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Hey guys, I've been lurking around this site for awhile now and just officially registered recently.&; I thought the best way to really introduce myself would be to talk about my car. It may not be valuable or even that fast, but me and this car have been through a lot together. Bare with me this might be kind of wordy, but I have to tell the story of my car.
The car in question is my 1988 Thunderbird 5.0/AOD that I have had since I was 17. The car was originally bought new by my Aunt down in Louisiana. Dad is a NASCAR fan and had been watching Bill Elliott kicking ass in the new "Aerobirds". When my Aunt announced she was going to get rid of the car, Dad jumped on it. This was around 1993 or so and the car had right at 60,000 miles. The car was basically my Dad's mid-life crisis car. He had had his fair share of hot cars in his day, including a 69 Malibu w/a built small block and 4-spd but had been driving family cars for too long.
Dad drove the bird as his 2nd car and kept it inside for the most part in the winter time so it had little exposure to the salt they dump on our roads in the winter here in Indiana. By the time I was a junior in High School and had proved my mettle behind the wheel by driving the family Olds Ninety-Eight for a year, Dad decided it was time to find me a car. I had always been more of a GM fan so we looked at several G-bodies and a couple of 3rd gen Camaro's. It seemed they were all either too rough or too expensive. Finally Dad decided it would make more sense to just hand the T-bird over than to buy and insure yet another car.
So the keys were handed over and I was off. I remember laughing at Dad because he was actually hugging the car and telling it goodbye when he handed off the keys. I am sure he expected his 17 year old to demolish his beloved bird. Lol. So this is the car that I drove through the rest of high school. The T-bird took me to three HS proms, dates , my HS graduation, and countless weekends of fun with my friends.
My best friend in school had a Monte Carlo (with the 305) and we raced continually. Both of the cars were pitifully slow, but we had a blast anyway (and I always won lol). I ended up getting pulled over 13 times before I even graduated High School (once while doing a huge burnout in front of the school on graduation day). Our town cops were pretty cool so I never actually got a ticket until one fateful night the summer after graduation. My friend and I were racing on a country road (dumb kids) and it had rained 3-4 inches the night before. I ended up hitting some loose gravel that had washed into the roadway and long story short, I ditched the car breaking my nose and totaling the T-bird in the process. Worst thing was I wiped out in a State Trooper's front yard and the rather furious off-duty officer wrote me a seatbelt ticket!
We ended up buying her back and installing a junkyard fender, nose, and a Turbo Coupe hood. This is what the car looked like the fall I started college:
So for the next 4 years I was broke as a joke but still had dreams of what the car could be someday. A lot of my buddies had newer Mustangs and Camaro's but I was just as proud of my old 155 hp T-bird as they were of their cars. I decided when I had a good job and the means to do so; I would turn the car into what I feel it should have been from the factory. Why had Ford chose to give the T-birds and Cougars the 155 hp standard output 5.0 instead of the Mustang HO 5.0? Why did my car have rear drums and the 7.5 axle? I was fixing to change some things and in '04 I started on it with the goal to do it on the cheap and with Ford/junkyard parts.
1st step was removal of the peg-leg 7.5 (drum brakes and 2.73 gears) and the addition of a junkyard T-bird Turbo Coupe 8.8 with trac-lok, disk brakes, and 3.73 gears. I also added some adjustable tubular upper and lower control arms from a company called CHE. The stock 14" wheels would no longer fit over the brake calipers so I bought some cheap replica Cobra R wheels (17x9) and Falken tires. I bought some springs out of a wrecked 92 Steeda Mustang and this lowered the car significantly. At this time I also installed Turbo Coupe sway bars and some weld in sub-frame connectors (which are still not welded on the car).
These additions greatly improved the handling of the car and made it look way more serious. The Steeda Mustang springs ride like poop but there are limited choices on lowering springs for the Fox T-birds so they will do until I can come up with something better.
This is how the car looked at that stage:
In 2005-06, I started dating my now wife and the car kind of sat patiently in the garage while I fell in love, got married, and settled into my own home. I did manage to dust the car off and drive it as my get-away car at my wedding in summer 2007.
