As many of you know, I purchased my first car on Monday, Dec 27th (not my first car, but the first car I've ever bought). My dad found her in a craigslist ad and the moment I looked, I knew that this could be the deal I've been waiting for. It's a fully loaded 1988 Turbo Coupe with a 5 speed, 140 speedo, climate control, moonroof, and all the other typical odds and ends. Only things that aren't stock are the exhaust (dual flowmasters), boost controller, and the CD player/amp. Without further ado, here are pics!
This is exactly how I bought the car; haven't even washed her yet!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TC1small.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TC2small.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TC3small.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TC4small.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TC5small.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TC6small.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TC7small.jpg)
The car runs great and I love the loudness of the turbo. It needs new front struts (gonna have to say goodbye to the PRC for now :( ) and a good tuneup and cleaning, but other than that, she's good to go. I'll be updating this thread as progress ensues, but this time I made sure to get plenty of "before" pics! I only plan to do the normal minor mods to the car; this is going to just be a very fun, 99.9% stock daily driver.
Nice!!!
Make sure the firm position is activating for the PRC, it's common for the switch contacts to be dirty so it the system stays in auto(soft)...
The Firm light works on the dash just fine; not sure if that means anything though. But she needs new front struts and nobody makes the PRC ones any more. I'm probably going to end up having to disable it for now so I can get new struts while I look for a real set.
All the same mods as my car when I bought it except mine had polished exhaust tips. Looks like a Gillis boost valve.
Nice looking car!
Looks great. I'd do two things:
1. Move the 140 speedo to the Sport.
2. Get rid of the wing and side skirts. They make the car look silly ;).
Yeah If it were mine I would remove the window vent things and the side skirts. But when its all said and done its your car so your more than welcome to tell us to F off and do what you want! lol
That's a perty car...I'm forced to raise my opinion of the w red interiors, as well.
Good score!
I'm keeping the speedo as is; I do not want to change the TC from its mostly original condition. I also personally like the side skirts and spoiler haha; theyre really not overly flashy or anything. But as Live Fast mentioned, the window vents are gonna be one of the first things I remove, along with the window tint as well.
good score! 3.73's or 3.55's? Either way still awesome!
Everything is cool other than the window vents...those are "old dude" style.
Extra bonus points for being 5 speed as well.
i'll take em! i smoke so they come in handy when it's raining :hick:
5 speed TCs all came with 3.55s.
Just removed the window vents a few mins ago haha. Gonna remove the horrible tint job soon too. If this car was an auto, I wouldn't have even considered it; total deal breaker for me. :hick:
First bath pics!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TCwashed1small.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TCwashed2small.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TCwashed3small.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/twotbirds2small.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/twotbirdssmall.jpg)
All window tint has been removed, window vents are also gone, interior has been cleaned, boost gauge has been fixed, and plenty of tune-up parts have been ordered.
Looks wayyy better. Need to remove the front tag mount next! lol
Need to bring my car up there at let my gf take some pictures of all 3 with her new camera
That'd be awesome! I'm looking forward to having some nice photo shoots with my two Tbirds. The front tag mount will be removed soon.
Well next weekend or so if the weather is nice we will ride up there.
thought some of them came with 3.73's...?
That's the kind of driveway I'm talking bout. :)
Automatic cars came with 3:73's
I may have a set of struts for it,there at my buddy's house,we have no use for them. If your interested I can check in to it .
We would love to have them!!! Let us know what you want for them.
Yes, definitely interested. :)
If we didn't s them they should be there, I don't remember sping them. I'll call him see if he remembers where there at.
Sorry for siking you up, but there the rear ones. I was mistaken.
You are a lucky man. I would love to own a grey TC w/5 spd to complement my 5.0 'bird.
I f*ckin' KNEW I should've grabbed the struts from the TC I got my hood from this past spring...arghhh
Looking good :).
Welcome to the club bro :]
If you need anything, let me know. I have a bunch of parts floating around.
Very nice! I like the side skirts and spoiler myself but of course at 43 I guess I'm old lol!!!
Paint your bumper on the white one :P
And find some chrome inserts for the front and rear bumpers ;).
HAHA ohhhhh That. Just. Happened. You went there.
Blah blah blah. I have a straight rear bumper to go on it when I finally get the car painted, at which point I'll get the bumper strips that I need; the one on it now has a tear and is bent so I'm not bothering with it. As always, donations are always welcome. ;)
Haha I'm 22 but I like them. It's not like a ricer setup or anything.
