Hi , it´s a 88". I live in Estonia and this is 1 of 9 (87-88) birds in here.
Looks NICE man!!! :D The wheels are great. I definitely wouldnt think there are too many tbirds in Estonia. People must look everywhere you go. What's in the background in the shop picture? Is that your shop? Those look like old Buick wheels...I want to guess 1970-1973 Riviera?
Thank you. Its not my shop it´s where I was working about year ago. I´m a mechanic and thats american garage. Yes these are Buicks but 76 Buick Lesabre it came to change some engine gaskets.
Nice bird, is that a replacement block?
Not that I know. Thank you
Nice T-bird:D. How did it get to Estonia?
Very nice, and welcome to the forum. That car must have quite a story to tell.
It was for sale in one car sale place. I was looking american hobby car and when I saw it there , my first thougt was: I want it. I was looking it closer and thinking about the price which was in your money 3800 dollars. 2 weeks later I came and bought it. was 12 march 2007 and I had my first american V8 car.
For now car have dual 2.5" exhaust, heddman headers(which is going to be replaced with some normal headers) , flowmaster 40´s, MSD 8.8mm wires, MSD TFI coil, K&N air filter, BBK aluminium pulleys
Sorry about my englis I dont talk english every day.
So you can correct me.
Thank you all!
Don't worry about that, it's no doubt better than many of our posters that use English every day...
You have a nice looking Bird, guessing you get a lot of comments...
BTW, welcome to the board...
Tom
Looks great and it sounds like you're doing a great job! Your English is just fine don't worry about it! Welcome to the forum.
Thank you again. Some more pics.
Wow an LX with leather. That's pretty rare. My 88 LX has leather so your car is only the second LX with leather I've seen on the board.
That LX leather thing I didnt know. So that´s good if I have something pretty rare. Leather is old and shabby, I think next year should have new leather interior.
Didn´t wanna do new thread.
Do I get this right?
If I wanna have new shocks 87-93 mustang shocks will fit?
I wanna put KONI 87411121SPORT so they will fit ?
And will mustang control arms fit? FORD RACING M-3075-A
Thank you!
Hy again,
So the rust came to me & now it´s time to do some work.
Anyone know where do I get the front fenders & other body parts ?
Some pics
Welcome aboard ,,,,,,,,,,,,,and have a nice stay !!! great bunch of people here.
Are you serious?
My 88 LX has gray leather interior!
Thanks I have been reading this forum day & night. So much good information is in here what I still haven´t read yet. I started my 88 restoration too cause I´m sick of this rust now. Some progress pics:
Are you going to remember where all of the fasteners go?LOL.I did,but I was lucky.Ford actually designed everything well.Every single nut,bolt,screw,and plug went right back where it was supposed to go without any issues at all.
Right now I do & I have been packing all the screws,bolts & stuff into the plastic bags with letter on it. But so far its not that difficult than ford f-150 dash & mercedes S class dashes.
Right now I´m removing rust from dash metal frame.
Should I do new thread for restoration ?
So I took out both seats & carpet. The floor is very nice :rollin:
Need more room in garage for stuff that comes out
Some pics:
one more
Interior is out now & next thing is to get engine out.
So maybe soon I can go to painting.
Don´t look the garage the whole stuff is gone now & garage is clean for today...
Today rear bumper cover & taillights was removed. Today mostly was packing bolts & screws. I went to shop for mini-grip bags & boxes for bolts& screws. Some pictures from back & every day car.
Not "rare" but very uncommon. I've only seen one other 88 LX with a gray leather interior.
It's also odd but it seems easier to find base and Sport T-birds than LX cars. I don't know why though...
Looks like you're having fun pulling the car apart :D
Be careful with the dash. I can only imagine what its like to get another one out there...
Fortunately the dash is out for me & in good shape too.
I had a little free time again and some progress about the car. I have a box full of screws, bolts & nuts wich are going to the zinc bath and some details go chrome bath.
Some pictures
Wow,that's one naked interior.LOL.Good work so far.
Looks like you got a major project going there! Good luck with it. Before you put the passenger side fender back on, you should take off that air intake silencer. The car breaths so much better without it, the engine sounds great without it too!!
Welcome to the forum!
At one point my interior was completely gutted. Now I have the dash, door panels and seats back in but I have to get new carpet, headliner and rear deck carpet. The rear quarter interior trim is still gutted as well.
