1986 Ford Thunderbird TurboCoupe, A.K.A. : The Rust Rocket

i shouldn't like this car. i certainly shouldn't love it. in no way do i have any right dumping any real time or cash into it. however, i have done all 3.

the car is a 1986 turbo t-bird. Turbo Coupes in general are my favorite car of all time, bar none. the mixture of decent speed, technology, comfort, style and boost all come together in these cars in such a way that has not been touched by any other car. sure, there are faster cars, more comfortable cars, nicer looking cars, but nothing ive ever driven comes close to a TC.

this one, is a bit more special. see it has the same birth month and year as i do. its a reflection of me, and some ways is more accurate than i care to admit. were both 30 this year, about to make 31. the car is like looking in the mirror. "its a kind of heavy, kind of ugly, somewhat worn out thing, with a few things broken, a few things recently fixed like new, and a big list of needed improvements". that sentence could describe me or the car, and be no less accurate either way. there have been a few times where the car was a bit less likely to see another birthday than i was, but in the end, I've decided to keep it forever.

i got it about 2 years ago, and it was the most impulsive buy i have ever made. i didn't drive it, i didn't hear it run, i didn't even look at it in person. i received 2 pictures, a price, and i sent back 'SOLD'. i simply needed a car, my truck was down for awhile undergoing a big repair, and i needed transportation. i have a history with TC's, so there was nothing that could break or go wrong i couldn't deal with in short order. heck, i did the head gasket in 4 hours, running to running, and spent ONLY $9.80 for the gasket itself.

but, last month i heard a nasty exhaust leak, and i lost a cylinder. uh-oh... turns out i broke the head of a manifold bolt, and the resulting gas charge melted a plug wire.

so i removed the entire turbo assembly, and drilled out the bolt. then i broke a tap off in the head. so i plasma torched that out. then i re-tapped the hole a 2nd time, which went fine. so, put it back together? nope. my truck is now a 13 f-150, reliable as gravity. the weathers nice, so im gonna fix a few nagging things. this list turned into a notebook, which is now turning into a build thread. i don't have any competitive plans for the car, just a nice driver, with some power and handling prowess.

first, i found a crack in the turbo manifold. some high nickel rod and my FILs ancient arc welder, and the welds are ugly but should hold.

then i removed the front clip, as i had new fenders for it. the ones on it were rusted beyond repair, and one had damage from a snowstorm related accident last winter. and yes, Thunderbirds are useless in bad weather.

then, i found the lower radiator support was gone. not rusted, not even rusted out, it was frigging gone. i removed it with a gloved hand, it was that loose. so i cut back till i found good metal, and remade a lower support out of 1x1 box tubing, and some sheet metal angles.

and here it is, all painted up with rust converter and gloss black.

i then ran a new cold air intake. most guys with these just drop a cone filter on the end of the air meter, but i have seen real world difference between that, and running a pipe to where the lower air dam scoops air up towards the radiator. i even found a guy who had done a wind tunnel test to see where the most airflow was, and its on the passenger side, towards the bottom. so that's where the filter lives now.

then i got the new, fiberglass bumper support mounted (5 lbs lighter than the stock steel one, and the old one was bent).

and i began mounting the first fender. anyone who knows these cars might notice that i am installing later model, 87-88 front clip parts on an 86 car. first, i had the parts from my old drag car, and second, i don't particularly like the 4 eye look. plus this is cheaper, and i have never seen a early chassis with the later nose.

so thats where i'm at for now. this week i hope to have the front clip bolted back on with the new fenders, the turbo refitted to the block, and find a location for the inter-cooler. its supposed to go on top of the turbo, but it gets heat soaked there very quickly, and gets zero airflow. id like to move it down low, just behind the radiator, but with a scoop grabbing air from the road, but we'll see. i wont sacrifice clearance or handling for it.

ill keep this updated as much as i can. if you have read this far, thanks, i appreciate it.

-J0N

Going to add an intercooler to it on the way back together? i parted out an 86 because the junkyard couldnt sell it with a title, still a huge soft spot for the 2.3t in general, great little package.

Sweet Car! Always loved the way those T birds looked.

Subscribed!

Goldie parts!

Re: heat soaked IC.

Have you ever seen the mod in which an electric radiator fan is mounted under the IC in it's stock location to keep air moving across it at all times? I borrowed that idea for one of SAAB c900 turbos. It does work. Not as good as a proper front mount IC, but enough to be useful.

I love T-bird turbocoupes too. Some day I will have one.

Nice. I love these cars.

I drove one of these back in my detailing cars days. I was impressed and surprised by it.

Wow, i am truly impressed anyone took the time to read all that, and comment too! Thanks for the encouragement, GRM!

not much progress today, and no new images. the grass was taller than the front tires of the lawn mower, which has sat long enough to become a home for a small spider, so it was time to mow the lawn (yuck). i did complete the passenger side fender install and got everything lined up with the hood and door. i had time to sandblast and paint the hood prop rod and radiator mount brackets, and got a little further painting the core support and engine bay. im still cutting back unused wiring, and trying to remove weight where i can. so far my 'nope, don't need this' bucket weighs about 12 lbs.

today i plan to get the engine bay cleaned, painted, and ready for the turbo to go back in.