Thanks dude, I definitely will. You should get online some more so we can catch up.
In other news, I spent some quality time with the Turbo Coupe in the garage yesterday. Put in some (properly gapped!) motorcraft spark plugs, motorcraft OEM plug wires (much nicer than the cheapo set that was on there), new fuel filter, and a new cap and rotor. Definitely cleared up the high rpm hesitation for the most part; she runs even better now. Also have a new timing belt and tensioner that will be installed soon.
So here are some updated pics of the interior and engine bay. Nothing major, but quite a few small details are different now. Notice the floor mats and mich nicer driver's seat belt buckle in the interior pics, and the new plug wires and overall extra cleanliness of the engine bay. Far from where I want it, but progress is being made!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TCenginebaysmall.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TCintnewsmall.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/TCintnew2small.jpg)
Interior is looking great, awesome job.
That's going to be a nice car for ya king!
ohhh man I want one. That thing is SCHWEET. I've been looking at some here around town and there are some nice ones but I (my wife) just can't justify spending 1500 on ANOTHER tbird when I've already got 1 and a cougar...I don't know where I'd park the thing anyway:giggle:
LOVE those mats btw. Are those stocks or just universals?
I just noticed you have your sun glasses in that little cubby on the top of the dash. I added one of those to my T-bird after I removed the premium sound EQ. I tried keeping my sun glasses in there but they always seemed to fly into the back seat when I accelerated with some, uh, vigor :D. The sun glasses stay in the center console at night now.
:rollin: it doesn't take much. That even happens with my little v6'ers:giggle:
Yeah my silver car has that thing too and I can't keep anything in there LOL
If you can get a decent TC for $1500, I'd go for it asap haha. I love mine, and would pay $2000 for this car every day of the week.
As for the mats, they are just universal cheap-o mats that I picked up at walmart. I love them as well; they match the interior nicely by toning down the redness and creating almost a two-tone interior effect.
Yep, I had that problem with my other Tbird. It's been replaced by a custom gauge pod though.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Reviving%20Tbird/gauges2.jpg)
i'm pretty sure I have the same head unit you have in your TC as I have in my Tbird. Mine's got a nice little habit of spitting CD's back out at me whenever I put a cd in it though...
psssh thats nothing. The one in my 96 won't give em back!:giggle:
Yeah, someone really screwed up the stereo setup in the TC. I plan to go through it one of these days. The CD player in the white Tbird has been awesome; no issues at all. Reads every CD I have, even all my burned ones.
Took an overview/ride along video of the TC for you guys. No full out WOT runs due to a high rpm hesitation, but turn the volume up a bit and enjoy the whistle of that turbo :) . Hope you all like it!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/th_Michelle.jpg) (http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/?action=view¤t=Michelle.mp4)
Finally an update....after way too long :hick:
As some of you may or may not remember, my Turbo Coupe has suffered from a hesistation/fluttering problem at anything past half throttle after 3500rpm or so (under what should be constant 10+ lbs of boost) which has kept the car from being that really fun daily driver I had been wanting. But of course, I was procrastinating because I figured it was going to need a new turbo. A couple of weeks ago, the Turbo Coupe fell victim to probably the biggest nuisance with my Tbirds - the glue that keeps the side windows aligned finally gave up on the drivers side. So for most of the week, I drove the white Tbird, which reminded me what it was like to really enjoy the drive to and from work (among other things). At that point, I figured that while the weather was perfect, I would dig down and figure out what the issue has been with the TC.
So I popped the hood and removed the intercooler and all the intake piping leading to the turbo. Checked for shaft play - seemed fine. Looking for scoring along the walls - looked fine. Spun the rotor - felt great. Dad was home so I asked him if he wanted to take a look at it as well while I had it apart, so he came out and came to the same conclusions (keep in mind that we're both new to this stuff). But then we got to looking at the boost controller that the previous owner had installed. I went online to figure out what exactly it was...and this is what I found...
http://www.asia.ru/en/ProductInfo/861486.html
My first thought was "Wow, I would never buy that piece of junk for a car I owned" so that was the first red flag. Add in the fact that the T piece in the picture was not present in the installation on my car and the vacuum line routing just didn't seem right and it was pretty clear that this would be a good place to try to eliminate the problem. Luckily, the previous owner did not remove the stock boost control solenoid, so dad came out and we both went through and routed the vacuum lines back the way they are shown in the factory diagram. Then I buttoned everything back up, closed the hood, and we went for a test drive. Without taking tools with us. I'm sure you can see where this is going.