I am so fortunate to have no floor pan rust.
Great job so far. That color looks pretty sharp. Are you planning on keeping it the same when you repaint it?
Thank you all!
For 1Bad88tbird : the silencer has alraedy removed I was thinking about cold air intake kit when is time to put it back. Thanks anyway
For FLSTGI71 : Thanks but I´m not going to keep that original paint. I was thinking about black pearl.
One of my biggest fears was that floor pan rust but I think sometimes there must be something good in it too.
Plan with car is to get the body rustfree & new paint what I´m right now thinking is going to be black pearl. When it´s time to paint then we will see.
Right now I´m removing that floor isolation witch is going to be replaced by sound isolation mats.
I took out the wiring, locks, glass & seals but unfortunately I damaged door seal. Whats with metal holds & directs window glass. Same way rear window weatherstrip what was so full of cracks and dead.
Today I had a little time to too something again and I pulled the steering tilt out and blower motor with heater system and tomorrow should go to shop and buy the engine stand. Then hopefully get the engine quickly out then change some gaskets and sell with AOD, wiring & ECU + headers and some stuff. Then is time to look for engine.
Wow,you are really going all out on that car.Nice work,I hope you get it all back together.LOL.By the way,where is Estonia?
I was thinking the same thing lol
(http://www.intute.ac.uk/worldguide/maps2/876_a.jpg)
Shiny Side Up!
Bill
Holy !!!
For vinnietbird: :hick::rollin: "holy " haha still laughing. Ok if you look north Estonia there is city TALLINN it´s biggest city in Estonia & I live 10 miles/16 kilometers to south of Tallinn. And if anyone of you comes in Europe of course Germany is 1000 miles from here but come to visit Estonia and call me I can show you some nice places here with no tourist prices. Anyway you got to know where is Estonia and Finland.
Anyway if you all took a good laugh because my country is smaller then your states but little progress with my car.
Not laughing at the size of the country,it's the distance,and that there's actually Fox Birds left over there.They are getting hard to find here,I can't imagine trying to find parts over there.Have you found parts cars over there?Are you changing the exhaust on the car as well?
I was taking it as a joke , Jep we have birds in here the mn12 we have pretty much but fox birds: about 9 and few fox cougars too. Few months back & 10 miles from me I saw somebodys front yard a dark gray 87-88 t-bird. I wrote a letters to them cause nobodys where home but nobody has answered. If i get the new engine then ofcourse shorty headers and x pipe is going to be new.
Any chance you have to get parts over there,even if you don't need them,you should grab them.I'm starting to do that here.Parts are getting harder and harder to find by the week.I'm glad I found a lot of my Sport's parts a few years ago and just shelved them until I needed them.
Yes it is hard to get parts and I do my best of restoring that bird. Engine parts are easy to get just go to shop & make your order but bird body parts or something like that, it´s a total nightmare. My friend owns a american car center in Estonia & he is looking front fenders for me and even for him it´s nightmare. Thanks for thinking about me! If I can´t get parts anymore then I will come to US for parts and holidays then I hope to see some of you or get parts from you.
And my bought a motor stand and I don´t know how it´s called in english. But what about car is I´m ordering both full quarter panels from us and both fenders too. All new so I tought I´m gona sandblast my underbody this winter.
Engine stand is about the best and only way to describe those ;). Your english is just fine. Sounds like you need front fenders like I do, I am having a hell of a time finding them as well. It always seems when I find one its rotten just like the one I need to replace! Keep at it man!
We call it an engine stand.Same thing.It looks just like mine....except mine is a lot more "used".LOL.Keep on going,you're doing great.I can't wait to see the finished car.What color will it be/
jep its hard to find those fenders but I found the shop where I can buy those things and I made order on both fenders and quarter panels. I just got a phone call and a guy who owns 88 t-bird 3,8 V6 called me and asked me if I´m intrested of buying it, so I´m thinking maybe I buy it too :D It must definately be BIG BLOCK drag car if I would build it.
nice car. it's is in better shape than mine was, i still need some floor pan work on mine.Good Luck and if you need anything let us know.
Thanks I will let you know
A few parts arrived from zinc bath today. All the parts future is going to be the same. I don´t have many pics right now but will be soon and by the way snow came down today here in Estonia. So some pics of parts before and now.
