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Something has to be wrong.....

daveSanborn

daveSanborn

Active Member
A nice day today so I decided to drive the '66 to the office after coming home for lunch. I parked in my usual spot well away from all of the women drivers in the office. Leaving the office a little after 5PM, the parking lot was fairly deserted. Just before I get in my car I hear one of the girls yell over my shoulder that she likes my car. I recognized the voice as one of the more quieter of the office girls, Jenny.

Gabby and I had run into Jenny at a club in town a few months ago and we all drank/hung out for the night. I was really surprised to see her at a club, because she seems so quiet at the office. Anyways.... I'm getting off the subject.

So I yell back to Jenny that I like her car too. She asks if I want to trade. I say no thanks..... but if she ever wraps her car around a tree to call me as I'd like the engine.

Jenny drives a showroom clean, jet black, mid 90's T-bird SuperCoupe.

She asks me why I would want the engine and I explain to her about the supercharger. She has absolutely no clue what I'm talking about, but pops the hood. Sure enough, a factory stock unmolested 3.8 w/SC. I explain to her that I was hoping it was the 4.9 litre engine, but if she ever wrecked the car to let me know and I started to walk back to my car.

Here's where it gets weird.....

She asks me if I'd like to buy the car from her. Huh? Why are you selling it? She's moving to LasVegas to re-kindle a failed marriage. When? Soon. How soon? Within a month and she HAS TO sell the car before she leaves. I explain to her that the only thing I was really interested in was the motor and don't really need a whole car.

She says she checked on-line and the car is only worth $200 and would I buy it for $200?

Of course, I told her that I'd buy the car for $200 and to get up with me a couple days before she was ready to move. As I was walking away, she repeated the deal..... So you'll buy the car for $200 and I don't have to worry about selling it? I told her yes and to get up with me beofre she left. She stated that she was very relieved to have one less thing to worry about.


Something has to be wrong..... the car is in absolute MINT condition. I've noticed it in the sea of SUV's and minivans that all of the other girls in the office drive to work and I've checked the car out very closely while meandering through the parking lot on smoke breaks. There's not a scratch on the paint. Leather interior. Highly optioned. I couldn't get a read on the miles, but I'm assuming they're high. Fairly new tires. She drives this car to work everyday so it seems dependable.

I got home from work and checked Kelly Blue Book and I think she must be looking at KBB wrong.... the car is definitley worth a LOT more than $200.

For most people there would be a moral dilemma.

I think I'll give her the $200 tomorrow to be "paid in full" and have her sign the car over to me when she's just about ready to leave.
 
You'll appreciate the pictures of the car more, trust me. Jenny is a very nice lady, but she's not anything to get all excited about.

Heck yeah! I'll bring the camera to the office tomorrow and get some pics of the car. Something has to be screwy here though... the deal is just too good to be true.
 
I would pay her, ask if she needs the car until she leaves and have a bill of sale done to cover any later change of heart/mind. If she has another vehicle, she may give it up now or you could rent her one and still be money ahead.

What will your plans be since it is so nice??????? With the car that is...
 
If you buy it and part it out I got a 92 T-Bird I swapped a 5.0 into. I would love the wheels, ground effects, etc. to make mine look like a SC! Anyway, I have a similar story. An older lady I worked with bought a new SUV, she had a Dodge Stealth. She asked if I knew anyone who would buy it cuz the dealer wouldn't give her anything as a trade in. I asked what she wanted for it and she named a price. I said I'd buy it. I went to get it over the weekend. When I arrived to pick it up she said She only wanted $20 and she had filled the tank. I tried to give her the original agreed upon price but she insisted she only wanted $20! So I gave her $20 and took it home. Drove it a year or two and sold it for $200 without ever putting a dime into it!
 
Man, I'd drive a T-bird SC, especially for $200. Want to trade for a '90GT that needs a roof replacement?
 
I'll give her $300 for it. My FIL had one when they came out, drove it a few times up in Detroit, that car was a blast to drive :toot
 
What transmission is in that car? Hell, I'll give you $400 for the whole thing and kick in and extra $50 each to ORP and SF.
 
"daveSanborn" said:
You'll appreciate the pictures of the car more, trust me. Jenny is a very nice lady, but she's not anything to get all excited about.

Heck yeah! I'll bring the camera to the office tomorrow and get some pics of the car. Something has to be screwy here though... the deal is just too good to be true.
Click to expand...
I'd give her the $200.00 (ASAP) and throw in a extra $50.00 just so I won't feel like a thief. Everybody's happy.
 
Re: Something has to be wrong.....updated with pictures

I took the car for a test drive this morning and it's not anywhere near as "mint" as I originally thought it was.


The good:

It's a '90 3.8 S/C with factory intercooler, AOD and 3.27 (?) Trac-Lok rearend.
The car is solid and doesn't appear to have ever been in an accident.
There are only 107k miles on it.
I didn't get a chance to really romp on it, but under mild acceleration the boost gauge reflects 9 lbs. and the car gets up and goes.
The engine runs GREAT and the AOD trans. shifts as it should.
The car is all original and doesn't appear to have been butchered/abused.
Although not all brand matching, great rubber at all 4 corners.
No weird noises under hard cornering and the suspension, steering and brakes all feel good.
Car has ALL premium factory options except for a CD player.
All lights and necessary electrical items are working.
All glass is good.
Both front seats are powered with all adjustments working including power bolsters and lumbar support.
The interior is very clean. looks like it's been well taken care of and only the drivers side outboard seat bolster shows any wear, likely from 19 years of ingress and egress (typical scuff marks on the black leather).