Pulled the car out of the driveway and headed down the road. It felt so nice and smooth, it was like a brand new car. Let it warm up for a few minutes then hit the highway onramp to see if the problem had indeed been solved. Got the car into 2nd gear and floored it....and she pulled absolutely perfect through the rpm range without any hesitation!! I was pumped! Until I hit 3rd gear and every bit of power was gone and the turbo was not producing a single bit of boost (and I couldn't hear it any more either). Dad and I were sweating bullets figuring that the turbo was ruined or something along those lines. So I limped it home, popped the hood, and we got to searching around. Checked the turbo and it looked ok...checked the vacuum lines and they looked ok...nothing seemed to be wrong. Until we noticed that the small top pipe between the intercooler and throttle body hadn't been secured properly. FACEPALM. Tightened that back up and went out for another test drive, and I could not believe the difference that's been made. The car is such a blast to drive and is quite deceptive until the turbo spools up, though I don't think the gas mileage will be doing well any time soon haha. It really is like driving a different car and I love it (the sound of the turbo is addicting ).
At some point I plan to get a much nicer boost controller and boost gauge. Dad brought up the idea of using the same mounting solution as we did for the gauges in the white car, but instead of a 2nd gauge, we can remote mount the boost control . How cool would that be? Especially if it gets a bigger turbo down the road...................not that I would ever ponder such an idea or anything . I'm hopefully going to be spending the next few weeks sorting out the other small problems with the car as well, but for now, the fun factor is definitely back and the drive to and from work is much more enjoyable.
Cliffs - Previous owner put a piece of boost controller in the Turbo Coupe, which ended up being the cause of a very annoying high rpm hesitation issue. Then I failed to properly fasten the intercooler pipe which goofed up on the first test drive. Now it drives like a whole different car.
Now get a good quality boost controller and have some fun :cool:.
Haha yeah....that might get me into trouble and begin the mod snowballing effect though :P
lol thanks for the cliffs notes AFTER I read the whole thing:giggle:
good to know you got it back in order again:)
Thanks for the update. Car is looking really nice! It was a good find for sure.
Time for a huge update :)
The last couple of months have been spent getting stuff done on the Turbo Coupe. New tires and new front shocks to be exact. The old ones were in TERRIBLE shape; the passenger side front shock was actually stuck and would make a clunking sound every time it would "break" loose. The tires were gone as well, so this stuff was definitely needing to be done. I also went through and polished up the headlights because they just looked horrific. Started off with a pair from the junkyard:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/headlightsbefore.jpg)
Then ended up like this:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/headlight1after.jpg)
Here's a before/after comparison:
(http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash4/s720x720/603419_10151052191573024_367850894_n.jpg)
So now that everything major is fixed, I finally got a good new video up! My partner in crime was finally back in town so we finally got around to putting the TC through its paces. Unfortunately, the camera really doesn't do a good job of portraying the sense of speed. It looks slow in the video, but it felt like a roller coaster ride in the car haha. The good news is that the sound of the turbo came out really well, and the car felt great and balanced through the corners. Anyways, without further ado, here it is:
[video=youtube;oEDF2hLiOoU]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oEDF2hLiOoU[/video]
Then today I realized that I hadn't taken any good pics of the car in the year and a half I've owned it! So I made sure to fix that, after a good cleaning of course. I'm quite happy with how the pictures came out, but my camera sucks!
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/pic4.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/pic7.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/pic6.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/pic2.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/pic3.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/pic5.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v173/kingcars/Turbo%20Coupe/pic1.jpg)
She's looking a lot happier now :) . Keen eyed readers will notice that the front licence plate bracket is also gone. That's all for now, hope you guys enjoy the huge update :)
Why is every picture of the driver side?
Good work King. You are making us all proud by using that TC and keeping it in fine shape! The car looks much "happier" after all the elbow grease you've put into it!
Haha no reason really. It was just a quick park-n-shoot and that's where the lighting looked better. There were rain clouds on the way so I didn't want to take too long. I'll get passenger side pictures next time around. Though now that I think of it, I seem to just have a habit of doing that. Even the majority of the pictures of my white car are from the driver's side haha.
Thanks! She needs paint badly, much like the white car. I also need to get rid of the side skirts because they're in bad shape; hopefully down the road I can find a nicer pair to put on.
Looking good :)
Looks good man!!
I am sure she appreciates your hard work... and so do we.
Looks good, Your lucky you have two sweet birds.