My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Topic: My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle (Read 7070 times) previous topic - next topic

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

April 18, 2006, 02:01:56 AM

Hi, I'm a new member here. My name is Anthony. As a first car, I am lucky enough to be the proud driver of a 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L (I'm 17; 18 in August). It's completely stock for now, but it is in very solid shape. Minimal rust, great interior, good paint. She runs great, and I love how smooth and quiet she is down the road. And with the 302, once I upgrade it, I'll have speed too. I plan to keep the car looking near stock; the only external changes being a turbo coupe hood (which is sitting in the garage waiting for paint right now), Cragar Keystone rims, and the paint scheme I plan on doing on the hood will look kind of old school and should look great with the Keystones to match. Without further ado, here are some pics:

Well, my love for muscle cars had to start somewhere! That starting point would be my father, who is the proud owner of a 1966 Chevelle. It has a Chevy 350 which is currently at a machine shop bored to a 383 (well, 385 to be exact) and he is aiming for around 400-425hp. I love this car too; I've worked a lot on it as well, and I've even had the pleasure of driving it myself (although I'm not too good at manual transmission yet, I like it).

This theme runs throughout my family too. My dad's brother owns a 1969 Caprice 427 4-speed, and another uncle of mine owns a 1967 Fairlane 289 (I LOVE the 66-67 Fairlanes).

Well thats about all for now! :)

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #1 – April 18, 2006, 09:31:08 AM

Welcome aboard!

That is one nice looking T-Bird you have there.

That Chevelle is sweet too. One of my cousin's friends has a '66 that they restored. It's a beautiful car.

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #2 – April 18, 2006, 10:25:17 AM

Thanks a lot!

It's hard to find lots of good information about my car (and its relatives), so when I found this forum I figured it would be a great place to learn a few things (and I already have).

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #3 – April 18, 2006, 10:30:06 AM

nice looking cars and welcome a board one of the greatest boards on the net. Keep us updated on the progress and ask any questions you run across about these cars Im sure someone will have an answer or tell you where you can find it.

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #4 – April 18, 2006, 04:24:28 PM

alright... thats a b-e-a-utiful car dude, nice bird too! now i REALLY WISH my 66 was running....

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #5 – April 18, 2006, 04:45:53 PM

Thanks so much for the warm welcome.

Yeah, I'll be sure to keep you all updated on my Tbird. Right now I have a new rear axle (the original one is pretty worn) and a set of 3.27 ratio rear end gears ready to go in the bird, but they will have to wait until the Chevelle is put back together. It was a pain to find a good set of gears for a 7.5in Ford rear end! My dad and I believe it will be a huge improvement over the current 2.73 ratio gears that the car has now. We found the gears on ebay, and bought them (for like $65 or some great deal like that), but when FedEx delievered them, they weren't in the box. The box was empty. The shipping sticker on the box showed that the box was 17lbs when it left, so something happened along the way. Out of pure luck, we were dealing with a guy nice enough to take time from his vacation and respond to us about the problem. He had another set of gears in another car that he had taken out and sent them to us (I'm sure you guys know that a set of 3.27 gears for a 7.5in Ford aren't exactly common...). We're not quite done with FedEx, though, but I'm so happy to have my gears!!!

Also, the turbo coupe hood was another deal off of ebay. $36. We just took the hour and a half drive to Charlotte and picked it up (I live in North Carolina). As I mentioned earlier, I plan to have it painted kind of old school style. It should turn out similar to this:

It will have a flat black stripe in between the two body lines just like that. The only thing I'm not 100% sure about is how I'd like it to taper off on the front of the car.

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #6 – April 18, 2006, 05:06:07 PM

welcome to the board. nice cars. Pretty nice about the guy with the gears, hopefully fedex will compensate you.

how are the carolinas? if you don't mind popping into the georgia thread in the lounge... heheh.

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #7 – April 18, 2006, 05:37:32 PM

Yeah I think that most everything is cleared up with FedEx now, and I'll be sure to check out the georgia thread.

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #8 – April 18, 2006, 05:47:15 PM

Welcome :D You have soem nice cars there.

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #9 – April 18, 2006, 06:17:21 PM

Yeah, those fairlanes are pretty awesome. My dad had one that he brought back from the states, (I live in Canada) and him and my uncle restored it about 17 years ago. It was all red with the white stripe around the bottom of the body. Unfortunately, he had to sell it about two years after that. He was at a Ford car show a while back though, and ended up running into the guy that now owns it. Told my dad if he ever decided to sell he's the first on the list. LOL.

Sounds like your plan for your bird is similar to mine. Mine is currently being restored/painted, and although I'm not allowed to see it until it's finished, I have been told there is going to be some sort of flat black stripe on or around the hood somehow. I will have to let you know what happens.

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #10 – April 18, 2006, 06:44:54 PM

Yeah! Be sure to tell me how that works out. :) I can't wait to get mine painted.

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #11 – April 19, 2006, 12:10:43 AM

Nice bird. And Chevelle. I have a set of keystones waiting to take place on my dads Chevelle so I can repaint the SS Rallyes. Nice work on both so far. Work on the Manual driving, its not too hard. Welcome.

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #12 – April 19, 2006, 12:18:25 AM

Yeah, thanks, I'm definately going to keep practicing manual transmission :) . It's fun.

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #13 – April 19, 2006, 12:20:10 AM

Its real fun when you can get it to light em through all of the gears. What is your stand point on Vinyl tops? My dad wants to take his off, but I want it to stay, because everyone removes them.

My 1988 Thunderbird 5.0L, dad's 66 Chevelle

Reply #14 – April 19, 2006, 12:23:07 AM

For me, it really depends on the car. On some cars, it looks terribly ugly, but it looks nice on others. As for your dad's Chevelle, I think it would look fine either way. It's a good looking car. Who knows, maybe we'll both get to drive Chevelles to our senior proms? :D

PS - my dad says he'd remove the vinyl top haha