Just a few minutes ago, I was over at Corral.net and a guy was talking about putting a T/C rear in his '89 Stang. I checked out his cardomain site and he bought a beautiful '88 T/C just for parts...and he drove it home 200miles after buying it with no problems...it's ashame to see these cars hacked...maybe he'll be selling a nice shell waiting for a 5.0 to crawl in.
Yeah, that's no surprise...I always cringe when I'm over on stangnet and somebody in the 2.3L forum is posting about a nice turbo coupe they picked up to pull the engine & tranny out of. I've actually asked on more than one occasion..."Is it illegal to actually modify a thunderbird or something?" because people act like it is.
I tell ya, these boids get no respect. I like my Thunderbird a lot more than I liked my Mustang. Just feels like a better built car overall.
six of one, 1/2 dozen of the other. i wouldnt think twice about gutting a mustang for my car.
Not to be mean, but I would gut a bird/cougar for a mustang and vice versa.
hell...id gut a tbird for my tbird...
i make it a rule not to gut anything nice for anything. i'd sell it before gutting it... not to mension. their are how many mustangs compaired to tbirds around? expecialy ones like ours, EXPECIALY turbo coupes... if you went on a stang net and posted about hacking up a nice looking SVO for some project they'd flip shiznit. iv said it before and i'll say it again, its the fact that their arnt that many NICE turbo coupes left that makes most of us mad when we see a NICE one chopped up. personaly i wouldnt care if they went to a junkyard and got a rear out of some tboned car, or something with a volvo sitting on top of it. its just when people bring home a realy NICE car that is perfectly drivable, and in dam good condition then chop it up for something that is hacked looking and will be wrecked in a week.
I'd gut a nice looking mustang for my TC no qustions asked I dont like the comfort of the mustangs compared to a TC
Actually, a guy down the road from me has an 86 SVO that's in great shpe that I been eyeballin. I'll probably leave it alone and use it as a daily driver if I get my hands on it. He's had it for as long as I can remember and has put a for sale sign on it a couple of times (guess he wants top dollar, never asked). I'll see what comes after the holidays....
Well, SVO's shouldn't be cut up because they're a lot more rare than anything else that's been discussed in this thread.
Hey Paul, if it's a nice SVO I wouldn't be surprised the if the guy is asking $5K for it. The value of those things just keeps going up.
well i know what you all are saying. Im a mustang guy all the way and recently ran across the TC i have for 700 bux. I never thought about owning a TC cuz they always seemed like big "boats" to me but after driving this one for months now i LOVE IT. Its a ton more comfortable than the stangs and has a huge usable trunk. Not to mention its a fun car to drive. I am one of the Stang guys that killed a TC for the tranny, rear, and motor. I was given an 87 TC in good condition. it wasn't running right but still ran and drove great.The guy that gave me the bird was fixing his Tbird up with the parts from the TC like the Hood, nose, and doors. My plans were to swap the Motor and tranny into my 86 t-top notch. so we tore into the bird. as we were ripping it apart i found that it had been wrecked badly on the front at some time and the pass and driver floors were rotted out. the whole K-member was tweaked and the pass a-arm was bent.
Here are some pics before she hit the shredder ( don't cry guys )
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b295/Demented5oh/DSCF0957.jpg)
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b295/Demented5oh/DSCF0953.jpg)
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b295/Demented5oh/DSCF0952.jpg)
(http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b295/Demented5oh/DSCF0959.jpg)
How does it go on this internet?
[SIZE="7"]OWNED[/SIZE]
James:D
Actually that is why I got into TBirds to begin with. I own a Mustang, you can see it in my link when you click my name. It is rare to see a nice TBird. Around here their isn't one rolling around that is modded. You see Mustangs, but no Birds. Actuall to tell you the truth, the guy on here and NATO by the name "Hawk" is the main reason why I kept my Bird. I saw that car and said to myself, mine could look something like that. Now it just sits in the garage with a TC hood and nose waiting for that V6, THAT IS FOR FREE, to be gone so big brother V8 can nestle its way in.
