What did you do with your Thunderbird Today?

he gears were the same on my subaru, with the same experiences hitting reverse. I never let the clutch out, lol.
 
Finished installing the rear Cobra brake rotors. Really happy how they look! Most importantly the hand parking brake is much stronger.
Pulling the handbrake now will actually hold the car on a hill and it is capable of slowing the car down to a stop if needed.

Unsure what part of the rear brakes was not working properly before. But after replacing everything and installing the bigger rotors it's night and day improvement. I installed Wagner Thermoquiet Semi metallic pads, and used Bosch coated rotors.

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1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
I bought this car in the spring of 2022, and the UCAs/LCAs were swapped a month later by a shop using TRW parts; they do not have grease fittings.
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The TRW control arm assembly may have used a cheap aftermarket ball joints. It's common now that even the better brand suspension parts for our cars are just cheap junk parts thrown into a brand relabeled box. Motorcraft and MOOG have been doing it for several years

The old stock USA made TRW ball joint holds up very well... they have a clear boot.

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Replaced the heater core. Been by-passed since March. With cooler weather coming and a/c dying this summer it had to be done. Removing old one was a B1tch. Had to get rough w/ it.
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Added thin strips of foam into the passenger headrest plastic holders (the pieces that the metal posts slide into), and finally quieted the notorious passenger headrest rattle.
 
$3.399/gal. Is that for premium or regular fuel?
 
I scored some nice body parts: Hood, trunk w/ spoiler & right fender. I can't spend $3k on an upgraded MACCO job and was preparing to go the rattle can route as this south ga sun has burned everything on top off. All three parts in factory E9 for $140. 20241020_170904.jpg20241020_205458.jpg
 
I ran mine bone dry and barely got out of the road. Had to put 3 gal in to get it to pick up since shoulder was pretty bad. I want to say it took another 17 to fill it after I got 4 miles to the station.
 
Generalee0527 said:
I scored some nice body parts: Hood, trunk w/ spoiler & right fender. I can't spend $3k on an upgraded MACCO job and was preparing to go the rattle can route as this south ga sun has burned everything on top off. All three parts in factory E9 for $140.
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Score!! I agree. Often it can be easier and obviously much cheaper to just replace a body panel than have it painted.
 
1997ThunderbirdLXV6 said:
Why?
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Well, gauge has been flaky for a few years and it has always turned the red warning on while needle showed slightly above the red mark. This time I was planning on stopping at a regular station and they were crawling w/ people so I said meh. Drove on and since I cross country where it is 20-30 miles at a stretch with a couple available 5 mile detours I decided hell I don't rightly know my mileage nor how much I added last time and when I was 5 miles past a potential detour it started cutting out so I slowed to 50 and made it another 2 miles. Then nothing-quick shift to neutral and coasted across intersection and onto shoulder. Just rolled the dice and lost this one.😁
 
KevinVarnes said:
Score!! I agree. Often it can be easier and obviously much cheaper to just replace a body panel than have it painted.
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There are some chips and a small dent on my hood after driving it (no garage queens allowed!) these last several years. I would not be surprised if I had to lay out 4-figures to have it fixed and re-painted. Hence, no rush!
 
theterminator93 said:
There are some chips and a small dent on my hood after driving it (no garage queens allowed!) these last several years. I would not be surprised if I had to lay out 4-figures to have it fixed and re-painted. Hence, no rush!
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Depends. A few years ago I had to have the C-pillar repainted on our '97. All of the insurance mill body shops wanted well over $2k to paint that section. I found a guy that a few people at work had used. Just a guy in a small shop by himself. I think he charged me $350 or something. He has since repainted the roof as well. Most body shops just want to do collision repair for insurance jobs. You have to search around and sometimes you can find a good guy in a hole in the wall shop.
 
KevinVarnes said:
Score!! I agree. Often it can be easier and obviously much cheaper to just replace a body panel than have it painted.
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I replaced my rear bumper at a junkyard of all places which just happened to have a clean pearl white 94-95, after the local glass guy in his dodge ram van backed into it while I was shopping for random crap. Big issue with direct replacement is with colors like mine if there’s the very slightest mismatch it’s so obvious in the wrong light. He actually offered initially to pay for the repaint and I kind of wish I had vs taking the junkyard replacement for whatever it cost him.
 
I put plastic bags in it, so I take them to be recycled. Oh and I bought tools to get started on a transmission rebuild. (As a side note, I’ll be rebuilding a 1995 ford f150 transmission that I got off a 1995 thunderbird from go-pull it in Atlanta. I plant to document it. What’s the best way to do it? Just a post or a technical article?
 
Kevin,
I'm still looking for that guy who is willing to just spray it. I know the e9 paint is $$$$ but if I do the prep and supply the paint, I am not opposed to dropping a grand. Problem is car is valued by county and insurance at $200 which is BS. Small accident and they want to total it. World has turned to one big scam.
 
Generalee0527 said:
Kevin,
I'm still looking for that guy who is willing to just spray it. I know the e9 paint is $$$$ but if I do the prep and supply the paint, I am not opposed to dropping a grand. Problem is car is valued by county and insurance at $200 which is BS. Small accident and they want to total it. World has turned to one big scam.
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Insurance has always been one big scam in my opinion. I've never filed a claim for car or house. The only time either of us has been in an accident is when my wife rearended somebody in our Saturn wagon, but I just fixed it myself.

Ask around. Somebody always knows somebody that does good body and paint work for cheap. Good being the operative word there. Plenty of cheap options that you don't want.
 
That is exactly why I have my Thunderbird insured with Hagerty. We have a mutually agreed-upon value for the car so that situation does not happen.
 
Since nobody wanted to buy these - general lack of headrest obsession in today's society - I decided to turn them Light Prairie Tan and use myself.

Now the Mark aficionados will say: wait a minute, why not just get factory Light Prairie Tan?

Indeed 2nd gen Mark VIII were available from the factory with LPT interiors. But they're extremely rare in the yards. Most are Graphite, many are Ivory, some are Ebony/Charcoal...but LPT shows up close to never.

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Looks good! I used the same paint on the center console. The Dupli-color gray is also a very close match to the factory 96-7 gray interior. It's been holding up well so far.
 
Project complete! I really love the shape of the Gen 2 Mark VIII headrests. The color match is excellent over grey, only missing the stock reddish hue from certain angles depending on lighting.

For the rear headrests, I painted over black. Here the color is not as pretty in spite of good coverage, but still satisfactory. It doesn't help that the color of the cloth along the top edge of the rear seat has entirely faded.

Happy with the result, plus I was a bit tired of the black leather with contrast stitching look, which was a bit too custom for my taste.

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