for or not. The infamous ashtray door loves to break
when left in the open position. The backs of the front
seats will become bent over time and are hard to fix
correctly, usually leading to replacement. If the speedo
needle dances back and forth when rolling, the drive
gear in the transmission may be missing some teeth
and about to fail completely.
ELECTRICAL
As far as electrics go, the door-lock actuators and
power-window motors are prone to fail. It’s not
unusual if a perfectly solid car has an inoperative
window. Other electrical problems are usually due to
a faulty alarm system or a previous owner cutting
into the main harness for some reason. Tracing back
wiring issues on a car is time consuming and never
fun. A car with an untouched wiring harness is a
great find and will cause much fewer headaches in
the future. When Performance Autosport gets a car
with an alarm, it’s removed before the car is offered
for sale — the alarms cause more trouble than
actually preventing theft.
PAPERWORK
Having the history of a car in paperwork is always
important and can justify a higher price if there’s documented evidence that the maintenance or service history is up to date. Claiming to have new parts is one
thing; having a dated invoice with a part number, price,
and when it was bought is another.
Some owners make “baby books” with every receipt,
record, and important document tied to the car. These
are the cars that you know have been cared for. Find a
seller who wants to go page by page and tell you about
each item and the story attached to it, and you know
you’ve found a passionate owner.
On specialty cars such as Saleens or SVT Cobras, make sure all of the
certificates verifying the authenticity of the vehicle come with the car.
The more paperwork the better — always.
CONCLUSION
Hopefully this article has shed light on some areas of
a Fox that perhaps you did not consider beforehand.
These fun cars that everyone owned growing up are
beginning to turn into collectibles, and we need to
preserve the good ones. The market for clean
Fox Mustangs is as strong as ever and won’t be
fading anytime soon.
SOURCE
PERFORMANCE AUTOSPORT
2179 Tomlynn St.
Richmond, VA 23230
(804) 358-2505
www.performanceautosport.com
Issue 1 FOX Mustang Magazine 43