North American Turbocoupe Organization

Hey guys, first time poster long time lurker. We finally found an 87 turbo coupe today and got it for a heck of a deal. 85k original miles, 2 owners but has some small issues.

The original owner had decided to park it and save it for his son who was serving overseas and unfortunately the son didn't make it back The car sat for about 2 years in a yard and had a tree fall across the driver side front fender and hood. He had decided to part with it instead of working on it, and sold it to owner # 2. This owner replaced the hood and fender with junkyard finds but they mismatch.

2nd owner's wife rear ended a pickup truck which cracked the front fiberglass where the grill would normally be. Over time, the fiberglass crack spread through this piece, to where it is today. Literally, there is a triangle batman logo shaped piece of fiberglass attached to the hood lock, and then the rest is just completely gone up to the headlight area. This is where i need help, i have no idea what this piece is called. Basically i need to find this part (regardless of color) so that i can patch up a few bad spots and start working on some paint.

Also, the power steering whines LOUDLY, moreso than my old turbo probe whined. It also seems to be spitting some fluid out of the cap, although it remains full. Not sure if this is a cap issue or back pressure from the PSP. Anyways, it's nice to meet you guys and look forward to many turbo coupe-ing adventures with you guys.

this is the piece that holds the thunderbird symbol, if that helps. My model has the hood cutouts and no grill.

[color:#FF0000][size:14pt]WELCOME[/size][/color]

You are looking for the header panel. Shouldn't be too difficult to find one as there's seemingly always a TC being parted out. Shipping would probably be kinda steep if you couldn't find one locally.

Loud power steering is a very common problem on these cars. For one, the pump is just noisy in the first place, but you can get a small enough leak where it can suck in air, but no fluid will leak out. You can first try checking all of the connections and making sure they are tight. Then jack up the car with the engine running and turn the steering wheel lock to lock a bunch of times to try to work the air out of the lines.

Welcome to the board.
The piece above the bumper is the "header panel" Power steering whine is common. It may mean air in the fluid, check the system for leaks. Maybe the pump is going out. Hows the fluid look, red?, silver red?

it's red, similar to the color and dexterity of used up toyota coolant if that makes sense. Definitely not silvery at all. Going to get it up on stands later this weekend and check some things.

Thanks for the heads up on the "header panel"

I guess im in line for "WTB 1987 or compatible TC Header Panel" as well as the parking light frames and covers Ebay is my friend, but there aren't many header panels available right now.

You'll want either a '87 or '88 header panel. Try to find the same color if you can as paint is expensive and the paint will often be a little off from the faded color. I would put a post in the wanted to buy parts section of the forum. Forum members take care of each other and the prices are almost always way better than Ebay.

If I remember correctly there's a vent hole in the cap. So perhaps your power steering reservoir is overfilled.

What color is the PS fluid? It should be bright red, but its probably never been changed and is black. As a first attempt to fix it, change / flush the PS fluid.

Quick tip on the header panel. Do your absolute best to find one within driving distance first!
Shipping these things is a crap shoot. They are easily damaged in transit. I bought two header panels from two different people a couple of years back and they both showed up in multiple pieces.
I'm sure they could be packed well enough not to be broken but the average guy shipping one will probably not go thru the trouble to pack it the way they need to be. Just a heads up.

@ Jeff K, the PS fluid is a nice ruby red, comparable color to a flushed Toyota coolant.. maybe just a smidge darker than this: http://img377.imageshack.us/img377/2935/...029ah7.jpg

When i picked the car up, there was PS fluid on top of the cap. I asked the gentleman about it, and he said the cap probably wasn't on tight, and then proceeded to dump the fluid from the cap back into the reservoir... he found out how quickly i didn't appreciate that since i had already paid for the car.

I almost wonder if the gentleman i purchased it from tried to dump enough new fluid in there to get it to stop whining for my test drive, ah well. I'll flush regardless.

boosted chicken Wrote:I bought two header panels from two different people a couple of years back and they both showed up in multiple pieces.

I guess that's just the ol' warehouse packing employee in me, i did that for years and we had to pack the boxes full enough to withstand 4-5 60+lb boxes piled on top of them regardless of item. I do have ears and eyes out for a local deal, but at the time being the likelihood of locating one is very low.