-J0N

Ok, so not a lot of progress during the work week, but i did manage to get the entire engine bay and frame sanded and painted. next is DS fender, then on to the turbo and inter cooler.

-J0N

My dad had a black 85 that he bought while I was in the Army. When I got out he let me use it for about a month. After that I was hooked on turbo cars so I have a soft spot for them.

UPDATE:

ok, so we decided to finish the body work on the front. i know the colors are terrible, and the thing needs paint, but at a minimum, i wanted to have the panels REALLY straight, with really good gaps, and really even transitions. so my FIL and i spent a good 5 hours getting the fenders, hood, and nose PERFECT. all the seams are even, the gaps are factory, the hood closes SOOO nice, and the lights aim correctly. im really proud of the fit. it sucks that this will have to be redone when i go to paint the car at some point, but for now im happy that its clean.

i also polished up the aluminum turbo parts. waiting on gaskets to finish assembly. you may notice the super awful mig welds on the actuator. the old heat shield was toast, so we made a new one, but the thin material was, say, reluctant to weld to the thicker brace, so i kinda made a mess of it. however, once assembled, it wont be visible.

till next time...

-J0N

Damn Jon, I don't think any of the TC's any of the 3 of us have ever owned had gaps as nice as that...

hmm, ill bet 'the 88' was this straight.

-J0N

Are you guys trying to get fired from the Ford assembly line with that level of attention to detail?

Always been curious about the TC but have never seen any example of it that wasn't already ghetto hooptified with a hole in the block and rattle-canned paint. It's a little weird to me to notice that the engine comes in all one piece on your car.

Excited to see what you're doing with it.

if your looking for nice examples, i recommend http://natomessageboard.com/

those guys LOVE their turbo t-birds. i am a lifelong member. i have even had a few nice examples myself. the thing with these, for me, is they are such a well rounded car. the interior is nice enough to compete with anything made in the same era. the car performs in the middle of any pack in all types of racing. it is both a great daily driver, and a fantastic highway cruiser. it just does it for me. i love turbo cars, i love 80s cars, i love luxo barges, i love drag cars, i love good handling cars and i love touring cars, and these birds are just a little bit of all of that. and with some mods, you can gear them towards any discipline you favor. i have seen well executed examples of drag cars, track cars, trailer queens, road trip machines, you name it, and i want one of each in my garage.

this car will be a small piece of each, just as Ford intended.

-J0N

Good progress, keep at it! I like the air filter placement.

Update! Whew, finally. damn lawn mower crapped out on me (spider gears in transmission) and tied me up. but its all sorted now, and i spent some time in the garage. i got the A-pillar gouges mounted, wired and plumbed. all that left on that is to land the O2 bung in the pipe and install the WB02 sensor.

then i got on to the interior. the leather seats are junk, all of them have severe cracks and wear, and i don't particularly like leather anyways. i purchased a set of faded but decent cloth seats for $25.00.

as you can see, they are faded to a ugly off-blue color. so i got some parts store carpet and fabric dye, and cleaned them up. i think they came out nice, way better than what they were, certainly better than whats in the car.

so tomorrow i think i'm going to remove the current seats, clean the car out real well, and finish peeling off the nasty old tint from the glass. then i'll vacuum up the car, and install the new seats, swapping out some other plastics and what-not that i have replacements for. should be a 8 of 10 interior when i'm done.

thanks for looking!

-J0N

Looking good! Drove one for awhile after high school and loved it.

Nice! I'll be watching this. I have my own 2.3t thing going on and it's good to see another one being worked on here on GRM.

Nice work so far! I really like how you got those seats cleaned up.

As far as the intercooler goes, the SVO had that little hood scoop dedicated to the IC but the turbo Tbirds didnt?

If youve got room up front i'd try to throw a front mount up there or a water to air IC setup.

Neat. The world needs more T-Bird hot rods and project cars.

Its update time!

its funny you asked about the inter cooler setup. yes, the birds had a duct setup with scoops in the hood, but only on 87-88 cars. i have the hood from an 88, but the duct doesn't fit right, and its pretty worthless anyways. so i set it up bottom mount. front mount is too much piping, top mount is too hot. bottom mount is minimal piping, and with a under-scoop, a small fan and some ducting, will be as cool as it gets. the couplers need some tweaking, and i'm short the needed clamps to finish it right, but ill be placing an order soon.

i also got the turbo re-gasketed, mounted, and ready to run!

till tomorrow!

-J0N

Neat, I've never seen a bottom mount IC before.

I used to have a Duramax powered GMC work van that had a factory bottom mount transfluid cooler. It had a pretty beefy stone gaurd screen , and nothing bad ever happened to it. Take appropriate cautious with yours, and I bet it works just fine.

I'd be less worried about damage from road debris as I would having a negative pressure area right there under the hood. At lower boost levels, Im sure it would be fine.