They look pretty good now, no more rust for those parts! I think we have a while before the snow shows up here but only time will tell. Keep at it man, I go crazy in the winter when I cant work on my cars (To lazy to fire up the wood burner in the shop).
Those came out nice, snowed here last night,2-3 inches
Jep I´m very pleased with them. Jep I know about cold garage I hate it too but I just love to work with the car so much that I even come and work in the cold garage for few hours.
I´m looking for a shop to rent or buy but there´s nothing out there. I hope to find something nice to open my own shop oneday, atleast it would be worth to try it out.
Hy it´s been long time since last time I posted here but I don´t have time to work with the car. So today I took some time to do some progress and removed wiring from engine room. So next time I hope to get the engine out and then it´s time for body work.
Kristen
Hy so it´s christmas time and I got some time to work with my car and I think it was last time for this year. Anyway I tried to remove fuel tank and bolts are rusted, so I spraid some rust killing oil on them. Next time hopefully get the tank out. It was so friggin cold that´s why I quit for today. Outside is -15Celsius. Some pictures from today.
What is -15 Celsius in regular degrees?Either way,it's cold.I can't wait to see this thing go back together.That will be quite the c,but I'll bet it turns out great.Good work so far.
Some parts came from zinc so just to show you how nice those are.
For vinnie: in europe we have only Celsius so if your regular degrees are Fahrenheit then it´s 5 Fahrenheits. Yeah I think it´s going to be quite good puzzle can´t wait to do the body work. :D
Looking good! Your bird looks pretty clean too, that helps. It really adds a lot of work when you have to deal with rust. You're making great progess, keep it up!
thanks, I have been thinking the same thing about rust. I have been looking other restorations in this forum and looks like others have had much more work to do. When you could see my bird with your own eye then actually it looks even better then photos.
So it christmas time and I don´t think I will do some progress in this year with the car.
I said I won´t do no progress this year anymore but today I still took few hours and removed fuel tank. And like you see on the picture box with wiring that´s all thunderbird wiring.
maandy; might try to locate a product called POR15 it is a product that converts
rust/stops rust. Really a good product.
Nice work
If you can't get it over there, there are a couple other products that are comparable to POR.
I also have a big box of wire like that. lol
These cars are real fun to work on. Good job.
Thanks, I will look around to get that product. Yes it is fun to work on it I´m totally enjoying it. There is nobody in Estonia who sells POR15 but our neighbors Finlands have. So I´ll be looking how can I get the staff here. Is there some other products from this POR15 what should I use?
Is he talking about the black box around the air cleaner? How does one remove it without letting the air filer flop around?
No he`s not talking about air cleaner box, he´s talking abot that pipe with air circulation box what´s inside the fender just before the air filter.
It´s a present from my wife cause I had a birthday and I thought you want to see it. I love it :rollin:
Awesome belt.Where did you find that?
She bought regular belt with blank metal plate and let the jeweler do the logos and text.
He did a great job with it! Very nice!!
I use Picklex-20 and Zero-Rust myself. I order it on the web, and it gets delivered to my door. I don't usually have time for shopping for products and materials. The ZR is easier to use then the POR too.
Thanks daminc I´ll look around maybe we have zero-rust somewhere closer for me.
If not try here. Pretty sure he'll ship out of the States.
http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=6RCC (http://"http://autobodystore.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=6RCC")
Oo yes thanks daminc there´s a lot of tools what I want :D I´ll ask them about shipping but that looks like nice place to order.
I buy a lot of supplies from there.
I belong to the forum there also..
I haven`t found any zero-rust products but I got contacts to buy KBS coatings products. So are they good or should I prefer zero-rust ?
Thanks
Everyone is getting into the rust stopping game. Rustoleum's hammered finish paint is said to to do the same also. I would imagine it's comparable to ZR. You may find that if you look at the tech sheets on most of these products, that they're probably very close to each other.
I refuse to undercoat and rust proof.
you will need this.....>
http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f162/jcassity_bucket/
Where is your rust? I do not see any rust:D
Thank you all.
To Vinnietbird : Why would you refuse to undercoat your car and make it more rust proof ? What´s bad in undercoating?
To jcassity : Thanks a lot if I look at those pages then I start to think I really do. :D And rust.. hmm maybe it´s all in my head :D
There is no rust where Vinnie lives. He sent me a set of 20 year old springs that looked like they were brand new.
