ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #15 – March 22, 2014, 12:00:55 AM Just giving my 2cents.. ultimately you need to do whats best for you too, not just the car lol. Some guys don't understand how someone can quit on a project car when huge obsticles come, it's not that they can't be overcome them or are giving up. It's just the car and the project is causing more stress and headache than it's worth to them. Most of us here do this because its fun and we enjoy it, when you stop enjoying it.. than it's time to find a new hobby or project car. So ask yourself that question, do you still enjoy the car and want to continue? If so than recovering from the flood shouldn't be too difficult. Lot's of help here to get you through it too. Good Luck Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #16 – March 22, 2014, 12:19:30 AM Quote from: Bob;430991Just giving my 2cents.. ultimately you need to do whats best for you too, not just the car lol. Some guys don't understand how someone can quit on a project car when huge obsticles come, it's not that they can't be overcome them or are giving up. It's just the car and the project is causing more stress and headache than it's worth to them. Most of us here do this because its fun and we enjoy it, when you stop enjoying it.. than it's time to find a new hobby or project car. So ask yourself that question, do you still enjoy the car and want to continue? If so than recovering from the flood shouldn't be too difficult. Lot's of help here to get you through it too. Good Luck Love you guys! (in the brotherly double pat on the back kind of way) :-) Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #17 – March 22, 2014, 08:24:21 AM I had a interesting development last night.....an old pal of mine with a custom car shop and Limo shop has a daughter getting married here on Long Island. We chatted about me taking the photos and video for the event, and bartering for the T-Bird resto came up, we are meeting on Tuesday to discuss. Looking for a donor/parts car......... this may work out after all. Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #18 – March 22, 2014, 05:11:39 PM For Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #19 – March 22, 2014, 07:51:11 PM The only way to get rid of the salt water effects is to completely gut and strip the car to a shell and start over using a good donor/parts car. You may even be able to upgrade while you are in there. Yes, the car will never be "worth" the money invested, but using that criteria, most of us wouldn't sink much money in ours, either. No $5000 repaint will make our cars worth more than $5000, etc. Since you don't ever plan to part with it, the "worth it" part is moot. You'll be investing in your soul, not in the car.I was impressed with how your house turned out--from "ruined" to gutted to rebuilt nicer than you started with. Let's see what you can do with your car. :) Best of luck to you.Daniel Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #20 – March 22, 2014, 08:25:53 PM The Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #21 – March 22, 2014, 09:09:55 PM Quote from: MY83T;430998I had a interesting development last night.....an old pal of mine with a custom car shop and Limo shop has a daughter getting married here on Long Island. We chatted about me taking the photos and video for the event, and bartering for the T-Bird resto came up, we are meeting on Tuesday to discuss. Looking for a donor/parts car......... this may work out after all.Like I said in the PM on 4ep, I have the interior minus dash out of the is 86 which is really a 83/84 interior. Find a way to get it to you, you can have it. All the seats are plush cloth and in decent shape. There should be pics in my project thread. Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #22 – March 23, 2014, 01:44:49 AM Quote from: TOM Renzo;431024The car wwill have to be soda blasted to remove the salt and completely dissembled. Then it will have to be acid etched as the paint will not stick after blasting. That alone will cost app 4000.00 bucks not including paint and primer another 5K and a donor car and tuns of time and you will need a big garage to do this. Bottom line is that car is HISTORY just stating a fact as to the reality of the situation. Really is that car really worth all the time and effort. It is easier to part it out for whatever is salvageable . And that is a stretch at best and buy another car and start over. There is an old saying cut your losses and move on. Just me being honest!!Tom, i know your heart is in the right place,and that you are completely correct about the cost-vs-value of doing this to restore my Bird. Until i speak with my friend on Tuesday, i am in a holding pattern to figure out what is the most logical course of action, balancing the common sense parts with the emotional parts. If my pal takes this on, it will be a straight up barter, and so i just have to see what the deal is. Thanks for your honesty.Quote from: Drewstang;431030Like I said in the PM on 4ep, I have the interior minus dash out of the is 86 which is really a 83/84 interior. Find a way to get it to you, you can have it. All the seats are plush cloth and in decent shape. There should be pics in my project thread.Hey drew, thanks for the very kind and gracious offer. I may need a few things so, just hold tight for me. I just the 4EP message, i don't check in over there as often as here. Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #23 – March 23, 2014, 06:51:43 AM hay Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #24 – March 23, 2014, 08:17:04 AM Quote from: MY83T;431045Hey drew, thanks for the very kind and gracious offer. I may need a few things so, just hold tight for me. I just the 4EP message, i don't check in over there as often as here.No problem. Its all in storage at the moment and its not going anywhere. Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #25 – March 23, 2014, 08:47:45 AM Quote from: BornInAFord;431020The only way to get rid of the salt water effects is to completely gut and strip the car to a shell and start over using a good donor/parts car. You may even be able to upgrade while you are in there. Yes, the car will never be "worth" the money invested, but using that criteria, most of us wouldn't sink much money in ours, either. No $5000 repaint will make our cars worth more than $5000, etc. Since you don't ever plan to part with it, the "worth it" part is moot. You'll be investing in your soul, not in the car.I was impressed with how your house turned out--from "ruined" to gutted to rebuilt nicer than you started with. Let's see what you can do with your car. :) Best of luck to you.DanielHi Daniel,Kind and thoughtful words, much appreciated right now. I look forward to sharing this transformation with you. Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #26 – March 23, 2014, 05:36:00 PM If there was salt water in that engine for this long it is finished. Ditto the rear end and tranny. I know this isn't good news to you, but it is the case. The electronics and wiring are also all likely FUBAR'd, too. That being said, if the body is solid, you now have a perfect starting point for a project. The car is at the point right now that it would cost just as much to bring it back to stock as it would to make some nice upgrades. Find yourself a rusted out Fox Stang and there's your drivetrain. Better yet, find yourself a rusted out SN95, and there's your drivetrain as well as a nice suspension and brake upgrade. Find a rusted out fox Bird or Cougar and there are your interior wiring and electronics. Spend a few bucks at CHE for some control arms, etc. You could turn the car into a nice pro-touring ride if that's your style, or keep it looking stock but without that embarrassing 80's performance. Contrary to what Tom said, the body being exposed to salt did not instantly kill it, and it does not need any special stripping or blasting. You live in New York, whose climate is very similar to ours in Nova Scotia, so I'm sure this is not the first time the car has seen salt. It didn't do the car any favours, of course, but if it's not rusting through from that exposure chances are it's not going to. A good pressure washing inside (after stripping the interior out, of course), outside and underneath would be a help though. Cars around here are exposed to salt pretty much constantly from November through March, inside and out (all that salty slush on peoples' feet ends up in the carpeting, which is why floors rot out from the inside out). Just from driving normally in winter virtually every nook and cranny of a car will be exposed to salt water (and road salt is usually a lot higher concentration than sea salt). Salt is forced into places you'd never have though possible (I've actually seen it travel through nearly 25 feet of trailer brake controller wire and form white deposits under the dash from salt water entering at the trailer connector). About the only part of a car not normally exposed to salt during winter driving would be the interior, from the seat mounts up. The upshot: You've got a shell to use as a blank canvass. Jerry has shown that cars with sentimental value can be brought back from extremely poor condition and upgraded very nicely along the way. Only you can decide whether your car has enough sentimental value, but you do have to be prepared to accept that for better or for worse the car as you knew it is gone forever... Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #27 – March 23, 2014, 07:12:31 PM Vv Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #28 – March 23, 2014, 08:20:52 PM Hey guys, thank you all for the different ideas and valuable advice. I know there are always going to be differing ideas. Just for clarity here is my head so far:1. Yes, salt water is poison to everything.2. Whatever i spend/barter to do this is retarded because of value to cost ratio.3.even with a proper donor car, this will an immense undertaking.4.common sense says dump, strip-sell off what i can.5. I have listened, sought good advice, and decided after careful consideration, this car will live on as well preserved stock 1983 Thunderbird Heritage. Its my first car, my car that my wife and i grew up in, the car i sowed my glorious days of a mis-spent youth in. It will never leave my family, therefore the value to cost thing is basically irrellevant. Some things are not about money. Traditions, and memories are huge parts of this life we live, and i will not allow a freak of nature to undermine my life any more. Too much ruined for my kids already. This barter arrangement with my friend is a sign from above that this meant to be. He told me it will be 6+ months, and i told him time is not a factor here, just want it right. He was touched by the history and story, lives here and experienced sandy up close. He told me if this was for a flip, he would not touch the car. The entire car is going to be stripped and soda blasted and dipped. Proper frame off with a 83/84 heritage/elan being sought for donor parts. Quote Selected
ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update Reply #29 – March 23, 2014, 08:56:32 PM here Quote Selected
Topic: ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update (Read 7759 times)
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Topic: ADVICE BADLY NEEDED 1983 Thunderbird Heritage Update (Read 7759 times)
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