Hello all. Been a member here for a while, but for the last several years my Thunderbird has been suffering from severe neglect. Now that that's no longer the case I figured it's the time to actually show it on the board.
The quick, dirty version: it's an 87 Turbo Coupe that I bought with money from working summers when I was 15 (about 1993, which is a little depressing). It was an automatic. I drove it that way until the summer before my senior year, when we swapped in a 351W and T5. (We grew up drag racing, and our family was well known for big time Ford fanatics.) The next several years saw several T5s, and then a swap to a 408 with a Tremec. That's the same configuration it's in now, though not the same motor.
The last several years between getting deep into sport bikes, building a house, and having a baby the car got put on the back burner. But over the last year and a half, I've been slowly getting it back into fighting condition. Yesterday was the first time it has been on the street since 2004, and she ran like a champ. As time goes on I'll detail the set up and the changes made recently, but until then, here's a few pictures...
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8362/8322930619_39c5f997c5_b.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/91662174@N03/8322930619/)
2012-05-28 17.52.50 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/91662174@N03/8322930619/) by tbird408 (http://www.flickr.com/people/91662174@N03/), on Flickr
(http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8363/8323988324_8d185260a8_b.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/91662174@N03/8323988324/)
2012-05-28 17.52.20 (http://www.flickr.com/photos/91662174@N03/8323988324/) by tbird408 (http://www.flickr.com/people/91662174@N03/), on Flickr
Good lookin bird you have, glad you finally decided to join us talkin people!
Don't feel bad I've been looking through these sites since 2004 and I've just started posting a few months ago.
Nice Looking car! I had the same one while I was stationed in South Carolina. It was the Turbo Coupe, but when I bought it he did a 5.0 HO swap.
Long story short...I got in trouble...put on restriction...bye bye car...sniffles...
Very sweet ride
Nice 'n shiny..welcome to your new home :) lol
Welcome aboard....again.
That..bird...gives me wood
Props! That is a great combo in a super clean car!
Good looking Bird! Welcome to the site!
Wow nice ride! I'd love a 408/Tremec combo in my 'bird someday! Was this a street car only or did you race it (you said your familiy was big into drag racing)? If so, what sort of times were you running with it back in the day?
Oh, one more thing: MORE PICS!!
Thanks everyone for the kind words. Haven't been on recently, pulled the motor and transmission to fix what I thought was the rear seal leaking, but turned out to be the front bearing retainer on the tremec. After doing some research sounds like a pretty common problem of tremecs of that vintage, all that seals it is an anaerobic sealant. Got everything back together, but when I fired it up, the brand new Mallory 110 ped the bed. I have a sumped tank, and the pump itself is fed by a 4 gauge wire to the trunk, to a distribution block (also feeds the stereo), to a relay with 10 gauge wire from the relay to the pump, so I don't think it was anything vehicle/installation. Had to put the POS Holley blue pump on it to get it back home from my dad's. I have a large garage, but he has a 40' x 50' shop with every tool, air, engine hoist etc. The Holley pump is junk, going to send in the Mallory under warranty. 1/10th as loud, gets 1/10th as hot.
I will get up some detailed pictures hopefully in the next week in a user's ride post.
As far as times, the best it ran with the 351 was 13.12 at 105 in Dallas. With the 408, the only time I took it to the track was a Fun Ford where I was entered to run True Street. Probably around 2000. Test and tune the night before it sheared the weld on the aluminum driveshaft at the starting line launching on slicks. Turns out the local machine shop didn't know quite as much about aluminum welding as they thought. I'm hoping this year to run it on the drag radials, I think my days of tearing parts up with slicks are over. I just want to get to drive the dang thing.
keep us updated on that sweet ride
Great looking car, and welcome.