North American Turbocoupe Organization



First Car
ryandavkd Offline
Junior Member
#1
Hey guys just wanted to post and say how excited aj am to officially own my Thunderbird. It's a 88 Thunderbird TC (automatic but I plan on swapping a manual transmission in rather soon) dark blue paint with blue interior, and 26k miles on the original 2.3 engine. I'm 17 years old and saved up a chunk of cash from working two crappy part time jobs to be able to afford it but i'm glad I did. Just did my first repair on my own, replaced the starter solenoid and put in a brand new higher amp alternator. I assume i'll be visiting this forum fairly often to look at old threads for whenever I encounter problems ?


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Jeff K Offline
Administrator
#2
Welcome to NATO! Nice looking TC! Have fun with it!

Good to see that not every younger person wants a Honda Civic with cambered out wheels with 20 series tires and a fart can muffler.
Jeff Korn

88 Turbo Coupe: Intake and exhaust mods, T3 turbo at 24 psi, forced air IC, water injection, BPV, Ranger cam, subframes, etc., etc.
86 Tbird 5.0 (original owner): intake, exhaust, valvetrain mods, 100 HP N2O, ignition, gears, suspension, etc., etc.
11 Crown Vic Interceptor
14 Toyota Camry (wifes car)
95 Taurus GL Vulcan winter beater
67 Honda 450 Super Sport - completely customized
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ABird Offline
Member
#3
I agree with Jeff, great choice!!
AES
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Kuch Offline
Senior Member
#4
Great cart, it looks to be in great shape. Congratulations and a great first car. not too many 17 year old's want a 30 year old car to cruise in. There is a lot of knowledge on this site to help you along.
1988 Turbo Coupe, Black/Black, 5 Speed, Moonroof,  T3/T4, ported E6, 255LPH, Kirban, Stinger Exhaust, MGW shifter, K&N, Gillis valve, BP1.5, PIMPx, Koni's
1964 Ford Galaxie 500XL, 390 6V, Big Solid cam, Headers,3.89's, 4 Speed, Vast and fast
1960 Ford Starliner, 292 Y Block, 312 4bbl intake, headers, 3 Speed, slow and low
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anasazi4st Offline
Senior Member
#5
(12-03-2020, 10:06 PM)ryandavkd Wrote: Hey guys just wanted to post and say how excited aj am to officially own my Thunderbird. It's a 88 Thunderbird TC (automatic but I plan on swapping a manual transmission in rather soon) dark blue paint with blue interior, and 26k miles on the original 2.3 engine. I'm 17 years old and saved up a chunk of cash from working two crappy part time jobs to be able to afford it but i'm glad I did. Just did my first repair on my own, replaced the starter solenoid and put in a brand new higher amp alternator. I assume i'll be visiting this forum fairly often to look at old threads for whenever I encounter problems ?

Ahh yes, the blue car. My first TC was a blue one. Loved that deep blue in twilight.

Congrats and good luck! Yes there are many here that have had our cars for quite a few years, so we have a great storehouse of knowledge.

In case you were not aware, the 1987 and 88 Turbo Coupes were full of innovative ideas and were ahead of their time. ABS and Programmed Ride Control are just two of the future-reaching features. And, of course, the 1987 model was the Motor Trend Car of the Year!

You’ll probably soon want to set up an eBay search for parts, as most aren’t available any more, especially body and trim ones. Also it’s a good idea to try and find a parts car in a salvage yard. (Good luck with that, the last time I saw a TC on the road had to have been 15 or more years ago.) Still, it doesn’t hurt to look.

You’ll find that many Mustang parts from the same general timeframe will fit, and there’s a lot of Mustang owners out there.

In addition to this site, there’s also the DIY pages of NATO , Turbo Ford , Four Eyed Pride (early Fox Body Turbo Coupe and base models), and the Mercury Cougar site. These are about models that are very similar, so there could be solutions to many problems there, as well.

There is also my site that I’ve been working on: Turbo Coupe Tales , which documents repairs, experiences and anecdotes for the 1987-88 Turbo Coupe. There’s not a lot on there yet, but I’m working on expanding it. (Patience.)
Another proud dues-paying member.

1987 Turbo Coupe w/T5OD, 8.8 axle, grey smoke; most options. Got it in 1991 with 41K miles: 3 turbos, 2 heater cores, 3 T5OD full rebuilds, 6 clutches, 1 head gasket, 2 Teves II ABS units, etc. later....
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ryandavkd Offline
Junior Member
#6
Thanks for the advice! I'm sure i'll be visiting all those websites in the near future, as of now i'm just making sure it runs well. Replacing all the fluids and stuff, and yeah I had hoped that since it was a foxbody that some mustang parts would work (somewhat) for any repairs or replacements I need.
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ryandavkd Offline
Junior Member
#7
(12-05-2020, 02:08 PM)Kuch Wrote: Great cart, it looks to be in great shape. Congratulations and a great first car. not too many 17 year old's want a 30 year old car to cruise in. There is a lot of knowledge on this site to help you along.

I'm super glad I came along this site, i've loved the fox body platform for a while now and felt that the thunderbirds never get the recognition they deserve so I'm super excited to be able to own one. And yeah it amazed me at how well it was taken care of, not a single rip in the interior and the only damage to the paint is a little wear and tear on the top around the sun roof.
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ryandavkd Offline
Junior Member
#8
(12-04-2020, 01:45 PM)Jeff K Wrote: Welcome to NATO! Nice looking TC! Have fun with it!

Good to see that not every younger person wants a Honda Civic with cambered out wheels with 20 series tires and a fart can muffler.

Thank you! Haha yeah there are plenty of those to go around it seems like, I wanted something a little different than every other "car guy" teenager.
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