'88 Thunderbird TurboCoupe 'save'.......

July 23, 2017, 05:36:21 PM

A friend of mine (worked with him for years) bought a 12,000 mile original '88 Thunderbird V8/Auto earlier this year. He started looking for a Thunderbird TurboCoupe as he wants the 8.8" Trac-Lock (versus the 7.5" open the V-car came with), the buttstuffog dash (his is digital), the front spindles and calipers (again, to convert to the larger brakes), the hood (just for the NACA duct look), and the SnowFlake wheels.
He found an '88 Thunderbird TurboCoupe Automatic sitting not to far from us, parked 6 years ago. Stopped to talk to the guy about parting the car out and the guy told him "No, you'll have to buy the whole car. I want it gone." Thinking he would want too much, he walked away. A month passes and he decides to see just what the guy wants for the car. Guy tells him $300. Needless to say, he buys the car (and immediately calls me). We get the car to my other friends garage and he says I can have the rest of the car for pulling the parts. I don't want it as he tells me it was rusty over the phone. Once I saw it in person, I am shocked! We live in Ohio, land of salt-death for sheetmetal. There is NO RUST in the car! I decide right then and there to save it and hunt down replacement parts.

Hitting up my storage unit (where an '85 Mustang Coupe project and my '84 Mustang GT Turbo live), I find I have some parts already (thank God I am a FOX Ford guy). The current plan is to swap the car to 5-lug (since all of the original 4-lug stuff will be gone), so my '85 Mustang Coupe will be donating its '99 Cobra IRS set-up. Then I went to the local salvage yard and pulled a set of '94-'95 Mustang front spindles. Cobra Calipers/brackets are on their way. Found an buttstuffog cluster (out of an '87 TurboCoupe) and procured that. Going to look at an '87 hood next Monday (need to see if it is a TCoupe hood, as it is listed by a salvage yard as such but may not be).

Once all of the parts get here, I will move my modified '97 Lincoln MKVIII out of the garage and get the swap done. Then get her running and driving again. She needs lots of attention and more parts (not to mention a paint job!), which is something I hope to give her.