Max! You CAN do this! (I have)
Pull the pony out of it’s 54 Ft. deep grave.
#1 Siphon out the fuel tank. ON SITE. Get it home. (or wherever) Pull the tank out & drain it COMPLETELY.
#2 (at home/wherever) Drain EVERY DROP of fluid out of the ENTIRE drivetrain, Pull the plugs & turn the engine over to pump out the cylinders. Use THEE CHEAPEST 20W oil/ trans fluid you can. refill the engine/trans rear end plus about a 1/4 cup down each plug hole. Turn EVERYTHING over for about two minutes. (the hard part) Re-drain.
#3 Remove the ENTIRE interior. Save the seat frames and dash. (they’ll be reupholstered)
Trash everything else. Clean out ALL drain holes including the heat/ventilation system.
#4 Take the car to a paint shop.
Rent their bake oven for two consecutive nights to thoroughly dry out the frame/body.
#5 Take it home & begin reassembly.
Good luck Max! Post pictures when it’s fully resurrected!
Rob
Not worth it. The ECM and anything electrical is totally shot. Only a total re-wire end-to-end will get this rig running again.
Note the handle of the original poster.
He suffers from the adage that ANYTHING can be fixed if you throw enough money at it. A '94 Mustang isn’t worth it. If it were, the insurance company that OWNS it would have pulled it out in '04.
If it’s fresh water, and the car hasn’t been immersed for too long, you should be OK. Any electrical control modules, wash them thoroughly with clean water (distilled would probably be best), then dry them for at least a week before applying any power. If you can put them in an oven and heat them to no more than 120 degrees or so, that would help. A hairdryer may help to drive water out of connectors too.
I have rescued dead laptops this way. (of course the hard drive was toast)
If it’s been down there for more than a few days though, yes, it will be useless and not worth the effort.
It’s been buried in 54 feet of water for 6 years!!!1!!!1!1!!!1
Didn’t realize that. You’d be better off melting it down and using the salvaged steel to build a new one at this point.
You can buy a brand new 2011 Mustang GT cheaper than what this is going to cost, and in the bargain, get a MUCH better car that runs right and has a warranty…
Six years in 50 feet of water? Wow. I can’t believe anyone would even consider pulling it out much less trying to repair it. It should remain an artificial reef.
This car will be just like Miss Belvedere, the new '57 Plymouth that was buried in the Tulsa time capsule way back when and was unearthed a couple of years ago. We’ve seen how well that worked out.
If they had been smart enough to waterproof the Belvedere’s tomb, it might have been a different and more interesting story. Unfortunately it had been completely under water, just like Max’s Mustang, for quite some time.
The people who buried that Plymouth way back when should have been aware of the water table issue there and made provisions for drainage, etc.
There was a production made of unveiling that car with national TV time, Boyd Coddington doing the honors, etc. with people even flying in from around the world to see this thing.
Anyone with common sense knew that car was toast before it was “unveiled” at the civic center in Tulsa. The lid had been removed from the concrete tomb 2 weeks prior to this unveiling and it was reported on the local news then that there was 3 feet of water inside that coffin; and that was after a dry spell.
Allegedly, someone has this car back east and is going to restore it. There’s nothing to restore and likely the only thing salvageable is (maybe) the engine block, transmission case, and some of the stainless trim.
I would hope that my feeling that someone is going to use 98% of another car and 2% of Miss Belvedere to create a fake followed by running it through a Barrett-Jackson auction for an obscene amount of money is incorrect.
Here is a link to the story for those who might have been too far away to have heard of it before.
http://krmg.com/localnews/2009/05/buried-car-still-being-restore.html