I. Love. This. Car.
But first, I need to share some history. This is my second '87 Tbird. I have owned this car for nearly six years. It has been tucked away with nothing more than an occasional start-up the whole time, up until last fall when I finally moved it into the shop to make things right and put it back on the road. My Dad owned this car before I got it, but it was not his first '87 Tbird either.
We were replacing a Chevette which got t-boned. I was 11, maybe 12. I had been riding in the hatch of that Chevette when it met its demise. I remember overhearing weeks of frustrated phone conversations, in which my Dad haggled with the offender's insurance company to get fair compensation for the little, dead car. Finally a reasonable offer was made, a check arrived in the mail, and I got to go car shopping with Dad. We looked at an Escort, a 4cly notchback Mustang, a couple Aerostar vans, and then something caught my Dad's eye out behind the service bays. Sales guy was reluctant to show the car because it was a leftover that didn't sell under the tent the previous week and was likely headed to auction. We test drove this red '87 Tbird and Dad made an offer as soon as we got back.
The red car was our family transportation all thru my teens and beyond the point where I moved out of the house. It was Dad's car. It was always nicer than any E36 M3boxes I drove, and I spent many Friday afternoons cleaning and waxing it to earn the privilege of using it on the weekend. Many memories in that car, many teenage firsts. At some point after I had moved out on my own, a Jeep pulled out in front of my Dad and totaled the red car. I think my Mom cried when the wrecker hauled it off.
With a young family of my own, my project focus moved away from minitrucks and I was looking for something that I could build up using a pile of fox chassis parts I had already collected, and a warm 2.3T motor from my Ranger. I looked at a couple Fairmonts, one 4cly notch, and suddenly recalled the car shopping day over a decade prior. In an instant, the only option on my list was a Tbird. I found a couple in my price range, my wife thought they looked better than the Fairmonts I showed her, and the hunt was on! I brought home an '87 TurboCoupe, and spent two years putting it all together before the white car looked like this:
It was around this time that my Dad decided he needed another one! I helped him find a couple to look at and he bought a very nice v6 car which he immediately brought to me for some deferred maintenance and a few tasteful upgrades.
We located a set of blue TC seats. I put in my old TC steering wheel, and sway bars. Four fresh coil springs and new struts/shocks. Once again Dad's Tbird was nicer than my E36 M3box!
I autoX'd my white car. Stripped weight, improved suspension(Cobra this, tubular that. Coilovers and a sprinkle of IRS), and created a lean, visceral experience.
My Dad kept his car clean, well maintained, and daily driven for several years until his doc told him part of the reason his hips and back hurt was climbing down into the blue car. "Get an SUV," doc said. Dad did as he was instructed, and I wrote an ad for him to put the blue car up on Craigslist. I could not buy it, I didn't want to buy it. I already had my white car, and had recently bought the Ranger back to turn into a racecar, no place to put it, no room to work on it....No, No, just No. Then, a week later, someone turned into the left front corner of the blue car while my Mom was driving.
The insurance company paid out on the car, they didn't want to fix it. I think my Mom cried again.
I, on the other hand, seized the opportunity and bought the car back!
