If you want to stay out of the traditional 1964-72 musclecar era machines, but are interested in a neat project car that you can actually put together for decent cash, you’d be hard-pressed to do better than a Fox Mustang. With a healthy aftermarket and a “sky’s the limit” approach to building one, you have to show immense talent in screwing up to botch one of these cars. And they are still very affordable! That’s the best part of them…you can still pick one up for a song and with some investment and hard work, have a very cool little ride. While digging through Craigslist on another cheap-car hunt, we stumbled onto this 1979 Mustang that’s up for sale in Colorado and we instantly fell for it because it’s a great take on a period-custom car that deserves to be restored to it’s former glory…not stock, but pure 1980s goodness.

Until the 302 V8 made it’s first real shot at power in 1982, the hot-ticket motor for early four-eye Foxes wasn’t the V8, it was the 2.3L turbocharged four-cylinder. 1970s turbo technology left many of these engines dead due to issues such as oiling and basic care, but when done right and properly tuned these Pinto fours can run surprisingly hard. Inside the interior we see the shifter…a four-speed manual trans keeps the driving entertaining, and other than a minor repair or two, the inside looks pretty good!

The buy-in for this Mustang is $1,800. The leftover cash can get the car up and moving no problem, with daily-driver reliability a possibility. Drive it as a time capsule, and start saving up to get that neat paint job re-done and done right.

Craigslist Link: 1979 Ford Mustang Turbo