Bringing my neighbor's 92 Might Max back from the brink of death!

Hello all!

My name is Chris, and my neighbors up the hill from me are a nice older couple, with a 20 acre farm that a one point had 100 shetland sheep when they were in full operation. That was many years ago, now they have a few ducks and chickens, couple barn cats, a dog and a goat. I've known them about 15 years now and try to help them with the property from time to time, repairing fences, roofs, etc.

But, they have decided with their age and health they want to sell the property, and move somewhere easier to manage, and have asked if I can help them get it cleaned up a bit (it's a mess, I love them and they're great, but yeah it's a mess up there).

Phase one is getting vehicles off the property that have sat for years, all have a similar tale, worked fine until parked, but haven't been driven since. Already got the vw bus sold that sat for 22 years, then there's an 86 Isuzu trooper 2 that's sat for about 15 years, a 69 v6 mustang that's sat for 30 years, and finally, a little black truck I hadn't heard of before, a 92 mitsubishi mighty max, which had only been sitting 7 years.

I peeked under the hood of each vehicle, and the only one I felt optimistic about trying to see if it would start was the mighty max. Oil looked ok, coolant looked fine, belt was ok-ish. Put a trickle charger on the battery overnight, and it was holding a charge this morning, put some gas in the tank, and it started right up! It's got moss growing on the outside and on the floor inside, but it's running again!

Only dilemma is it won't shift out of park, hoping it might be associated with some chewed through wires that are near the battery. No headlights or brake lights, but turn signals and taillights work. I'm wondering since the brake lights are out, it maybe could be the brake petal switch not activating the solenoid in the shifter that allows it to shift from park? I guess that will be a question for tuning and smog if need be, but tomorrow we'll hopefully be soldering the wires back together, and fingers crossed that resolves all issues.

But all that being said, I'm on here hoping to get some advice from folks on what they might expect to get for it, and maybe where to try to sell it. I could put it on Craigslist or whatever, but I feel with a unique model like this, that kind of had a following of people that appreciated them, I want to give those folks first dibs, someone who would love to try to restore this little guy, as opposed to someone who just needs a cheap work truck, and will quickly run it into the ground.
Cheers,
Chris

Hi, Chris, and welcome to the forum.

I'm no expert at figuring out values, so I'll just welcome you and wait for someone to give you a good appraisal.

Appreciate it. They have no idea what things should sell for, he asked if I wanted to buy the vw bus for $500, but I told him I couldn't do that, it wouldn't be right in my mind since I know those do have value if in semi decent shape. Ended up finding a guy who gave them $4k for it.

Not expecting to get that much for the mighty max lol. The engine sounds great, but the trim around the windshield has come off across the top, and there's some rust that's rotted through, not a huge hole but enough to make the floors have natural moss floor mats. And the windshield is cracked.

Didn't make it up there today, but I believe he was planning on fixing the wiring if he had time, so hopefully tomorrow it will be running and moving again. I'll try to get a few more photos as well.