1978 Mercury Other

Bobcat Hatchback

2.3L

Manual

Clear

Gas

Purchased this vehicle to see what I could do with it knowing it had a smoking issue. The carburetor, door seals, steering wheel rag joint, heater core and hoses, spark plug coil, and oil have been replaced. The car has trouble starting, and usually starts after several cranks or adding fuel to the carb. When driven, the engine feels good except it seems to lose some power going up hills sometimes. The manual gear shifter is a little loose. Tires appear to be in good shape with plenty of tread, and I replaced the old spare tire with a new one. The body is very straight and the bottom of the car looks very good. The main rust areas that I can see are at the bottom of the doors esp on pass side door. It also has some surface rust on the body in a couple of areas, but nothing that cannot be sanded off and repainted. There is a small dent over the driver side front fender that is caused from leaning on that part of the car. It is popped out with a suction cup though. The radio antenna is not connected to the car; however, the Kraco AM/FM cassette radio works fine without it. It has Kraco speakers on the sides of the doors that still sound good, and there is enough wires tucked in under the dash to hook up more speakers in the rear of the car. The driver side window crank knob is not on the crank, but is off to the side. Both windows roll up and down. The interior is in excellent shape - no tears or rips, headliner intacked, and the dash has no cracks. Heater blows hot with new heater core, but the fan only blows on high. Windshield wipers work on both speeds; however, wash spray does not work. Three hubcaps matching, and one is different. Two sets of keys. And no I do not know if OD has gone over 100K. I have had the car for about 16 months, and previous person had it for about 6 months. Before us two, it appears to be a two ownership car. I have been thinking about it, and the rotten egg smell and smoke coming out of the exhaust are might be a catalytic converter issue. I thought before it might be a head gasket, because the black mark on the cement from the exhaust when I had it parked in the garage. However, I do not notice that mark on the driveway where I have it parked now. So this engine might still be good.