Ok that´s why he refuses. I can´t even imagine life without rust :D paradise
Hy everyone again!
Haven´t done much but some little things like I ordered POR-15 and some parts came from zincbath. I remowed drivesharft and H-pipe and now just hoping to get the engine out really soon. Ok few pics too
Front and rear bumper clamps before and after zinc
Nice looking parts.I'd love to have a bunch of parts plated,but,the cost would kill me.I can't wait to see the Bird when you're finished.
Vinnie, get the do it yourself home zinc plating kit
Thanks, actually it doesn´t cost that much one car all screws bolts and stuff like this weight about 40kg zincing would cost me 100$ I just did one 74 charger stuff. Those parts on the picture clamps and stuff cost me 4$. I want to get body clean then I can think about body shop.
Today one small pack arrived for car and it´s POR-15 but unfortunately it´s so cold in the garage that I have to wait for spring to use it :mad: Anyway soon there should come another pack from LRS with some cool stuff. Thank you for that POR-15 advice!
That stuff works, I used it on my rear, 2 years ago still looks like I just did it. How's the zinc plate hold up after awhile?, I may need to find a place to do it.
Bye the way, I sailed past your sline a long time ago, nice but it was winter and cold. I would love to see the area again.
Guys who did zinc plating told me that I never (like next 25 years) don´t have to think about rust if I zinc and paint them. So I think I zinc everything I can.
You did ? Next time stop here too and take a look around. If you should ever come here again let me know. Nice to see people discovering the world.
Hy again so I got some stuff from latemodelrestoration. We have so much cold so I can´t make any progress with the car. Key chain , belt and fender cover.
maandy how much did it cost you in shipping for the lot?
There was more parts actually and other parts were for sale so I don´t know how much was shipping only for those 3 parts.
but how much was the total shipping then?
Hy I haven´t got time to progress with the car but I had a time to zinc some stuff again. I wanted to share it with you cause those things look like chromed :rollin:
Crankshaft pulley bolts look so nice and now they fit with my aluminum pulleys.
Hy everyone, I haven´t had time for my car for a long time so now I got one free day and did few things. I packed my quarter windows and door glasses. I took off headers, transmission linkage drilled out all the rivets in doors and took out door glass motors , locks. Remowed hood and tomorrow hoping to get the transmission out and cut rear glass off.
Few pics of car when I pushed it out to breath some fresh air.
That zinc plating looks pretty good . That is gonna be one nice TBird when you are done with it .
Are you going to strip the paint off too?
Thanks
To daminc : I have no experiance with body work, I´m engine builder but I´ve always been intrested of bodywork but I want perfect body so I would just mess it up and I´ll have to send it to the bodyshop. If you have some good advice then all advices are welcome.
Hy a little progress is going on all the time but don´t have all the pics of the car. So I took off intake and cyl. heads and bought two 6 ton jack stands. Maybe I´ll buy two more but right now it´s good to remove rear end and front end. I have looked out the right body shop for me so if body is clean then all the body panel will be changed in body shop.
The engine looks good inside.What are the plans with it?
Hmm engine plans. Where to start but im still considering new block with splayed caps I mean bessel motorsports block with splayed caps and 331 stroker in it. After that my machine shop guy told me he can work my stock heads so much that intake is 1,94" and exhaust would be 1,60" and increase air flow so it could be good for 450hp. I have though about 450-500hp and with moates quartehouse chip it would all be running with A9L computer and ofcourse fuel injection. Those are my little ideas so what do you think?
I think it sounds great of he can make those py heads work out right. I would start with different heads from the start myself. Those are the stock E-6heads,right?
Yes those are stock E-6 heads actually Im not that sure about that he can make those heads so good but I though I´ll let him try and see what comes out. I will definately let you know are they good on . If they are not good enough ofcourse I will buy aftermarket head and then they will be Edelbrock victor series.
Ok I need a little help now :D Has anyone done this or can anyone help me. How to remove that (aluminum with ignition switch from tilt) <-- how to call it. I want to send that shaft ti zinc and paint all the rust I already now ho to remove switch but that other aluminum piece where everything is attached. pics too
Can't you just clean it and leave it as it is? It's aluminum,it won't rust on you.
I know that aluminum don´t rust and it never can rust. But my point was how to get that old rusty shaft out of there
I wish I could help with that.I've never had a reason to dis-assemble one before.
