Originally Posted by Skippy

Shop your local lemon lots. How much do you want to spend? Other than all being factory slushbuckets, anything in the Ford Panther platform meets all your other requirements and can be acquired cheap. They can be converted. Box (79-91) bodies with the 5.0 take the T5 out of a V8 Mustang fairly easily. The later 4.6 cars can be converted also (again with Mustang parts), but this can be a little more involved. See www.crownvic.net for specifics.

You could also snag a Ranger or S10. They can be had for cheap if you look around, are pretty easy to work on, came with real transmissions, and will last if you take care of them.