By this time the original 180,000 mile paint was showing its age. The roof and trunk paint was faded and there were minor rust bubbles starting in the lower quarters. A neighbor guy is a body man by trade so I talked him into giving the car a quick respray in the winter of 07/08. So far this is really the only part of the project I have not had a hand in myself. It turned out pretty good though:
About the only thing I accomplished on the car in the summer of '08 was to swap on ?90 Mustang spindles and 11" brakes onto the front of the T-bird. I also upgraded the calipers to larger Lincoln units and threw on some Hawk brake pads. I probably need to upgrade the master cylinder sometime, but for now the car now stops much better than stock.
Next I decided to try to bring the power up to more respectable levels. I bought a low mile '92 5.0 HO motor for $200 from a guy I work with and robbed all the HO stuff (heads, throttle body, intake, cam, injectors, etc) and transplanted them onto my original motor. I had to use an HO speed density computer, buy a higher lph fuel pump, and change the firing order to make everything work. I pulled the engine with the help of a friend because we found busted motor mounts. I went with some nice custom made poly mounts made by a guy named Chuck from a T-bird forum I am part of. While it was out we put in all new gaskets, freeze plugs, rear main seals, etc. I also deleted the smog pump at this time. The HO's were rated at 225 hp instead of my original 155 hp.
The exhaust upgrades consist of BBK chrome shorty headers with BBK 2.5" off-road H-pipe and a fox Mustang Pypes Violator catback system. I had to take the car to an exhaust shop to have the tailpipes lengthened a few inches in order for the kit to work with the longer T-bird. I ended up spending way more on the exhaust system than I did on the entire HO swap, lol. But it sounds great!
So this is basically where the car is now. It is still sporting the original worn out AOD and the interior is getting a little aged, but its getting there. If all goes well it will be on HRPT 2011 (I drove my '07 Mustang GT to the '08, '09,and '10 tours). I'm really looking forward to the possibility of driving it on the track at Indy in June. I plan to have the AOD rebuilt and do some front end work over the winter to prepare the car for the journey. Let me know of any suggestions for how to go when I rebuild the AOD or suggestions on converters. If I have any budget left before power tour I may do a wheel change as well.
What I like about the car is that it's something different. It will be mine until I kick the bucket and hopefully I can continue to make memories with the car! Not everyone can say they still have their OG high school car.
Here is a youtube video I made of the car:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlREUzJh9qI
If my wife and I ever have a child, I bet it will be brought home from the hospital in this T-bird!
The car in question is my 1988 Thunderbird 5.0/AOD that I have had since I was 17. The car was originally bought new by my Aunt down in Louisiana. Dad is a NASCAR fan and had been watching Bill Elliott kicking ass in the new "Aerobirds". When my Aunt announced she was going to get rid of the car, Dad jumped on it. This was around 1993 or so and the car had right at 60,000 miles. The car was basically my Dad's mid-life crisis car. He had had his fair share of hot cars in his day, including a 69 Malibu w/a built small block and 4-spd but had been driving family cars for too long.
Dad drove the bird as his 2nd car and kept it inside for the most part in the winter time so it had little exposure to the salt they dump on our roads in the winter here in Indiana. By the time I was a junior in High School and had proved my mettle behind the wheel by driving the family Olds Ninety-Eight for a year, Dad decided it was time to find me a car. I had always been more of a GM fan so we looked at several G-bodies and a couple of 3rd gen Camaro's. It seemed they were all either too rough or too expensive. Finally Dad decided it would make more sense to just hand the T-bird over than to buy and insure yet another car.
So the keys were handed over and I was off. I remember laughing at Dad because he was actually hugging the car and telling it goodbye when he handed off the keys. I am sure he expected his 17 year old to demolish his beloved bird. Lol. So this is the car that I drove through the rest of high school. The T-bird took me to three HS proms, dates , my HS graduation, and countless weekends of fun with my friends.
My best friend in school had a Monte Carlo (with the 305) and we raced continually. Both of the cars were pitifully slow, but we had a blast anyway (and I always won lol). I ended up getting pulled over 13 times before I even graduated High School (once while doing a huge burnout in front of the school on graduation day). Our town cops were pretty cool so I never actually got a ticket until one fateful night the summer after graduation. My friend and I were racing on a country road (dumb kids) and it had rained 3-4 inches the night before. I ended up hitting some loose gravel that had washed into the roadway and long story short, I ditched the car breaking my nose and totaling the T-bird in the process. Worst thing was I wiped out in a State Trooper's front yard and the rather furious off-duty officer wrote me a seatbelt ticket!
