What are your 3 biggest mistakes (mods, purchases... etc) you've made to your thundercats? I'll go first.
#1 - Buying the 87TC
#2 - Modifying the 87TC
#3 - Still modifying the 87TC.
:dunce:
I may catch some heat for this but ripe it all out and go V8.
1. Bosch platinum plugs (made the car run like )
2. Chrom valve covers (they look cool but are a PITA to keep clean).
3. Putting new speakers in the dash and cracking a perfect dash top:pbb:
1. Misrouting a coolant line when I installed my Cobra intake resulting in motor taking in coolant :dunce:
That was by far the dumbest thing I have ever done with that car. It put on a nice smoke show for 20 minutes while the coolant burned off though :hick:
2. Breaking the heater core while trying to remove stubborn hoses all while installing the Cobra intake. That was a new level of being PO'd for me
3. Spending over $450 installing the Cobra intake due to having to replace hoses, fuel injectors, bolts, heater core and those matching Cobra valve covers that I just had to have.
That made me feel really good about myself... in retrospect that intake really wasn't worth it...but it sure is purdy :rollin:
Why so I can start another list? :grinno:
My biggest problem is chassis/body related. It's not as solid as I believed it to be.
1. Stripping and selling the old black '83 Tbird (It would have made the perfect DD platform)
2. Buying the Z-7
3. Doing the suspension mods on the 84 XR-7 before I did the SFCs...caused a cracked windshield.....
No regrets yet,the car is WAY better than it was when I bought it (it was a real pile).I do wish I would have kept the A/C,but,the engine b sure looks neat and awesome without the A/C and smog stuff.
Selling the '85 Cougar to some idiot that wrecked it within a month :slap: :beatyoass:
Buying said Cougar back:nkhk::screwy:
Stripping said car down for a full resto.:shoothead :bricks1:
Haven't made any yet, but give me time. :D
I don't think I've got any regrets about my car, except for letting a nice parts TC go before I bought it because I didn't have anything to install the parts into. The parts TC was for sale on the side of the road for $500 - body was SHOT, but it had all the good stuff (hood, header panel, snowflakes, 3.73 rear end, and a mint cloth raven interior). It was not drivable and since I didn't have a Thunderbird at the time (and was planning on buying a TC anyway) I had no use for it. I ended up buying the '88 5.0 a few days later - went back for that TC and it was gone. Took me four years to find another parts TC...
1. putting radio before motor.
2.playing too hard when cold
3. blowing motor and having to rebuild said motor
#1. buying the TC
#2. modding the TC
#3. letting my friend drive the TC
1. Not going to the junkyard once a month.
2. Not going to the junkyard once a week.
3. Not going to the junkyard once a day.
1. Not buying the parts car from the jy that donated a driver's window before being crushed.
2. Backing the plow truck into the header panel last winter.
3. Headlight lense(the one good one) falling out 2 days ago as I heard myself run over it.
3 good things:
1. $200.00 for the car to save it from the Enduro.
2. $25.00 for a driver side window, and $35.00 for exhaust(love that employee discount, thanks bro)
3. Putting over 50,000 miles on it without doing anything else to it.
I think I got my money's worth. Pretty soon I'll sink a fortune in it, though.
#1 Not stripping enough parts off parts car #1
#2 Not stripping enough parts off parts car #2
#3 Letting parts car #3 get rolled in to a ravine and having two eldorados and a datsun piled on top of it two days before you were going to go get it.
Scott
#1 Breaking the heater core a couple years ago while trying to switch the hoses (thought the core was clogged and someone told me that would help)
That's far and above the biggest mistake I made...
#2 Not having the money to have the engine bored & put in new pistons when I rebuilt it, like i should have done
#3 Ummm...buying a bamabev rebuilt center section for my turbo, which is now smoking after less than 20K.:dunce:
1. Not Pulling enough parts off Parts Car #1
2. Buying my 88TC as its/was a rusty piece
3. Wrecking my DD, rest in peace
Why would you catch heat? thats the smartest thing you could do... I had nothing but problems with mine before that... Like almost everyone else has said... You think you've found the problem and fix it... It runs good for a week or 2 then back to the same bullshiznit problems... They boogied when they were brand new... But now they're just an anoyance for the most part... ask anyone with a merkur and they'll tell you the exact same thing :p... The conversion is honestly the smartest thing you can do... Aslong as you know howto do it right and dont pull a mickey mouse hack job on it... Now onto my biggest mistakes...
1. Not getting new tires after doing the complete 302 conversion from front to back. (Engine, Triamec 5-speed, drive shaft and rebuilt 8'8 373 rear) Then having my tire blow out on the highway on a bend and hitting a wall face first @ 120KM/hr...
2. Dumping over 3 grand into fixing the 2.3L Pea shooter the first year I had it... just to have the bullshiznit transmission go on me... (Drove it 6000KM with no reverse tho so mearh :beatyoass: )
3. Buying an auto TC after my first t-bird got stolen
1st letting my buddy buy my T/c before I got it.
2nd craking the head of my 2.3t 8mos after a rebuild.
3rd trying to get things done to quickly.
Finally after 7-8 years of owning the car I finally have a good daily driver. It still looks like a pile. The car is 3 colors and that isn't counting the ones where the clearcoat and paint are rubbed away. Still love her though. She is me pride and JOY. That is besides the wife and kid'os .
Haven't had time to get into it to figure it out yet... but
#1 Buying my Cougar
#2 Spending money to fix trans when I wanna go manual
#3 Having two money pits!!
That is about it for now
1. removing the 2.3
2. removing the 429
3. letting it sit
1. Buying Layla (3 different colors and every possible imaginable thing going wrong with it)
2. Selling the 83 TC I had. (It did need a motor, turbo, trans, clutch...)
3. Modifying ANYTHING on it. There's going to be an AMC 401 in that POS if ONE MORE THING breaks before the end of the year!!
1. Not keeping my first car ('84 Cougar);
2. Not having enough space for cars and parts;
and the big one...
3. Not having the money and resources when these cars were new, to buy parts and sock them away. I had the time...just not the money, nor any help with things.
But at least the first two things can always be remedied in the future. ;)
hindsight is 20/20. I wish I bought a few sets of quarter panels back in the day. Who knew the market would quit producing them?
1 Buying and using underdrive pullies(never do that again).
2 Dumping to much money into the 2.3L when i knew i was swapping it.
3 Not putting in my supercharger sooner.