Black 89 Auto, w/mods in South Carolina

phils89sc

Registered User
I am selling my Thunderbird SC. I love this car, but I need something more economical and easy to work on. The car has 95K original miles, never been wrecked or hit, body is very straight short of a small ding in the passenger side quarter panel near the door. The car could stand to be repainted. The paint is original but is dull on the ground effects. The interior is in good shape with the exception of the dash which is cracked. I installed a new headliner and recovered the visors, which looks really good. Both windows work, the locks work fine, the auto-lamp works (I use them every day), and auto seatbelts are fully functional. The only real damage to the seats is the usual bolster wear on the drivers seat and it is minimal. It has a new front windshield as well, installed a few weeks ago.

Now for what I have done to it. at 92K, the head gaskets went belly up, so I tore the engine down, got the heads resurfaced and valve job done. I installed the Chevy (gulp) 2.8 V6 ARP head stud kit, and reassembled the engine. I had my original radiator refurbished by a local radiator shop even though it never had any problems, I just wanted to get all 22 years of crud out of it.. The engine runs well, but has a little piston or wrist pin noise when cold and goes away after a minute or so of driving. I avoid this by starting her up and letting her idle for about a minute or so. After the engine is warmed up, the noise goes away. I have posted on this before and it was determined that it was not a rod or anything because it does indeed stop where a rod or main noise would not. So, that being said, I wanted to be up front with it. It does not affect how the engine runs at all. While I had the manifolds off, I went ahead and ported them out to get rid of the lip on the collector and sort of blend it for a smooth transition to the down pipes. The engine has Taylor Red plug wires as well as new Autolite plugs.

On to the other mods. It has a full custom true dual exhaust with aluminized 2.25" piping from the down pipes to high flow cats then to a Flowmaster dual-in, dual out muffler to replace the resonator (seems to be a larger muffler than the one that comes with the cat-back Flowmaster kit). From that point back, it is dual 2.25" piping all the way to the exhaust exits in the factory location, but with no mufflers. It sounds pretty good, not V8 good, but SC good! I will include in this listing a link to a Youtube vid of the exhaust.

The transmission is the factory AOD which has been rebuilt and works well. The torque converter was also replaced.

I have rebuilt the front suspension using Moog front lower control arms, new strut rod bushings (at the control arm end, the chassis end bushing are fine). The upper control arms are only a couple years old, as well as the tie rods, all of which, except for the lower ball joints, have grease fittings and are currently freshly lubed. She rides and drives like a new car after the new suspension install!

I have converted to the 93-97 front wheel spindles. I have replaced the rotors and installed the 99-up Mustang GT PBR dual piston calipers. I have installed a new ABS pump accumulator, ABS pump and accumulator motor to fix the 'hard pedal' issue that comes with 22 years of braking.

So, among other thing like the tires have about 80% tread left and are in good shape. I cannot really think about anything else to add just yet. Oh, I do have a manual brake booster and master cylinder from a 93 SC that I am including, along with some misc items. The factory adjustable struts and shocks were replaced with Bilstein struts and shocks before I bought the car. I have since acquired a full set of actuators and ride control computer. The only thing left is the Tokico adjustable shocks and struts to put it back to factory spec if so desired.

Now for the hard part, the price! Of course, I could add up all the money I have spend and come up with some ridiculous price, but I just need to sell her. I am asking $2000 obo. I have a clear SC title in hand, ready to sign off.

If you have any questions, please feel free to call / text (prefer text) me at 803-371-2212. My name is Phil, if I don't answer, please leave me a message and I will call you back. Call anytime up to 10pm, text me anytime.

Here are some pics via photobucket....

http://s1179.photobucket.com/albums/x400/phils89sc/


Here is the youtube link to the exhaust clip:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unQk9FVOzyo
 

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