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Topic: The lonely bird (Read 5177 times) previous topic - next topic

The lonely bird

Went to a local cruise on Sunday.  There were about 60 cars and I not only had the only Thunderbird, it was the only fox platform car on site.  Forgot my camera but here's a couple cell phone pics.



1988 T-Bird Sport Coupe--5.0 HO, MAF swap, 1-5/8" shorties, BBK/Flowmaster exhaust, Explorer intake, 70mm Edelbrock TB, T5, B&M short throw, Centerforce clutch and PP, disc brake TC rear w/ 3.55's, TC front brakes, '98 Cobra springs, DIY SFC's, other misc .  14.05 @ 98mph with launching too low and shifting too high.

The lonely bird

Reply #1 –
Nice! Do you by chance know the name of the color of your paint?
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

The lonely bird

Reply #3 –
That was what my last Bird looked like before I painted it blue. Nice Bird in the pic, but ugly wheels.
'88 Sport--T-5,MGW shifter,Trick Flow R intake,Ed Curtis cam,Trick Flow heads,Scorpion rockers,75mm Accufab t-body,3G,mini starter,Taurus fan,BBK long tube headers,O/R H-Pipe, Flowamaster Super 44's, deep and deeper Cobra R wheels, Mass Air and 24's,8.8 with 3.73's,140 mph speedo,Mach 1 chin spoiler,SN-95 springs,CHE control arms,aluminum drive shaft and a lot more..

The lonely bird

Reply #4 –
Quote from: vinnietbird;392044
Nice Bird in the pic, but ugly wheels.

That' my 'bird and I know the wheels are less than ideal......have not decided what wheels I'm going to put on it yet so I'll keep rolling on these until I get something else.
1988 T-Bird Sport Coupe--5.0 HO, MAF swap, 1-5/8" shorties, BBK/Flowmaster exhaust, Explorer intake, 70mm Edelbrock TB, T5, B&M short throw, Centerforce clutch and PP, disc brake TC rear w/ 3.55's, TC front brakes, '98 Cobra springs, DIY SFC's, other misc .  14.05 @ 98mph with launching too low and shifting too high.

The lonely bird

Reply #5 –
It's not the wheels are ugly, they just don't seem to flow with your Sport. But, I do prefer them over Cobra R wheels that you see most on Fox cars lol.
'98 Explorer 5.0
'20 Malibu (I know, Chevy, but, 35MPG. Let's go brandon, eh)

The lonely bird

Reply #6 –
Quote from: ThunderbirdSport302;392064
But, I do prefer them over Cobra R wheels that you see most on Fox cars lol.

Agreed!!  Those wheels are WAY over used.
1988 T-Bird Sport Coupe--5.0 HO, MAF swap, 1-5/8" shorties, BBK/Flowmaster exhaust, Explorer intake, 70mm Edelbrock TB, T5, B&M short throw, Centerforce clutch and PP, disc brake TC rear w/ 3.55's, TC front brakes, '98 Cobra springs, DIY SFC's, other misc .  14.05 @ 98mph with launching too low and shifting too high.

The lonely bird

Reply #7 –
I kinda like those wheels Dan. And you guys are killing me lol!! I have a set of Cobra R's waiting for tires for my Bird. I've been running the current wheels since 92 so I guess I'm behind the times. lol!

The lonely bird

Reply #8 –
Oh and Dan, get used to having the only Bird at shows. It's like that most of the time. Which is nice, it stands out that way.

The lonely bird

Reply #9 –
Quote from: ThunderbirdSport302;392039
Nice! Do you by chance know the name of the color of your paint?

Pretty sure it's "1D" Smoke Mettalic.

Quote from: 1Bad88tbird;392282
....get used to having the only Bird at shows.........

I'm already used to that....my blue Ranger is right beside it in the pics.  It's usually the only Ranger at shows and it gets a LOT of attention due to the paint and driveline mods.
1988 T-Bird Sport Coupe--5.0 HO, MAF swap, 1-5/8" shorties, BBK/Flowmaster exhaust, Explorer intake, 70mm Edelbrock TB, T5, B&M short throw, Centerforce clutch and PP, disc brake TC rear w/ 3.55's, TC front brakes, '98 Cobra springs, DIY SFC's, other misc .  14.05 @ 98mph with launching too low and shifting too high.

The lonely bird

Reply #10 –
Are those old Shelby/ Mustang Predator wheels?
Mike

The lonely bird

Reply #11 –
Quote from: mcb82gt;392287
Are those old Shelby/ Mustang Predator wheels?

Not sure.....they had American Racing center caps in them but I had to knock them out to fit over the grease caps in front...didn't want to use a wheel spacer.  These wheels came on my wife's Mustang Convertible when I bought it a couple years ago.
1988 T-Bird Sport Coupe--5.0 HO, MAF swap, 1-5/8" shorties, BBK/Flowmaster exhaust, Explorer intake, 70mm Edelbrock TB, T5, B&M short throw, Centerforce clutch and PP, disc brake TC rear w/ 3.55's, TC front brakes, '98 Cobra springs, DIY SFC's, other misc .  14.05 @ 98mph with launching too low and shifting too high.

The lonely bird

Reply #12 –
I kinda like the wheels...give it that period correct 80's look.  I would keep them!  Sometimes a smaller diameter wheel with fat tires can look good depending on the ride height, suspension setup, etc. 

Oh and BTW I'm pretty sure our cars were almost twins when they rolled off the assembly line.  Only difference I can see is the sun roof.  I always thought the paint code was "Shadow grey metallic" or something like that...
'88 'bird, 10.9:1 306 w/TFS top end, forged rods/pistons, T-5 swap & bunch of other stuff, 1-family owned, had it since ‘98, 5.0tbrd88 on Instagram and YouTube
 

The lonely bird

Reply #13 –
Quote from: vinnietbird;392044
That was what my last Bird looked like before I painted it blue. Nice Bird in the pic, but ugly wheels.

 
Quote from: ThunderbirdSport302;392064
It's not the wheels are ugly, they just don't seem to flow with your Sport. But, I do prefer them over Cobra R wheels that you see most on Fox cars lol.

 
Quote from: 1Bad88tbird;392281
I kinda like those wheels Dan. And you guys are killing me lol!! I have a set of Cobra R's waiting for tires for my Bird. I've been running the current wheels since 92 so I guess I'm behind the times. lol!


It's an amazing thing about the personality of wheels.
In many people's mind the wheels make or break the looks of a car.
I didn't like the wheels on my TC when I bought it, but got quite a few compliments on them, so I decided perhaps they didn't look that bad after all. I really like the design of the stock wheels on the Thunderbird Sport coupes, but wish they were 16" or 17" instead of 14". Snowflakes on TCs don't really do much for me.

My guess is that in about any random group of ten people looking at a set of wheels on a car, about half would like them, the other half would not.

Today there are so many different wheels available that a person could literally have new and different wheels to show off every day of the year, if he had the time and money to do it.
It sure wasn't that way back in the fifties when I started driving. About the only aluminum/mag wheels back then were the original American Racing wheel. We traded hub caps on our cars instead of wheels for effect.
Ron
Speed is just a question of MONEY How fast can you go?    (M. M.)