How'd you get your MN12?

Any known MN12s with a dark purple? Im curious how that would look, my friend went to school for automotive painting and he seems to favor that enough that he might have spare paint. I love the Ebony but curious if I ever pick up a secondary
 
91-92 had a dark plum that was essentially purple, there was also the 95 chameleon which was color shifting purple to blue but its not very dark
 
A dark purple metallic Would look great. Even if the free paint isn't metallic, you can add flake to the clearcoat; You just need to do multiple coats of clear.
 
I got my 97 Sport in April 1997. At the time I was driving an 84 mustang GT that was wearing my patience. I had already swapped in a roller cam engine (dud for performance), rebuilt the t5, replaced the factory Holley 4 bbl for an edlebrock, only to come to the conclusion I needed better seats for my back. Loved the car but.... then I heard they were stopping production and I was oh hell no. So I went to the local dealer just to see if it was true or not. Older gentleman sales came up and asked what I was looking for? I said I want fast, comfortable and rear drive. He suggested a crown vic and I was nahhh I'm not that old (just 28) and he said well then there is this tbird. It was the pearl white and I was no I don't think so. He said come let's ride. We went out and about an area I was familiar with and I knew it was ROUGH. He pulled over and put me in charge and said hit that curve @ 35. I said it will slide out and he laughed. So I launched that bird and followed his instructions and damn, that R/R xing was smooth as silk while under power. SOLD! I examined we needed a different color and he talked me into ordering mine the way I wanted it. He let me take the form w/ options home and study and w/ $500 down I had a Laser Red Sport with everything except the alarm and trak-lok. ABS meant no trak-lock. About 35 days later I was ripping the streets. I just watched odometer turn 338k yesterday and it is still my daily driver. At the moment I need a paint job (really bad due to sunny south), recover leather driver's seat and a. Windshield(cracked from road debris). Back in the day Davey Allison had the tbird I wanted to drive!
 
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Davey was the man. I still remember watching that Thunderbird win the Daytona 500. If he had lived, Jeff Gordon wouldn't have won squat.

And yes I know that's a Dale Jarrett car.
 
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Back in 99, we were at a dealers looking at cars. I showed her one I liked and she sat inside. I told her she looked "good" in the car. She was sold.

Her 80 Dodge Challenger was getting old. We had that car for 17 years before selling it in 2000.

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Warm photos! Thats cool, I had no idea the challenger was around at that time until I saw one parked last year
 
Bought the car in 1999 as an insurance write off. The front end was cleaned off in the crash but the battery was the only casualty in the engine bay. It sat at a buddies farm and several times a year id go out there put a bit of gas in it and run the engine and drivetrain for a 1/2 hr or so. It wasn't till 2005 I worked up the guts to tackle the swap.
I had already started disassembly in these pics and almost gave up several times, the amount of hoses and wire was mind boggling!! Learning to focus on what I needed/wanted got me through. It was a long process and moving 12 hrs away and leaving the car sit for a year during in the swap didn't help.
Miss the big hp 351C a bit every now and then but mostly very happy I went to the 3.8.


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Fred Smailes said:
Bought the car in 1999 as an insurance write off. The front end was cleaned off in the crash but the battery was the only casualty in the engine bay. It sat at a buddies farm and several times a year id go out there put a bit of gas in it and run the engine and drivetrain for a 1/2 hr or so. It wasn't till 2005 I worked up the guts to tackle the swap.
I had already started disassembly in these pics and almost gave up several times, the amount of hoses and wire was mind boggling!! Learning to focus on what I needed/wanted got me through. It was a long process and moving 12 hrs away and leaving the car sit for a year during in the swap didn't help.
Miss the big hp 351C a bit every now and then but mostly very happy I went to the 3.8.


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Very nice Cougar and really nice Mercury!
 
I always liked those late 70s challengers, but hardly ever see them. I remember the first time seeing one it was for sale in like 2002ish, but it was in rough shape, and the guy thought he was sitting on gold. I remember thinking I could probably get it for like $1500, and then the guy said he wanted $8k so I didn’t even try to negotiate. But I always thought they would be a great candidate for some kind of engine swap.
 
White Lincoln said:
Very nice Cougar and really nice Mercury!
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The XR7 was a full load car but had been rode hard and put away wet way too many times! Interior was beat and filthy, 270,000 or so klms on it. But, it ran good actually hard! Ran it for almost 10 years before I busted the trans just after I came across a rebuilt engine and trans.
 
MadMikeyL said:
I always liked those late 70s challengers, but hardly ever see them. I remember the first time seeing one it was for sale in like 2002ish, but it was in rough shape, and the guy thought he was sitting on gold. I remember thinking I could probably get it for like $1500, and then the guy said he wanted $8k so I didn’t even try to negotiate. But I always thought they would be a great candidate for some kind of engine swap.
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I bet a lot of people think they’re FWD like all the K car junk Chrysler was hocking by the 80s (including the Charger). They’re really not bad looking, the face lifted versions look like early Fox Mustangs
 
When I first saw it on the side of the road, I actually thought it was an early Fox Mustang. As soon as I pulled up next to it, I knew it wasn’t, but it had a for sale sign and was unlocked, and had a manual trans, so I popped the hood and started looking and saw it was RWD, so I was interested enough to look into it. But then when he wanted as much as similar condition 72/73 318 Challengers were going for at the time, I moved on. However I have only ever seen 2 or 3 of them since then. They aren’t bad looking, in an 80s kind of way, and I like the idea of a car that nobody knows what it is, so I would definitely make a project out of one if I came across one cheap and in half-way decent shape.
 
MadMikeyL said:
I always liked those late 70s challengers, but hardly ever see them. I remember the first time seeing one it was for sale in like 2002ish, but it was in rough shape, and the guy thought he was sitting on gold. I remember thinking I could probably get it for like $1500, and then the guy said he wanted $8k so I didn’t even try to negotiate. But I always thought they would be a great candidate for some kind of engine swap.
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Smart man. You would have easily put $6500 into it to make it run descent, let along all the body and interior work. $1500 was a reasonable price.
 
MadMikeyL said:
When I first saw it on the side of the road, I actually thought it was an early Fox Mustang. As soon as I pulled up next to it, I knew it wasn’t, but it had a for sale sign and was unlocked, and had a manual trans, so I popped the hood and started looking and saw it was RWD, so I was interested enough to look into it. But then when he wanted as much as similar condition 72/73 318 Challengers were going for at the time, I moved on. However I have only ever seen 2 or 3 of them since then. They aren’t bad looking, in an 80s kind of way, and I like the idea of a car that nobody knows what it is, so I would definitely make a project out of one if I came across one cheap and in half-way decent shape.
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I've seen exactly one ever in person, and that initial fox Mustang impression was mine as well. Truth be told Mitsubishi was the best part of Chrysler in the late 70s-90s. The Starion/Conquest that was essentially the replacement for the Challenger was a really cool car everyone overlooks too. I'd take this over a MK III Supra or FC RX7 people now fawn over anyday

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Actually the 2.6 in the Challenger was the same basic engine as the turbo 2.6 in the Starion/Conquest, which were actually available in junkyards back in the early 2000s. My thought at the time was doing a Starion drivetrain swap, which would likely be a really fun car.
 
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