As someone who is bespectacled, the “four eyes” insult still lingers in the deep recesses of my brain. If only I had known, back then, that I could have uttered a witty come-back along the lines of, “Oh yeah? Well, a four-eyed Mustang GT will run circles around your Civic!” Of course, I didn’t own a Mustang GT, so my response may still have fallen flat, but there’s no disappointment with this clean 1985 Mustang GT convertible here on craigslist, spotted by Barn Finds reader Clarke B.
Right away, those of you who prefer to row your own gears may be turned off by the automatic transmission in the center console. I could go either way – I prefer manuals, but I’ve never thought of a convertible as a car I’d want to hustle. The sacrifices made to chassis rigidity in the name of topless touring negate some of the appeal of backroads hustling, so I’d prefer to find three pedals in a coupe body, anyway. With just under 31,000 original miles, the interior looks absolutely mint.
With the classic 5.0L, high-output eight-cylinder under foot, this four-eyed ‘Stang will still make all the right noises. It won’t be particularly fast, but again – this one is a perfect candidate for low-buck cruising and you don’t need a ridiculous maintenance budget to keep it on the road. The seller has already addressed some basic maintenance requirements, adding new tires, belts, hoses and fresh brake components. Even the original paperwork and window sticker are included in the sale.
Speaking of original equipment, check out those new-in-the-box Marchal light covers. These were a popular fixture on Mustangs, Thunderbirds and Escort GTs of the era, and they fetch a pretty penny on eBay these days. To find a Mustang that hasn’t lived in a bubble yet is still highly preserved is the type of purchase you can easily justify when it comes to owning a project car that won’t leave you in the poorhouse. Though the asking price of $10,500 is all the money for one of these, there’s a lot to be said for buying the best example you can find.
Oh this has my muffin hot. Like that chubby girl that has all the potential in the world, and you see it first.
The only thing one might want to add is a carton of Parliments on the front seat. Guaranteed fun on a Saturday night! #baycityrollers
There’s nothing like a hot muffin Spence! This ’85 reminds me of my 1986 GT that I bought new. The only issue was that the speedometer cable kept malfunctioning. I went through three of them until I gave up. (Shhhh) It did work when I sold it.
This color tho and that louver….. #huminahumina
I would be a player if this car was a HT and had MT.
Not extremely rare, but looks clean and straight, which is hard to find in these. I was always a hard core Trans Am guy, but I did have a GT back in the day. They were light, fun, and almost dangerous. That fox body was never engineered for that kind of power. Agreed, if you’re gonna buy one, get the best most original one you can find.
Sweet, sweet, sweet rude! Agree, “almost dangerous” is correct! For Reagan era, these are fun, good looking, great performing rods.
And drop the top !
I had 2 of them in the 1990s. A fun car that could be bought cheaper than a Z28 used. They were light and could be a handful at times. Looks to be a clean car and the price of them has risen recently.
And it’s just starting to look like if you want to get a reasonably priced nice used one, now is the time. From what I’ve seen lately, IROCs, Trans Ams (particularly GTA’s), and GT’s of this era that are original are starting to creep up in $$. Up until a few years ago nice 80’s to early 90’s versions could be had on the cheap, not now. I owned a few late 70’s early 80’s Trans Ams and would love to have a nice one now, but it seems they are getting out of reach quickly. I won;t even mention the beautiful ‘Cuda that a friend of my father almost wanted to give me years ago (I was GM all the way at the time). That still hurts!!
I had a friend who bought one of these new in ’85. It was a fun, hot little car. He drove it for years, putting over 200k miles on it. I always liked it.
I had a ’71 Corvette at the time, pretty hot engine and 3:08 gears. The Vette always had an edge over the Mustang. We were both 19 years old… how did we ever survive?
In 1985 the 5.0’s with manual transmissions had a Holley 4 barrel carb and were rated at 210 HP. The automatic 5.0’s had the CFI (central fuel injection) and were rated at 200 HP.
I bought a 1979 Stang conv back in the mid 90’s. It was a 3.8L V6, I picked it up for $500. It wasn’t fast, but was adequate, it handled well, and mileage was reasonable. It was my first experience installing a convertible top myself. I can tell you this , I will never try that again in February! I waited till July before trying to stretch new seat covers on it. It was a fun car and I still miss it today. I’d love to have this in my garage.
They didn’t make a Mustang convertible in 1979. The first of the Fox body convertibles were the 1983 models.
Rollin’ in my 5.0 with the top down low so my hair can blow!
Hey z28th1s. Good catch , your absolutely correct. Gottem confused the convertible was a 2004. Had a 1979 hatchback, 4 banger which I was not impressed with.
Still driving the 85 GT that I bought new to work a few days a week. It seems as if every male of a certain age had a Fox at some point so I am continually amazed at how many comments my survivor gets. I recall my first drive and the the car feeling like an absolute rocket sled compared to the Camaro I had been driving. It is still fun today but definitely more show than go.