North American Turbocoupe Organization



Got the Barnfind TC
Tbird-fanatic Offline
Senior Member
#1
Anyone thats keeping track, knows I was offered a good shape, but been sitting in a barn for years torn apart for some upgrades that never happened. Well as of last night its mine and in the process of being cleaned up and re-assembled. So with out further adieu some reminder pics and how she's sitting now, along with all the parts including all the new stuff in the trunk. Theres also a 3G alternator I forgot to take a pic of.

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1988 Tbird TC - in pieces - barn find - mods beginning while restoring
2000 F250SD XLT CCSB 7.3 Powerstoke - Daily Driver - AFE intake, Swamps tunes, straight piped
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Tbird-fanatic Offline
Senior Member
#2
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1988 Tbird TC - in pieces - barn find - mods beginning while restoring
2000 F250SD XLT CCSB 7.3 Powerstoke - Daily Driver - AFE intake, Swamps tunes, straight piped
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boboli Offline
Member
#3
Nice. Did that cat come along for the ride?
If there were any mice, check the heater box/ blower motor before u turn it on. Damn things always make a home in the heater box
1988 turbo tbird, 5spd, 140k, all stock except boost control valve.
1986 dodge omni glh turbo, 111k, my money pit.
1989 mustang Lx 5.0 convertible, tropical yellow/ tan interior, 1of only 144 made, 164k, aod, all stock including overheating TFI!
89 Jaguar XJS convertible, LT1 conversion, now fighting the prince of darkness (aka Lucas electronics)
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Tbird-fanatic Offline
Senior Member
#4
Thanks and no the cat didnt come along for the ride, its a neighbor hood cat that just decided to photobomb the pics last night!! LOL Oh I know about the heater box!! This is the second thunderbird Ive had that spent a decent amount of time down. Im planning on pulling the entire interior out to check all wiring and clean it up.
1988 Tbird TC - in pieces - barn find - mods beginning while restoring
2000 F250SD XLT CCSB 7.3 Powerstoke - Daily Driver - AFE intake, Swamps tunes, straight piped
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86XR7auto Offline
Moderator
#5
Quite a project....

Travis
86XR7 in pieces...old time [email protected] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGsz7PdEqTI 88TC stock Red RHSC [email protected], 01 Z71=Nice winter ride, 01 CVLX w/HPP wifes ride!
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turbird77 Offline
Member
#6
Cool, she looks like a solid rust-free project, and that's the most important thing. Rust is the biggest PITA thing of all to fix properly on a vehicle, everything else is a cake walk. Though I gotta ask, Why exactly was the car torn apart in the first place? Usually Barn finds are all original, untouched pieces, shelved by someone early on in the cars life and then forgotten about. Looks like someone at sometime wanted that cars drive-line pretty badly. Hope they where at least nice to the car while pulling it out. I've seen some awful hackery from people while pulling an engine out of a car they didn't care about. GL with everything though man, and most of all have fun with it. Wink
88 TC - Work in Progress.
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Tbird-fanatic Offline
Senior Member
#7
Yep pretty rust free so far, Ive found a couple very small surface, but thats it. The back story is he totaled a low mile TC out, pulled all usable parts from that one and bought this one to replace it. He loved the TC's!! This one had a toasted auto and he had done his research, to know that his plans rebuilding it it wouldnt hold up. Pulled the drivetrian(assuming to put the lower miles drivetrain in) bought a bunch of new replacement parts. Then either life got in the way or he lost interest in it. 5-10 years later I come into the picture!! And everything except the T5 is still there(brother stole it for his mustang). And when I say everything, I mean everything. I actually have to go back for more parts, ran out of room in the truck!

Now for work accomplished today. I started to pull the interior out, vacuuming and cleaning as I went. The torx bolts are in my way as I didnt have any with me today, but I will next weekend. Pulled the blower motor out and sure enough like usual there was another nest in there, so I pulled it apart and its getting scrubbed up. Brought some of the hard interior parts home for cleaning along with the headlights and taillights. Now for some decisions I need to make. One is to leave the taillights alone and just get them completely cleaned up and the other is to do like I did on the last Tbird and tint them. Im leaning towards tinting as the darkness of the blue they would blend in.

