im thinkin about buying a 87 mustang 5spd 5.0 gt with 100k miles its would be my first stang and im wodering what should i look for or do they have any known problems and i know that the previous owners has abused it a bit.

 

if i remember right there wasn't a 79 gt or 5.0

in 79 they had like a 255 or some small v8 basicaly a small bore 302
im not sure about the 5 speed i thought it was early 80's when ford started using them
the gt didn't come back until i think 83.

but the main thing i would look at on that car is make sure it doen't have metric wheels if it does plan on buying new wheels first thing(not too much cost). you can't get metric tires any more.
as far as being raged out. well its a mustang of coarse its been raged on.

 

yeah there was 5.0 in '79

9f03f1xxxxx would be the similar to the vin if it had an original 302

the 5th character has to be a "f" for the 140 hp 302 anything else was a 4 or 6 cyl.

the 3rd and 4th chracter is for body style and might be different than 03, 03 is hatchback, 02 is sedan, 04 is ghia sedan, and 05 is ghia hb


i can't think of anything to look for particularly.....smoooth shifting tranny and look for signd of problems or neglect that are covered up....fresh paint, fresh fluid changes, and fresh undercoating are usually signs of neglect that are fixed (although most people do change their oil for a sale)

 

one thing to look for is rust, i mean a little spot here isn't going to hurt anything but if there is say a corner thats rusted pretty bad then screw it and odn't get it because one peice of rust somewhere means its going to be other places.

 

pass it up and get an 87-93 5.0

 

just look for the norms, most of the time if a car has been abused the interor has been abused.
an old 5.0 is a tough car so it can handle a burnout here or there.