheels for GT and LX 5.0 models.

My first car is a 1990 LX 5.0, and I have owned an 88, an 89, another 90, and a 92 Mustang as well in the past, respectively. I know a couple things about these cars

[NUTTSGT]

Looks like it has been taken care of in that picture.

If you buy it and need to buy any pieces parts you can check out Late Model Restoration. They have a lot of stuff, including those elusive and rare window switches, of course Rock Auto does too.

http://www.latemodelrestoration.com/...dow%20switches