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Headlights are going to be restored, chrome on the inside looks good, along with the outer markers. Seems like the inners never haze over at all. They are fresh out of getting cleaned up so they are still moist!!

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No heres where I really need some advise, the adhesive that holds the armrest material on has given out. The material is still in great shape, so Im trying to figure out the best/most permanent way to reattach it.

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After the interior is clean and semi put back together, Im moving on to the underside. Im planning on cleaning what little it needs, taking care of any surface rust I may find and re-undercoating it. After that comes the engine bay. Time and ambition will determine how deep into it I get, Ive been playing with the idea of taking car of any unused hole while the motors out, but havent decided yet.

1988 Tbird TC - in pieces - barn find - mods beginning while restoring
2000 F250SD XLT CCSB 7.3 Powerstoke - Daily Driver - AFE intake, Swamps tunes, straight piped
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boosted chicken Offline
Senior Member
#8
On the arm rests, when mine do that, I get some self tapping sheet metal screws with a good size washer (3/4"-1" or so) and use 6 or 7 of them to fasten the vinyl back down under the arm rest.
88 TC#1 2.9L tall deck. Essy SVO head, Boport header, BW SX369 turbo, C4 trans, MS2xtra
88 TC#2 drag car project(someday)
88 TC#3 parts car (just needed the header panel...bought the whole car, lol)
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Tbird-fanatic Offline
Senior Member
#9
boosted chicken Wrote:On the arm rests, when mine do that, I get some self tapping sheet metal screws with a good size washer (3/4"-1" or so) and use 6 or 7 of them to fasten the vinyl back down under the arm rest.
Thanks for the tip, ended up being the only thing that held and could look good.

Did more cleaning last night. Scrubbed down the entire interior that is plastic. Looks much better now. Pull the lower part of the sail panels out and sure enough some small nests hiding in there. Not many places left for any to be, so Im hoping the end is near.

Decided to pull the a-pillar trim so I can get the gauge pod mounted to it and get wires and such run while the interiors out. My only question is the other gauge that is in the pics is a pyro gauge, would that be useful or should I get another gauge that is more fitting like coolant temp or oil pressure. Both of which I plan on getting anyways and mounting else where. No pics from last night as my battery went dead before I was done.
1988 Tbird TC - in pieces - barn find - mods beginning while restoring
2000 F250SD XLT CCSB 7.3 Powerstoke - Daily Driver - AFE intake, Swamps tunes, straight piped
Reply

Tbird-fanatic Offline
Senior Member
#10
Decided to make the drive agian tonight after work to do more. Only interior left in the car is the dash and the rear deck cover. Found atleast 5 more abandoned mouse nests, 2 in the headliner, 1 behind the rear seat back and one on each side where the front seat retractors mount. No places really left to find any so I hope thats the last of them and the car will finally start smelling better. Washed all the metal down and dryed it. Got my fingers crossed. In the process of eliminating anything that would be a pain to attempt to clean the smell Ive lost a few pounds of sound deadener and insulation. Its gonna be a fun summer car, so I can do without them. Next trip out I need to decide if the carpets worth all the work to clean and deodorize, or just replace it. Also need to decide what to do about the headliner, the mice had chewed thru it in a few places but didnt hurt the actual integrity. The fabric is ruined though, so I have my wife on the search for fabric similar and in the same color.

Body work will start shortly here for what little it needs, still waiting on my quote from my buddy but something tells me Ill be mostly paying for materials. Im also gonna be getting ahold of a local glass replacement place to pull all the rear glass and replace the windshield (has damage thats separating the layers), so I can have a good paint job. I just dont have luck pulling it or I would do it myself. Now for some pics from the night.

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1988 Tbird TC - in pieces - barn find - mods beginning while restoring
2000 F250SD XLT CCSB 7.3 Powerstoke - Daily Driver - AFE intake, Swamps tunes, straight piped
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