1986 SSP saved- Dan's 1986 FHP

[ChrisL]

This is a neat story. Jason (03Cobra) on the board here heard about this car a couple of weeks ago. He immediately called me, told me the story and was in the truck headed down to look at it as we spoke about it. It sounded rough, real rough, but it was certainly worth a look for the price. Upon inspection, the car was actually extremely straight and solid, but has just lived through many, many years of abuse, "maintenance," and modification by someone who didn't have the means to do those things properly. IE, the car was just way run down. Interior is miss-matched, missing or broken; engine has been replaced, the whole car has been painted with a brush... it was basically my '86 DPS mustang all over again. The kid who had it lived in a real bad part of town, was hard up for money and needed it gone. It was so bad, that he didn't have a phone, he had to wait by a friend's phone to talk to us.

I decided that I wasn't ready for another resto, and Jason had just tracked down a unicorn of his own and was in the same boat. We decided to pass. In passing I mentioned to Dan (who restored my '86 DPS and my Sage Green '86 Coupe) that we had found this car but were going to pass on it. He asked for a couple pictures, so I sent what we had. He told me at that price he'd be really interested, and that got me pretty pumped. This is just up his alley with his resto abilities, and both Jason and I were excited to hear maybe the car could get saved. I struck a deal with Dan to pick up the car for him, and literally loaded up the truck and trailer and headed out that next night after work.



The car is really super solid, it obviously did not live in Florida very long after decommissioning. There is lots of tan paint still strewn about, and you can see the hole for the light bar in the bottom side of the roof (headliner is out). The kid I bought it from did say that it had the bumper drilled for 2 pushbars when he bought it, but he replaced the bumper for one with no holes. I sure hope it was a push-bar car! One buck tag appears to be missing, and the door tag is illegible. Still no doubt that it is an FHP though, and the VIN falls right in line (248589). Dan said it's still going to be a couple of years before he gets to this one as he has 3-4 ahead of it, but it will get the royal treatment just the same! On to the good stuff...