Hey all, love this site. Let me start from the beginning. Ive wanted an SVO since they came out, in 1984 I was 6 and i'm 34 now so you all can do the math. I grew up around Fords and mustangs in particular but always had an extremely soft spot for the SVO's. In 1988, my dad bought an '88 GT brand new in Maryland but on the lot sat a beautiful lightly used black 86 SVO for sale, now you can imagine his 10 year old son saying "dad buy the black car, its an SVO they're much cooler" the sales man looked at him and he was like "hey your son knows his cars" well not much thought went into what I had said, dad wanted a new car and he did just that, I was a little disappointed but I loved the scarlet red GT too (was the first car I ever drove). Fast forward to 1997 I get my license and have my first car (1986 Mercury Capri), I used to love to drive and one day I came across this house that had 7 SVO's parked in random locations around the house, There were three on the street right behind one another two on the lawn, one behind the gated fence (A dark sage one at that) and one sitting in the driveway. I didnt know about the comp preps but I saw the one in the driveway had crank windows and knew it was a little different, I wanted that one so bad but the guy was never home. From time to time, I would drive by and gradually one by one they would dissapear till they were all gone except the medium charcoal one in the driveway (once again guy never home). I never forgot about the car but I ended up buying a canyon red '86 and started to put that one back together. About a year goes by and my friend calls me to tell me our friend bought a grey SVO from the town that the 7 were from for 200.00 mind you and wanted me to take a look at it. You can imagine how pissed I was when I rolled up and saw what car it was. He told me the guy moved to Conneticut and had to get rid of the car but the engine was locked up, the owner told our friend it was a special car. Turns out the engine wasn't locked up because of failure it locked up because it had been sitting about 15 years so him and his father dumped some marvel mystery oil down the cylinders let it soak in and hand cranked the motor, little by little till they were able to get revolutions out of it, then they threw the plugs back in it and it fired right up. So when I had gotten there our friend told me that he got it running but his father wont let him keep it and needs to get rid of it, nows my chance I thought and was able to strike a deal but ended up having to borrow money off my crazy then girlfriend to buy it, and BTW had to leave it in her driveway. When we finally broke up I got the car outta there soon as I could cause she was threatening to do all kinds of crazy things including breaking the car up with a bat. I couldnt have that so I brought the car down to my Aunts in virginia and after things cooler off I brought it back, me and my dad used it once in awhile and my dad ran the idea of restoring it to me and I kinda just blew it off. Now about a year later he moved to Virginia himself and brought the car with him, its down there with him and his friends wife backs into the left rear quarter (out of all the places shes gotta hit it, shes gotta hit it there). So i finally get the car back to New York and my dad suggested we restore it once again, and I'm thinking I'm on board with it, I went through hell and back with this car and fought so hard to get it and keep it.
I don't know how much and/or even if this car is going to be worth anything in the future, but I love the car and it for sure holds a sentimental place in my heart and I always wanted to take on a project like this with my dad and with my new house and garage the time is now so we're planning on doing a ground up restoration on the car. I would like to make it show quality but driveable at the same time, when SVO developed and built these cars they were meant to be driven, not put on a trailer. I want to build it to look stock and be mostly stock but maybe with a few minor tweaks that are both more reliable and have better technology. Me and my dad are going to handle the mechanics rebuild the engine and what not but we aren't body guys though and I'm trying to find someone who can do it for use. I would like to have the windows removed, put on a rotisserie and taken down to bare metal, have all the rust removed and fixed correctly, have the quarter fixed and painted and sealed, and I want it perfect which is why im having a hard time finding someone because very few take pride in the work they do anymore. If anybody knows a good body/metal/paint guy in the NY tri state area please let me know, I'm willing to travel a little bit for a job thats done right. Thank you to those who actually read all that, and for the record this will be my longest post I promise you all that.
thank you for the space to talk about me and my car
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Originally Posted by Meotchh
