I did it. I made the plunge... (Oldraven, you may be interested)

January 07, 2006, 09:25:26 PM

...And bought me an '87 Turbo Coupe. I pick it up on Monday :D

It's a 5-speed, 210k km (130k miles), pretty much mint interior, but alas, as is common with any Nova Scotian car, the body is shot. The rocker-to-quarter seams, door bottoms, wheelhouse lips (all four) and front fender bottoms are all FUBAR. The strut towers are apparently rusted out too (it was hard to see with all the stuff in the way and it was too cold and wet to get under it).

For this reason, the car will give up its life to help make the '88 5.0 car into the Thunderbird GT that Ford should have made back in '88. I'll be swapping the hood, front bumper, nose piece (I bought one from Nate just weeks ago, so now I've got an extra), rear end, front brakes, & sway bars over. I'll also be swapping the entire interior (it is mint, but it's blue. The 88 has a w red interior). The snowflakes will be treated to a Thunderchicken-style restoration and swapped over as well. In short, it'll be a 5.0-powered TC clone. In addition I'll be saving every little component (relays, switches, buttons, s, etc) because we all know how hard parts are to find for these things. I'll likely eBay off the rest of the stuff (like the turbo, EEC-IV, etc)

This is also the first 5-speed TC that I've ever driven that actually worked good. The thing was pulling 15PSI of boost easily - I'm sure had I had the room I could've gotten more out of it, but I was driving on very twisty roads. It's a shame the car is so far gone, as I'd be just as hgappy to keep it nd ditch the '88 if it were in good shape. Regardless, it has cemented my desire for an HO/T5 swap in the '88.

As for you, Oldraven: The car comes with some extra parts, including a dash, some glass, and a pair of tail lights. I know you've been looking for a tail light for ages, so your chance to obtain one may well be coming...