Alan,

What we were "implying" is that the car deserves a full restoration. It IS a rare car, but what I find funny is you haven't asked a single question about it.

We are here to promote the restoration of these cars, and we are very passionate about it (I'm sure you already figured that out).

We are not here to take advantage of each other, and I "honestly think" that turning a quick $500 is more than fair, given your situation. The people who will pay you "top dollar" for the car are the very people here who appreciate what the car is, and the car's potential. Now that they've seen what you paid for it, and your attitude about "top dollar", I think you'll have a difficult time getting that kind of $$ for it.

Please feel free to continue to do the right thing with the car and also to participate here. It's all about the cars. My .02.

If Alan honestly would like to preserve the car, I commend him for educating himself to the fact that the car is more than a typical Mustang. I dont support the price of $6000. $4000 is a perfectly fair price. Alan, take the 4K and find you a nice everyday Fox to have fun with. No harm done.
Choices:1. Take the 4k, buy a good car to have fun with
2. Restore the car, become a hero and triple the value in the future
3. Hack the car up,put 5k in suspension, devalue the car, will not
get your money back

Hell, 33 1/3 % winner. Sounds good to me.

Allan,

I have owned several Mustangs and I spent approx. 12 years before I could afford to buy a SSP/FHP Mustang due to three kids and a lot of year in the Military (USMC). Also the wife, who is no longer :D . I was looking hard at this SSP to buy and I was going to bid $3,500 for it. Unfortunately for me, you beat me to the punch by offering before the auction was done. I finally found me a 1986 SSP/FHP for the same price.

My point is that there are people out there who have been wanting one of these four eyed SSP cars for years and if you turn this into anything else then original, you just took the opportunity away from someone else’s dream.

I ask you to do the right thing by restoring or selling to preserve the car. I don't know you from a hole in the wall, but it is ultimately your car and you can let your selfishness get the best of you.

Best of luck to you all.

good luck with the car.

I guess Alan isn't coming back. I 'am pretty sure he is probably going to hack the car up now.

http://a332.g.akamai.net/f/332/936/1...s/cars.500.jpg
He done What to a SSP MUSTANG!

That has absolutely nothing to do with it really.... I just bought a '94 GT Convertible for $1200 and turned down $5000 for it 3 days ago. I want the car...but everything has a price, if someone dangled $7K in my face I might take it....am I a GGG for that? Absolutely not. I bought the car because I wanted it, the fact that it was a steal is my good fortune and doesn't mean I have to sell it for $2,000 to be fair.

Alan had a point with the SVO Reference, I own 2 SVO's that are highly modified and I am not criticized by the SVO Community for that. Everyone had the chance to buy this car and could have contacted the seller just like Alan did or even place a bid as we discussed previously to "mark your spot"...you can't dictate what people do with their money or a car they buy....you CAN promote a good feeling of community and support the car and try to help lead someone in the general right direction but this thread while starting off that way just turned into a huge negative blow for this community by bashing this guy.

I have 2 SSP's...one IS modified and the other will be a stock restoration. I never talk about the modified one simply because the general "Air" around any SSP site is that it is taboo....which is ashame. Mine while looking totally stock is getting improvements that "I" want so that "I" can enjoy "MY" car....the minute someone tells me what I should do with "MY" car I think I'll act the same way. For this part of the Mustang Hobby it really should be looked at how some things like this come across. There are purists but you MUST understand that not everyone IS a purist and has other interests. I agree a car like this '84 is best served by restoration to original simply because of the limited numbers but forcing that down someones throat will only result in a negative response.

I also disagree about the subframe connectors....I restore cars for a living and these cars especially are flat WORN OUT by the time we get most of them and they flex badly with the unibody design. You have 2 choices....gut the car and weld up some of the seams to get the structural rigidity back or install subframe connectors. I've seen SSP's WITH frame connectors sag on a rack like a Fox convertible where the doors become hard to open! This is a fact, not myth.

I'm not attacking anyone here but I am pointing out my observations having just come across this thread in it's entirety.

Did the guy that offered you $5000 for your car know you paid $1200, probably not. If he did know he would have offered considerably less, unless he had to have the car. The 84 FHP that Alan has is worth around $3500 to me, that's about how much I planned to bid on it. It may have been worth $5000 to somebody else, but knowing he paid $3500 for it. I doubt somebody would give him $6000 for it. Unless they had to have it, I don't.

I honestly can't blame the guy for being defensive, since things were being said before we even gave him the chance to speak up. For all we know, he wasn't told anything about the car, or its' rarity, by the seller. Who really knows?