Ok, I can live with that much of rust, so I´ll put back together. Thing is that I can zinc parts almost for free (friend ) that´s why I´m putting and looking like crazy everything that I can zinc :D Thanks anyway!
You could always clean it up and clear coat it.
Yep that´s what I tought too.
Hy, It´s been pretty long time since I last wrote something here. Most of the summer has been without work on the car because I needed to work so I can buy more parts for the car. This is how much I have done: Body is clean inside, engine and transmission is out. Only front and rear end are still under because I´m waiting to get the subframe connectors on and welded. I think there might be even bigger brake come in the progress because bodyworker said about 3500$ with new parts, job & painting. So I think I´m going to work all winter to get the bodywork done. I just hope the project don´t stop.
Progress pics? This is one of my fav. builds.
As long as you're still making progress,that's all that matters.Good to hear from you again.
Thanks, I will make some pictures next time and hope some bigger progress coming soon before the winter.
Hy everyone, it´s been long time since I wrote something here. I have been raising the thunderbird fund for body work. Now I can buy all the body panels but need some more for paintshop work money. I will buy and replace both front fenders, both rear quarter panels, both door skins and both rocker panels.
Yesterday I got some parts from paintshop they were first sand blasted and then painted and crossmember was powdercoated.
Thanks everyone in this forum and good luck with your projects!
Wow! Impressive work!
You did better job with the hood lock thingy than I did neighbour! :)
Here's mine, fixed it yesterday.
(http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e363/CraxIgorE/1988%20Ford%20Thunderbird/20110123061.jpg)
(http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e363/CraxIgorE/1988%20Ford%20Thunderbird/20110123064.jpg)
Thanks! Good luck with restoring I have zinced all small parts of my car. How´s your progress going?
Mine has been slow for a couple of years but soon time for paint so my goal is that the car is road finish for April 1st :)
Wow that´s really soon good luck with it ! Mine is not going to be ready for this summer I´ll hope that body work can be finished for the end of this year. But you´ll never know.
Hope that you post some pics of your car if it´s road ready.
Where are you going to get your panels and doors from? They're out of reproduction... Will you get used parts here in the US, and have them shipped?
I was just wondering
I figured Estonia was somewhere near Russia... your grammar has sort of a Russian accent to it I think. Is Russian the language you normally speak?
By the way, the car is coming along very nicely. I'm happy for you that you're able to accomplish so much being so far away from where these cars came from.
Isn't it Estonian?
I guess they're very similar...
daminc: Like in the fender thread I said: about year ago there was in sherman parts but now I don´t have any idea where I can get my parts. If finding used parts from US is the only choice then I have to start looking for them. But it´s very good point from you... makes me wondering too.
sarjaxxx: If look at the map then Russia and Estonia are neighbors and Estonia is very small country. I don´t speak russian at all maybe I know few words and language is Estonian which is no way similar or even close to russian. So 10 points to daminc! By the way thanks and I like that car so much and I want to drive it again but it must be perfect.
oh well now I feel dumb:dunce:
You're English is pretty good though. A lot better than a lot of foreigners that actually LIVE here... Are there a lot of English speaking people there or did you study it?
Thanks a lot! Like todays business and web is english & studying from 4 class at school to 12 class + now more at university. And most of young people talk englist in Estonia.
Love the progress on the car. Great build. Keep it up!
This thread inspires me. Great work!
Thanks! Progress should be faster atleast I have feeling like it´s really slow. I hope that at summer I can get plenty of time to do real good progress and show you some pictures. Right now it´s so cold out there to do some bodywork, car is in the garage but not heated garage.
Anyway it´s been a while again but this time I feel some progress. Thunder is in the bodyshop. Yesterday 09/19/2011 I rent a trailer & send it to the bodyshop.
Worthless without pics so here are the pics.
Hood hinges and pumper accessory´s lined up then installed
Wow! That thing is stripped! What color are you going with? The rose color it is now sure is unique. Keep us posted.
Yes, I´m going with black metallic. Maybe this rose color like you said is unique but I personally want something new and right now I think it´s black. Next time I post again it will be when all the metal work is done and going to be preparation for painting.
How long will it be away do you think?
I don´t know, guy works with it every day full days so hopefully not long but you never know.
Well, good luck on the paint. I hope it goes quick and turns out fantastic!
Hows it going with your car over there? :)
I really like your restoration work and I'm interested in an update :D