Helping a family member out 1985 SVO Fox Body

So, I have this Uncle that is a retired Ford mechanic. He campaigned a bunch of Ford sponsored drag cars in the day. He has dementia and his family is trying to get him into an ***isted living center. He had this little Mustang that loved. It was a 1985 SVO Mustang. There were approx. 1550 produced.
Knowing him, the insides are probably all the good stuff. They want me to help liquidate. The problem is, I am building 2 houses and my daughter is getting married....all within the next 40 days.

I am trying to help, but honestly, I am out of my comfort zone. I painted the car back 10 years ago, but haven't seen it since. It's always kept inside.

I know it's a niche following, but any advice or where we can try and garner some interest? I just don't want them to give stuff away because of ignorance, but don't want to be those "Barrett Jackson" priced folks either.

I'll post a few pics.

 

The nose and ground effects aren’t SVO Mustang and later than 1985 unless he changed then.

 

Unfortunately many of the the original '85 SVO exterior stuff has been replaced with a mix of '87-'93 GT and '93 Cobra parts and some aftermarket stuff (side skirts, front bumper, grille, hood, spoiler, etc.) The wheels are not original, nor a sought after design, but they are 5-lug... (all LX & GT fox body Mustangs were 4-lug, except the SVO and the '93 Cobra). The good side is that all of these items can be replaced with stock SVO parts to get it back to it's original condition, where it would have a much higher value than it's current state. Not sure about the rest of the parts that are not visible from this photo, but anything deviating from 100% original condition would drop the value since these really are quite rare. A nice clean original '85 SVO in average condition/mileage for its age would likely bring $12-15k in the current market.

Still a great car. My advice would be to join Fox body or SVO Mustang groups on Facebook, post up the details and photos and see if anyone can point you in the right direction. You can also put it on the Bring A Trailer site.

 

Reminds me of my first Fox car... A brand new '88 LX 5.0L hatch.. It was a stripper with no options... Not even air conditioning or a stereo... it did have power windows.. All for $10,400 out the door..
Best bang for the buck!..

 

I think he may have a lot of the parts. His daughter said he had a few extra hoods, spoilers etc.

 

He had a Cleveland he was planning on shoehorning in there. Here is a pic of the current setup. Sorry about the ****py pics.

 

When finding rough values of cars I’m not familiar with, do a search on BAT to see what they sold for there recently.

 

neat car, I got to play with a couple a long time ago, but I've forgot all about them. Yes, BaT is a good way to get a ballpark value. And a reasonable place to sell it, in the "month or so" time frame.

Tell them to make sure the paperwork is in order so they can sign it over to whomever buys it. Also let them know that top dollar and liquidate are usually opposites, so find a happy medium of sort of quick sale, and acceptable price.

 

Another vote for Bring A Trailer.

 

FOUREYEDPRIDE forum would be the better place to look up info. The 'main' svo club known as svocoa aka svocloaca is full of ***hats. Or at least it used to, you probably wont get any useful help from the cloaca, especially with a modified non stock SVO. They are snobs of the nth degree. Even a modified SVO, for performance, is looked down upon. To them Ford could do no wrong to the perfect mustang.

Verify the VIN is actually an SVO, and what year.
There were Turbo Mustangs up til '84 or '85. Turbo 145HP vs SVO 175HP or 205HP for the coveted 1985.5 SVO.

Car looks nice but its been 'aero'd.(87-93) bits and pieces all over. If the interior had also been 'updated' to 87-93 then the car may not be BAT worthy. The main charm of the SVO was its unique body, interior, engine, suspension/brakes (borrowed from the 82/84 4 dr Continental), and especially those Recaro seats which is partial reason to the SVOs extreme MSRP.
These were not like Turbo Regals or GNs that had a few changes from a base Regal. Typical Ford going a bit too big sometimes.

From the engine bay shot the original 'Onion' head strut mounts are gone, kind of a trade mark of early Fox ch***is and SVO cars, and a 3G alternator appears to have replaced the fire starter 2G alternator. The later is always positive.

Biggest issue would be to find a buyer that wants the SVO quirkyness of engine/brakes/suspension while looking like a stock GT with Cobra bits. Front control arms are unique to the SVO, not Continental/Mark VII parts. A turbo Lima fanboi is your target audience.

FWIW SVO and '93 Cobra R had 5 lugs, R brakes were used on the later 94-98 SN95 Cobra Mustangs.
93 Cobra was still 4 lug but with Turbo Tbird rear brakes.
Also iirc, 93 Cobra used the SVO taillights which had a unique look.
And iirc, the Conti/MVII/SVO front hubs used a larger register bore/snout. Its probably why the center cap is missing. LSC wheels on that Mustang would increase its look 10 fold, those gawdawful American Racing wheels are terible.

Without more pics it would be hard to say what the value may be.

SVO specific parts did bring serious coin. One could buy an SVO part out the SVO body parts, rebuild the car with LX or GT body parts and still have a nice chunk of change left over for whatever. While still enjoying the SVO engine/suspension/brakes.

 

I am beginning to wonder of it is an actual SVO. He was a true hot rodder, so nothing is sacred. I noticed the car was a 5 lug.
He campaigned a Ford powered altered, a few super stockers and even a Ford powered Devin.

 

I think I'm seeing a turbo 2.3 4-cylinder in that engine photo. I believe that would make this a true '85 SVO. The specific SVO hood had a scoop on it -

 

the scoop is for the intercooler, which the blurry picture has

 

Might help to run the vin. In case you decide to try Bring a Trailer, if you aren't familiar with it, you submit an application. It will need more than 100 pics, drive and cold start videos to have a chance. Corral.net might be an option as Craigs List.

 

Thanks guys. I’ll see what I can find out.

 

Looks like we are at a starting point of $6500. That sound about right?

 

Sounds like a good deal to me.