We ended up buying her back and installing a junkyard fender, nose, and a Turbo Coupe hood. This is what the car looked like the fall I started college:
So for the next 4 years I was broke as a joke but still had dreams of what the car could be someday. A lot of my buddies had newer Mustangs and Camaro's but I was just as proud of my old 155 hp T-bird as they were of their cars. I decided when I had a good job and the means to do so; I would turn the car into what I feel it should have been from the factory. Why had Ford chose to give the T-birds and Cougars the 155 hp standard output 5.0 instead of the Mustang HO 5.0? Why did my car have rear drums and the 7.5 axle? I was fixing to change some things and in '04 I started on it with the goal to do it on the cheap and with Ford/junkyard parts.
1st step was removal of the peg-leg 7.5 (drum brakes and 2.73 gears) and the addition of a junkyard T-bird Turbo Coupe 8.8 with trac-lok, disk brakes, and 3.73 gears. I also added some adjustable tubular upper and lower control arms from a company called CHE. The stock 14" wheels would no longer fit over the brake calipers so I bought some cheap replica Cobra R wheels (17x9) and Falken tires. I bought some springs out of a wrecked 92 Steeda Mustang and this lowered the car significantly. At this time I also installed Turbo Coupe sway bars and some weld in sub-frame connectors (which are still not welded on the car).
These additions greatly improved the handling of the car and made it look way more serious. The Steeda Mustang springs ride like poop but there are limited choices on lowering springs for the Fox T-birds so they will do until I can come up with something better.
This is how the car looked at that stage:
In 2005-06, I started dating my now wife and the car kind of sat patiently in the garage while I fell in love, got married, and settled into my own home. I did manage to dust the car off and drive it as my get-away car at my wedding in summer 2007.
By this time the original 180,000 mile paint was showing its age. The roof and trunk paint was faded and there were minor rust bubbles starting in the lower quarters. A neighbor guy is a body man by trade so I talked him into giving the car a quick respray in the winter of 07/08. So far this is really the only part of the project I have not had a hand in myself. It turned out pretty good though:
About the only thing I accomplished on the car in the summer of '08 was to swap on ?90 Mustang spindles and 11" brakes onto the front of the T-bird. I also upgraded the calipers to larger Lincoln units and threw on some Hawk brake pads. I probably need to upgrade the master cylinder sometime, but for now the car now stops much better than stock.
Next I decided to try to bring the power up to more respectable levels. I bought a low mile '92 5.0 HO motor for $200 from a guy I work with and robbed all the HO stuff (heads, throttle body, intake, cam, injectors, etc) and transplanted them onto my original motor. I had to use an HO speed density computer, buy a higher lph fuel pump, and change the firing order to make everything work. I pulled the engine with the help of a friend because we found busted motor mounts. I went with some nice custom made poly mounts made by a guy named Chuck from a T-bird forum I am part of. While it was out we put in all new gaskets, freeze plugs, rear main seals, etc. I also deleted the smog pump at this time. The HO's were rated at 225 hp instead of my original 155 hp.
The exhaust upgrades consist of BBK chrome shorty headers with BBK 2.5" off-road H-pipe and a fox Mustang Pypes Violator catback system. I had to take the car to an exhaust shop to have the tailpipes lengthened a few inches in order for the kit to work with the longer T-bird. I ended up spending way more on the exhaust system than I did on the entire HO swap, lol. But it sounds great!
So this is basically where the car is now. It is still sporting the original worn out AOD and the interior is getting a little aged, but its getting there. If all goes well it will be on HRPT 2011 (I drove my '07 Mustang GT to the '08, '09,and '10 tours). I'm really looking forward to the possibility of driving it on the track at Indy in June. I plan to have the AOD rebuilt and do some front end work over the winter to prepare the car for the journey. Let me know of any suggestions for how to go when I rebuild the AOD or suggestions on converters. If I have any budget left before power tour I may do a wheel change as well.
What I like about the car is that it's something different. It will be mine until I kick the bucket and hopefully I can continue to make memories with the car! Not everyone can say they still have their OG high school car.
Here is a youtube video I made of the car:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlREUzJh9qI
If my wife and I ever have a child, I bet it will be brought home from the hospital in this T-bird!
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