However, once we got him on board, and he agreed to tone down the mods he previously planned, I think we had the opportunity to further educate him and see the car restored. Sadly, that didn't happen. He wasn't on here posting that he knew the car was rare, and that he was going to hack it up anyway (as we've seen in the past), nor did he appear to be trying to cause any trouble . I would have preferred to see him ask a few more questions about the car, but maybe he was reading other parts of the site (and other sites) and didn't have any.

We try to look out for each other, price-wise, because this is a pretty tight-knit community. He had no idea about that, and I can understand why he wanted to make some money on the car. I was a little put off when I first saw that, but thinking about it further....I don't think he really had a clue as to how this community likes to operate.

Some of the issue needs to be placed squarely on the person who sold him the car, at that price, to obviously not an established SSP enthusiast. I understand both sides of the Ebay bidding thing, but if Tate honestly thought that the '84 wouldn't get any bids, he was sadly mistaken.

This particular website does cater to "purist" types, but I can't agree with the "general air" comment. A modified car, that would have otherwise been parted or scrapped or otherwise not saved, is better than the alternative. We are here to preserve as many of these cars as possible, whatever way possible. Now...if someone shows up here talking about hacking up an original, survivor (much like the '84 FHP), despite being educated on what the car is, rarity, etc. that's a different situation altogether.

Here is my opinion. We have been down this road before. Why do people get involved with this site when it appears that we are known as purists and talk of chopping up an SSP for purposes other than restoration? I know for sure that other Mustang, or other collector car segments for that matter, don't take kindly to this sort of banter. Why do they then try to make us feel bad for standing firm on our beliefs? I don't understand. My car is 100% original. Why would I want to change it? If I wanted a "hot rod" Mustang, I would get one. There are a zillion other groups that speak to the hot rod world. Sure we are going to become upset. And why wouldn't we?

Now doesn't that look nice!

your car looks great Joe !!! :thumbsup:

That is one hell of a nice Texas DPS car:2thumbs: .. what year is that?

Joe's car is an '87. I remember when we took that picture, still looks that good!!

Yes, as a matter of fact he did know exactly what I paid for the car...I have made no secret about it. So your assumption is incorrect....He wants a 94-95 GT vert specifically and he thought he could talk me out of it with cash.

Point being that I like Alan wanted the car so there was no sense in dumping something you want but everything has a price and apparently that was his. If it's not for sale or not a fire sale then it makes no difference of the price paid because it doesn't "Have" to be sold.

The car may well be worth 3500 to you.....it's worth less to me because I don't care for the early 4 eye coupes but that's you and that's me....there is likely someone out there who will pay the asking price for it but the pool of potential buyers gets significantly smaller the higher the price goes.

This site hasn't been around long enough to match the "general air" comment but many members are the same on other sites so the feeling is still there that it is taboo. Your outlook above is the exact outlook that needs to be taken with this but often on the net we see people trashed for having a modified SSP and the origination or history of the car isn't even known to justify that trashing. That sort of thing just isn't good for the hobby in general. A car saved from being scrapped even if modified at least has the chance to be restored to stock by someone later since it still exists.

The impression out this is what it is.....I got the latest issue of 5.0 magazine and saw a Texas SSP with 4 cam 4.6 and other mods and immediately thought "The ssp guys are going to tear this guy apart".....Now not everyone has the purist outlook that made me think this but there is a good majority that are vocal about it and that is what gives the impression about this corner of the hobby.

We in the SVO hobby were labeled "Headlight polishers" years ago which was really pretty funny considering that every director of the club had a modified SVO so if that label can be used in that situation you can imagine the impression the SSP group gets when people get torn apart for having or even mentioning modding an SSP. While it may not be "recommended" by the group, it shouldn't be cause for a noose. ;)

Sure and that is yours and many others opinions but just like religion....is it right to shove your belief's down other peoples throat? Has anyone every just jumped down your throat about installing a set of headers on your SSP?IMO there is room for everyone in this hobby from stock restorations to modified....every modified car makes yours worth more to the purist end of the market but at least they aren't junked. Someone can be an SSP enthusiast and still have a modified car...just as much of an enthusiast as you are only on a different level. Methodist or Catholic.....both have the same goal and they can get along without telling each other they are going to hell but they have a different version of beliefs.....Same thing with a guy into stock SSP's and one into modified SSP's.

Isn't six pages of this enough? Let's move on.

I agree......thanks, Gregg.

:2thumbs: +1