I got my 1983 GLX convertible in February 2004. It was initially a 3rd anniversary gift from my GF at the time. Her father told her he had a friend wanting to sell it for $800 but, he would sell it to him for $400.
She arranged with her dad to buy the car for me, even though in the end of the deal I actually gave her the money to pay her dad back.
The car was white with red interior. It had a 2.8L V6 automatic. It had originally come from back east so had a lot of rust and had not been kept up very well. The top was in bad shape and the rear window had come loose from the top.
When I picked the car up except for the divers side every floor including the back seat and top-well was full trash mostly fast food bags and such.
Other than that I really didn't care too much because I finally had my convertible! After we filled a dumpster with all the trash, I put the top down and drove home in The Vert.
The next day I removed the seats and carpet and washed them all down and cleaned them up the best I could.
The previous owner had included an extra trunk deck with the 3rd brake light that I installed because the original one was severely rusted through on the bottom edges in the rear.
The only changes I did from my selection of parts was to first remove the mis-matched stock 14" steel wheels and wire wheel hub caps, and install the set of 15" GT turbine wheels I had. I also pulled the black painted GT cheese grater taillights off my 87 and swapped them for the ones on the 83 so I could stripe them to get the SVO/SVT Cobra look for the 87.
We also decided to get a custom plate for the car and got "4 R 3RD".
The only pictures I can find for this car are all from 2005. By this time we had split up and I had to give up the house I was renting and moved in with my new GF. These 2 pictures at my storage unit are the oldest of the car from July.
Starting in 2005 I had started working in Casa Grande AZ. and so I started driving The Vert back and forth from Tucson. By this time my 1979 project car was dead and was pushed to the side while I decided what to do with it. I was never positively impressed with the imitation wood grain dash panels with red interior on The Vert so I swapped them out with the black pacecar panels in the 79 which for me made it more appealing.
Eventually decided I wanted to put the correct taillights back on the car so I removed the GT lights and sold them on ebay and purchased a different set of the 83 - 86 style for the LX.
This is the only picture I have where you can clearly see the GT lights on The Vert just before I removed them.
I don't think the GT lights looked that bad on the car I just preferred the cleaner look of the originals.
Here are a few more pictures taken in July out near the Tucson Airport industrial area. You may notice that the car now has an LX style tail pipe on it. The muffler on the car rotted out and so once more the 79 donated parts to The Vert.
Eventually it was time to renew the plates and I removed the bitter reminder that followed me around and got an ordinary everyday plate for The Vert.
Here are a few of the last pictures I have of The Vert. For a short time I played around with putting the Saleen wing from the LX on the car. I did put the regular trunk deck back on the car.
By 2006 I was needing to move closer to work, my GF didn't want to leave Tucson so we were calling it quits and I was going to need money to make my move. I knew someone who wanted to buy The Vert and I did not want to give up my 87. So I sold him the 83 and the 79 and made my move.
Someday I hope to get another convertible just have to see what the future holds for me.
