Making The Thunderbird Great Again

[HOrnbrod]

I won't be doing much in the way of modifications (except maybe performing the J-mod procedure on the transmission as the 4R70W is extremely "slushy" in its stock form), so don't expect this to be as interesting as the my adventures with the trucks.

No worries.  :yes:

[Minuit]

 

I won't be doing much in the way of modifications (except maybe performing the J-mod procedure on the transmission as the 4R70W is extremely "slushy" in its stock form), so don't expect this to be as interesting as the my adventures with the trucks.

No worries.  :yes:

 

I wouldn't want to be interesting now, would I?  :doh:

 

A visual inspection condemned the strut rod bushings, but just for poop and laughter I decided to kick the tire backwards and forwards to see just how bad they were. No wonder this thing couldn't hold an alignment - the wheel would move back and forth in the wheel arch more than an inch! It was even worse than this:

 

 

For those who don't know, the strut rod on a MN12 car is roughly analogous to the control arms on an MJ - it's responsible for keeping the wheel in place forward-to-backward, and caster alignment is also done at the strut rod. Me kicking the tire is absolutely nothing compared to the forces the suspension will see on the road, and I could make the wheel visibly move forward and backward. The strut rod bushings are under a lot of stress on this suspension design, and they're typically showing their age well before the 115,000 miles this car has on it.

 

This problem is further compounded by the aftermarket offerings, most of which are made of overly hard thermoplastic and are usually shot inside of a year, and can fail abruptly and catastrophically. The only good options are Ford OEM parts, which are at this point quite hard to come by. Another problem - the strut rod bushings have a metal sleeve inside of them that isn't like any aftermarket part. The OEM parts are all but gone, but if you can't save yours reproductions are available for... about $100.

 

Sadly, this car has a curse that's going to show up time and time again... it's a RWD Ford car that's not a Mustang. You can build an entire Mustang with aftermarket parts off the Internet, but that's far from the case with a 1996 Thunderbird. Thankfully, these cars have a small but dedicated following and the essentials are usually available, but be ready to open your wallet. When I first got started with this car I thought I'd have an easy time finding parts...  :rotfl2:

[Minuit]

I've been giving this car a steady trickle of attention. In keeping with my promise of not being interesting, I've mostly done really boring stuff.

 

I replaced the differential mounting bushings with polyurethane Energy Suspension parts. I didn't take pics, because by the time I thought to get my camera out I was almost done. A very easy job, and it greatly improved the feel of the car. The "thunk" I was experiencing when accelerating is almost totally gone now.

 

Topped off the A/C. Ever since I got the car, the A/C has worked "just kinda ok". It never declined in performance, but it never really worked well. Based on a few factors, I figured it was low on refrigerant. (it's not Freon!)

73°F air on recirculate is good, right?

 

When it threw a code for a short-cycling compressor I decided to check the running pressures...

Hahaha, that's terrible! It was about 85 outside that day, so I should be seeing high side pressures at least over 200 psi! This is indicative of a system very low on refrigerant. Sure enough, after adding almost an entire can of R-134a, the pressures were in the right ballpark and I was blowing 45 degree air out of the vents. The high side valve leaks a little bit unless jimmied just the right way. Eventually I'll evacuate the system and replace the valve assembly, but it seems to be doing fine for now.

 

Found some NOS Genuine Ford floor mats. Too bad they're in blue, but they were cheap and at least they aren't actively a hazard to my health by bunching up under the pedals! They fit pretty well overall:

 

I'm slowly turning my interior blue without trying to. I wish I could find the correct grey parts, but compared to Jeeps a grey interior is downright rare in these cars. Of course, there were a lot more options. Off the top of my head, green, blue, maroon, tan, slightly lighter tan, grey, and grey with a black dash were all options at some point on the 94-97 MN12 cars. I can't find any pics to back me up, but I think I've even seen purple. On a side note, I've been pleasantly surprised with how well stuff fits together in this car, even if the quality of some plastics is questionable.

 

I added an aux input to the original radio. It works ok-ish, but my research tells me I don't quite have the right radio for it. There's an eBay store selling single DIN Ford radios with aux inputs, but all of them either say "REV ERSE" on the tape buttons or have an eject button that sticks out. Next time I'm at the junkyard, I'll look for another radio. These radios are fully chip-controlled, and rather than the signal passing through volume and tone knobs, the signal passes through an audio processor chip. On my particular radio, the chip is a "70029SB" aka an ST Micro TDA7306. I'm not going to pay $145(damn, I typically let my Jeep radios go for $100 or less and I don't even put anti-tamper tape on them) to figure out what the eBay seller did, but I doubt it was anything extremely clever.

