Scrap, sell or part out 1979 Heritage?

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Thunderbird Year
1979
Hello all, my names Charlie and I'm happy to be a new member of the community. I look forward to your insights to my rather pressing questions.

I'm looking for some guidance in regards to the future of my 1979 T-Bird.
The car has stayed in my family since it was new and it was originally bought as a graduation present for my mother, as she graduated in the class of 1979. The car lived a rather pampered and garaged life until the mid 90's when my family moved. After the move, it was no longer garaged, as we didn't have the room. It was during this time that it developed a carburetor leak and my grandfather mistakenly decided to start the car, despite knowing better. When he did this, the carburetor caught fire, and the car burned under the hood. The fire was contained to the engine bay, and did the most damage to the upper left area near the H/VAC and of course the carburetor and surrounding areas. When the car burned, I was around 3 or 4 years old, I'm 25 now. The car was handed down to me so I could restore the vehicle, and that's something that I fully looked forward to. But I'm in school and I work, and I don't have the money or the time to invest in the car. In the time since it burned its been parked outside and rust has caused even further damage. I'm looking to let the car go, but I'm at an impasse. I've been doing research on the car since I was a child, and I know this vintage doesn't command much resale value. Local scrap estimates from my area are $100.00 or less. The problem I have with that is that the car has to be worth more than that in the sum of its parts alone. All of its original parts remain, and no parts have ever been sold, and I know for a car of this age (40 years old now) parts, especially trim pieces, are going to be hard to find. I understand that the turbine wheels set can fetch around $300.00 by themselves If possible, I'd like to see the car in the hands of someone who can, at the very least, make use of its parts in the process of maintaining another T-Bird or similar Ford. I'm not looking to rob anyone, but I truly hate to see the car go for $100.00 and then know that it's going to be crushed.

Specs:
351 Cleveland V8
3 speed automatic without overdrive
96,499 miles
It was also equipped with nearly all the options. Except for a sun roof and rear defog

Thank you all for you time and responses,
Charlie20190123_101749.jpg 20190123_101825.jpg 20190123_102006.jpg 20190123_102010.jpg 20190123_102027.jpg 20190123_102303.jpg 20190123_102312.jpg 20190123_110655.jpg 20190123_110704.jpg 20190123_110725.jpg
 
I don't think anyone is going to give you anything for it. Your best bet is breaking it down for parts. There is almost nothing really savable under the hood. Who knows what kind of damage and structural weaknesses were caused by the fire and then the subsequent time it was left to sit and neglected. I see a lot of rotted metal. Body looks okay, but its not like there are people scrambling to come after these cars. Hell anything after 1966 and its all down hill in terms of value and resale. This also means that available parts are also going to be hard to come by as well. Most of us that own Tbirds in these years know its almost always a going to be a loss for trying to sell them. We do it because we love the vehicle we got.

Hagerty values for this car are about $2400 for a vehicle in "fair" condition. Your's I am sorry to say in my honest opinion falls below that. The fact there was an engine fire then the car was neglected for some time is really going to hurt your chances. I wish you the best of luck, but like I said before you may have to spend the time parting it out piece by piece on places like Ebay.
 
The 351 Cleveland might be worth in the neighborhood of $1000 depending on post fire condition. Looks like the 2V (two barrel) version which is not as desirable as the 4V but there are folks that are into them. You could make them take the whole car to get the motor.
 
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