James
that just makes me sick, and this is why I hate mustang guys also :flip: :flip: :flip:
It was fun ripping it up and it wasnt road worthy but more of a death trap. hell id do it to a stang if i had the chance. i just wish i would have saved parts from the TC i could have used or sold instead of tearing up the interior. People do what they want you shouldn't hate because of it. it makes our birds more rare
Its not like these cars are rare. I see them often in the yard near me. So what is the big deal?
James
no doubt about it. they ARE getting rare, and it wont be too much longer before they actually are. theres the good ones still out there. the boneyards for the most part have moved on. the one by me doesnt have anything older than a 95 of anything realy. eventually, its actually gonna be difficult to find good used turbo coupe parts...
A couple years back I got an '84 TC for $150 that I pulled the engine and tranny out of (I was looking for an engine to rebuild for my thunderbird). The car had no title and no keys, but it ran, and I STILL felt bad for junking it. It had been jumped at some point from what I could tell, there wasn't a straight panel on the car, somebody had crowbarred their way into the trunk, etc... If it woulda still had the keys, I probably would have kept it and fixed it up.
I did part out what I could from the car, the interior was nearly perfect, in fact I still have the seats from it (I wish somebody local would buy them), but unfortunately in the end it had to be junked. '84 Turbo Coupes are way more rare than the '87-88 ones too.
I want to know what junkyard you go to that has running '87-'88 or even complete turbo coupes...the average plain jane t-bird wasn't what this thread was about...it was about hacking a perfectly good running/looking T/C.
there are 5-6 87-88TC in a junkyard near me. most of them are in descent condition but they wont sell whole cars. There is also 2 86's and and 84TC in the same yard. none of which are totalled.
I can give you two: Gary's U-Pull-It where I live in Binghamton NY or Harry's U-Pull-It in Hazelton PA. Usually mine as at least one and Harry's when I go once or twice a year, usually has 3-5.
They will be getting rare but for now they arent, well at least in my area. I know of a guy who has 3 TC's in his front yard. I get my parts from him mostly. TC's arent rare right now and they are very cool cars. Of course any car will be rare after certain amount of years. I was never a fan of the turbo-4 in these heavy cars, but very cool none the less.
James
Also my friend had a beautiful 86 TC but it had no title. He stripped it and junked it. Nothing he could do to keep it. It was a straight body, nice shiny paint and it had working front fog lamps too. I didnt have my TBird at the time but if I did I would have ripped a bunch of parts off. He even told me to take what I want but I had no use for it at the time.
James
this place deals with mustangs turbo coupes and explorers http://www.midwestmustang.net/ bought a turbo from them a while back from what I understand they have alot of themand they are located here in kansas.
Well, then I guess Jersey is just T/C deficient. I have found one complete T/C in a yard and that was it. I couldn't find another one anywhere in south jersey. And actually seeing a T/C on the road around here happens as often as a blue moon. Jersey sucks!
I have NEVER seen at TC in a j/y with my own two eyes. In fact, I had only seen ONE on the road prior to moving to Michigan (counting mine I've seen two). I know someone with a TC in the back of their shop rotting away and they won't sell it. =/
jeez, There is always 2-3 tc's at a yard less then a mile from me, also, anywhere from 10-15 other tbirds,and about the same cougars.
I don't see many turbo coupes on the road here either. Besides mine, there's a guy up the road that has a few '87-88s, somebody else around town has an '83-84 or so turbo coupe (I don't know the exact year, but it has the 8-hole wheels on it), and some guy somewhere around here has an '87 or '88 TC that's the same color as mine except it has a white nose piece. I don't know what the deal is with the car (sorta sounds like it has a cat-back on it at least) or the guy (one time he peeled out in front of my house because he saw my car, and another day I was out working on it and he revved at me).
Other than that, I think 90% of the birds I see are 3.8's, and the rest must be 5.0's. There's a guy at school that has an '87 or '88, same color as my car, with the 8-hole wheels on it and dual exhaust. I'm guessing it's an '88 LX model with a 5.0?
While they're not TC's, there are about half-a-dozen other 'Birds around here that I see more or less quite often, there is another white with red interior '88, identical to mine, (had a run-in with cops about it one night, seems as if they thought I was them!!)
and another white with blue int, it's 87 I think, plus an older TC, probably 84 or 85, not real sure, plus we have slugs of 89 and newer Birds and Cougars...
I have 3 'Birds as it is...well 2 and a third, really.