NO "check engine" light illumination. (Important for NC safety inspection purposes.)



The "not so good":

There is some oxidation of the paint that should clean up okay.... we'll fire up the buffer and find out.
The passenger side headlight lens is starting to yellow.
The radio isn't working.... there's static, but no music.... could be something simple, but the car does have the "Premium" sound system as the logo is plastered on every speaker.
The passenger side rear reverse light is inop.... likely a bulb.


The bad:

No spare tire. The jack is there, but no spare to be found. Trunk area is otherwise spotless.

The AC has been disconnected.... WTF? Who disconnects an AC system? (It must have been previously owned by a skinny person) There could be issues here. The heat and blower controls work fine, but there's an AC hose laying in the trunk where the spare tire should be. WTF?

There's a small rust bubble under the paint just forward of the passenger side rear tire above the rocker panel. Nothing major, but it's a 1" diameter bubble that is soft to the touch. Might need to be cut out and patched/repaired. Weird as the rest of the car exhibits no rust issues at all.


The really bad:

The darn power windows aren't working. The passenger side window motor is working, but the glass is off the track and the window goes up and down half-ass. The drivers side window does nothing. Could be the motor, could be the switch/wiring. The drivers side window controls do nothing. The passenger window only operates off of the passenger door switch. This could be a sign that the drivers side motor may be fine and the switch unit is bad.

The power door locks aren't working.

This model year has the roof rail operated shoulder belt and the independant lap belt. The drivers side shoulder belt is frozen to the rear and won't slide forward along the roof rail upon driver ingress/egress. Awkward, but it'll work. The passenger side shoulder belt is frozen in it's "forward" position, won't offer any protection and will have to be addressed.

The factory moon roof is inop. and won't open. The good thing is it's fully closed, it rained today and didn't leak.



That's the full report. It looks like I'll need to fly Mid up here for a weekend of electrical work..... after I spend a few weekends scratching my head and running a test light. Heck, it's possible that some of the failed electrical items could be something as simple as a fuse, but I won't hold my breath.


It'll definitely give me something to tinker with this winter and on a positive note.... there's a good range of like model years to scavange parts from.... for instance the drivers side window motor.... any T-bird model year close to '90 will work. All of the SuperCoupe parts are in GREAT shape.... front/rear bumpers, rocker moulding, supercharger, etc.

I gave her $100 today and she's moving out west in approx. 30 days. As long as she doesn't blow the motor or wrap the car around a tree between now and then, this should be a fun little project/car.



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The radio is likely dead. Time for an aftermarket head unit. If the moonroof switch is anything like the SHO switch, it's poorly designed and WILL fail. The plastic button portion straddles a shaft that rocks back and forth, and the sides of the button wallow out and break. Mine failed in the open position :yikes, but it was summertime and no rain until I replaced the switch. Be careful removing the moonroof motor and switch cover, it's easy to break the metal portion from the plastic. BTDT. Power windows are a common problem area. Mine act up frequently. Just the other day I found that I couldn't lower the passenger window from the driver side controls.

Frank
 
Dave,
If the radio is shot and you want a factory one, I have my original take out. It's not the premium one and its only a casstte but it's factory Ford radio.
I have switches and many other goodies from a doner parts car, I know I have all the PW switches. Let me know what you need. I have also two sets of T-Bird wheels. they use a metric bolt circle so Stang wheels wont work. Let me know if you would want a full size wheel for a spare.
My driver's door window track rusted and broke which caused problems like you mensioned on the passenger window, had to replace the track.
Sweet deal, wish I could have found a SC for that cheap!
this is a pic of my bird, $600 parts car in the back ground. Stripped it and junked but have a ton of parts still. Mine was a 3.8 V6, the wrecked doner was an HO 5.0L
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oh, and the 3.8 V6 is notorious for blowing head gaskets. Supercharged and NA. It would seam they had an issue assembling the engines and damaged the gasket. If it hasn't already been replaced expect to do that too. Although I don't know of any that ran 107K without leaking so it's probably been changed already. The 3.8 in the Taurus was mostly the same but had a different bellhousing bolt pattern for the transaxle (typical Ford engineering). Useless info maybe but I'd thought I'd share it anyway.
 
Probably cost more to ship that thing than it would cost to get one local! Dave could make some serious cash off this car considering what's already been "wanted". You just need to haul that AOD to NC and pick up Mark's SA while you're at it. I'll even fire up the grill for 'ya.
 
Craig,

You might be my new best buddy with that T-bird stash of yours!

Don't throw any of that stuff away and I'll seek you out when I get to the point that I might need one/all of your spare parts.


Is the bellhousing for the 3.8 AOD the same as for the 5.0? I would think there would be a difference?

What's with the "sport" suspension on these cars? Looking underneath, did I see air bags? On my brief test drive I noticed that there was a dashboard idiot light notifying me that I was in "sport" mode (or something like that). I saw the switch for the adjustable suspension on the arm-rest/console area and tried to activate it, but I'm not sure if it's working. Either way, the suspension felt okay. Maybe a little on the "firm" side.
 
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