How much is my car worth? 1988 Ford Mustang 302 5 spd

LugNutLX

LugNutLX

Forum Member
Im just looking for some ball park guesstimates. I wont be offended. Thanks for your help guys.

Its an 88 LX original 5 speed 302 car from Ohio. Car is straight no accidents or misaligned panels, doors open and shut perfect. It has 140,000 miles on it and has light surface rust on a few spots on the floor boards, hatch and the worst rust is on the top corners of the windshield and around the sunroof which is factory also. I did a compression and leak down and it passes with flying colors. The A/C works too, I just sucked down the system to replace a leaky o-ring. As you can see it has mismatched interior. It originally had faded red cloth seats which I replaced with grey tweed seats front and rear. Most parts were installed new and total of everything added was around $5000. I know its not pretty but its gotta be worth at least close to what I put into it. My neighbor offered me $3500 for it, I kindly replied No... It has the following aftermarket parts:

Clear Headlights
140 mph White face gauges
Autometer Phantom Water temp and Oil pressure gauges
Aluminum Radiator
Redline hood struts
PA 140 amp alt
Optima red top
Crane Cams 1.6 RR
Crower 15511 Cam
TrickFlow push rods
Cobra 65mm TB
Tmoss ported GT40P Intake
Kirban adjustable fuel pressure regulator
A9L ECU
FMS 24lb injectors
Pro M 77mm maf and inlet tube
Ford Racing red 9mm spark plug wires
GT40P heads 5 angle valve job smoothed ports and chambers
Trick Flow valve springs and retainers
MSD coil
King Cobra clutch kit
Steeda clutch quadrant and firewall adjuster
Mustang Bullitt shifter knob
Tremec T5Z Trans
Steeda Tri-Ax shifter
FMS Aluminum drive shaft
Moser 28 spline hardened axles and hardened studs
FMS 3:55 gears
Rebuilt Trac-Lok with 2 extra clutches
SSBC 73mm Cobra front calipers
SSBC Rear disk brake conversion kit
New brake hoses all around
HPM Sub-frame connectors welded in
HPM Mega Byte Jr lower control arms
Steeda Upper control arms
FMS B Springs
17x9 03 Cobra Style Chrome wheels
245/45/17 Nitto NT555 front tires about 9/32 tread
275/40/17 Nitto NT555 rear tires about 8/32 tread
Walbro 190 lph fuel pump
Mac 1 5/8 long tube headers
Mac 2 ½ Off road H pipe
Flowmaster 2 ½ 2-chamber cat back with Magna Flow 3 ½” tail pipes

Best time at the track is 12.87@106 on 275/40/17 NT555R's





 
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I cant give you an exact value but the 2 things that will kill your sale price is the rust on the roof/pillars and the interior color/mismatch. If you could do the work to correct those issues, clean the car up you could probably bring a few more grand to the total.
 
mustangmike6996 said:
I cant give you an exact value but the 2 things that will kill your sale price is the rust on the roof/pillars and the interior color/mismatch. If you could do the work to correct those issues, clean the car up you could probably bring a few more grand to the total.
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I could also repaint the car and make it look mint but I dont want to put the time and money into it. I just want to sell it. I know its a bad time to sell but I had to drive the car all summer because my GTP caught fire and took for ever to repair it.

FYI if your car catches fire dont try to stop it, let it burn. The wiring harness caught fire and only melted the harness because I disconnected the battery in time. The INS Co called it an "electrical malfunction" and not a FIRE. Therefor its not covered even with full coverage.
 
Honestly.....I'd say that offer wasn't that bad....maybe $4000-$5000 to the right buyer at the right time. The rust, the interior, its an 88 lx hatch with a sunroof, and its basically a bolt in car.

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Are you sure it didn't arc on the radiator support, that and leaky valve cover gaskets are a common cause of fire on those. The car I would say 4-4500 the mods are there buy any new owner will still look at it as a project
 
I dont think 3500 was a bad offer. Might be able to get more but seems to me like a $4k car tops. Hard to really judge without seeing it in person though
 
93calypsohatch said:
I dont think 3500 was a bad offer. Might be able to get more but seems to me like a $4k car tops. Hard to really judge without seeing it in person though
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I agree with this. The car has a lot of good parts but the rust is going to make it seem like a project car still.
 
LugNutLX said:
I could also repaint the car and make it look mint but I dont want to put the time and money into it. I just want to sell it. I know its a bad time to sell but I had to drive the car all summer because my GTP caught fire and took for ever to repair it.

FYI if your car catches fire dont try to stop it, let it burn. The wiring harness caught fire and only melted the harness because I disconnected the battery in time. The INS Co called it an "electrical malfunction" and not a FIRE. Therefor its not covered even with full coverage.
Click to expand...

Is that one of the cars that was just recalled again for a possible fire? If so, mail the bill to GM. lol
 
With all do respect, $3,500 was a fair offer, all things considered.

Having said that, put the car on Craigslist for 2 or 3 weeks & try to
get your $4,950. - if that doesn't fly, grab your $3,500 & call it a day!
 
To properly repair the roof (replace it )..your pricing yourself right out of the market at any more than $3500. Add in the other issues and I think it was a generous offer
 
The roof at the A pillar is probably cracked and cant be fixed without a bunch of work. I personally wouldn't sell it to my neighbor because when it breaks you will hear about it forever and his project car will slowly turn into neighbor bonding time lol.
 
Any sunroof car that's seen any of the elements is likely to have rust issues in the roof and pillars. As was already said, the right way to fix it is to replace it which is a lot of work.
If you had to pay someone to fix it right the bill wouldn't be cheap by any means.
I'd take the $3500 just to see it go bye bye.
 
Not to be a dick but 3500 was more than you'll probably get for it. Rust in those areas is going to cause a lot of problems and turn down a lot of potential buyers.
 
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