 

I also found the build sheet. It was stuffed behind the trunk liner near the fuel filler. There's nothing really interesting on it, but it's neat to have. I did find out that my car was made on May 7, 1996 - that means I predate this car by exactly one week! That was a Tuesday, by the way.

[Minuit]

I lost most of the pics, so you'll just have to believe me for most of this stuff.

 

This car has pretty great A/C and doesn't have a roaring tailshaft bushing so I've been driving it a lot more recently. Therefore I've been feeling the need to spend money on it!

 

First of all, I think I fixed the odometer for real this time. I changed the odometer gears a while ago, but the fix didn't last. Upon taking it apart again, I found a tiny piece of the old gears still inside the odometer case. Apparently that's enough to jam the veery weak motor that turns the odometer. Fortunately, the individual gauges can be removed from the cluster with it still in the car.

The odometers in these cars are kinda funny. They don't move smoothly like most other cars, the numbers turn in "steps" based on how fast you're going. And it's not like the gears are spinning extremely fast either - I didn't really count but they turn at most 2 revolutions per mile. I don't really understand why odometer gears are a maintenance item in these cars, especially after only 104,000 miles. Regardless, it seems to work fine now and is very accurate. Over a 50 mile stretch of interstate it may have lost 2/10 of a mile. No, I haven't used a half tank of gas in 134 miles. The gas gauge in this car seems to think it has a ~13 gallon tank, not 18 like it really does. It's been this way as long as I can remember. Before I left I filled up at "1/4 tank" - the car took 8 gallons.  When the "CHECK GAUGES" light starts flashing, I still have 2 gallons til empty.

 

Still haven't found another good dash bezel - I'd really prefer black.

 

I also changed the oil again. What fun that is! 

Why Ford decided to put the oil filter behind the power steering pump is beyond me. I guess there really isn't a better place for it. It's not that bad but having the oil filter right in the open like on Jeeps has spoiled me. I'm not used to having to squeeze an oil filter between the sway bar and power steering lines! Regardless, it was past due.

 

The wood trim on the door panels started falling off, so I helped it out:

This is the only Thunderbird I've ever seen that had any woodgrain trim on the interior. Too bad that none of it has held up. The fabric on the door panel is also MIA. I really wish Ford would've put as much effort into the interior quality as they did to everything else. The interior in this car looks nice but some of the parts don't hold up to further scrutiny.

 

My passenger window decided it didn't want to go back up one day. Turns out that there are 3 plastic bushings inside the power window motor that wear out over time. I don't have any pics from it but it was a very easy process. Ford did something really right with the power window motors on this car - they're easily removed (and the geartrain disassembled) for service! $30 worth of new gears and bushings and about 2 hours of work got my windows working just fine again.

 

I also solved a really nasty clunk that was so nasty I thought the car had a bad torque converter. The front differential mounts had collapsed and allowed the rear differential to rotate about 10 degrees in either direction. Energy Suspension makes the bushings still - I forget the part number. This was another very easy job. It maybe took an hour from jacking the car up to letting it back down again. The hardest part was unhooking the exhausts (yeah that's right, I have exhausts ) to be able to get the bolts out. Overall NVH is way down now, since the whole rear differential isn't twisting around now.

 

I was going to replace the blend door actuator a few weekends ago but I took the glovebox out, noticed where the actuator is inside the dash, and promptly said "nope" and put that off until later. TCCoA says you can get it out by removing the dash vents, the glovebox, and the climate control head but you have to work by feel. I'll be trying that approach, because I'm not going to be taking the dash out. Behind the glovebox, I found a couple of the dreaded red butt connectors. Great, someone's messed with the wiring too.

 

I replaced the battery. Geez, that was expensive. Note for later: the battery hold-down bracket is missing. The negative battery cable also shows signs of having been pinched before. Like I've said before - many incompetent people have touched this car.

 

The passenger door abruptly started sagging. Looks like the brass bushings in the lower door hinge have collapsed. By abruptly, I mean the door went from fine to "lift up to latch the door" overnight. Dorman hinge kits purchased and waiting to be installed.

 

I need to change the rest of the fluids.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Minuit]

We're not supposed to be interesting in this thread. This update will continue that tradition. Also I can't decide on a title, lol.

 

Replaced the high side service port as scheduled. Easy peasy - p/n F3AZ-19E762-A. Replacing these is very, very easy - evac the system (disclaimer: I am an EPA 609 certified MVAC technician and have refrigerant recovery equipment), get the new valve ready, spin the old valve off (using a special 8-sided socket you'll use once then forget you own), put the new one on ASAP, vac the system, verify vacuum holds, and recharge. I timed it - the system was open to the atmosphere for less than 30 seconds. I ordered a new accumulator, but I'm not going to replace it yet. If the system needs a more major repair or the low side service port starts leaking, I'll replace it then. Is 30 seconds of exposure enough to saturate the dessicant of this system that, according to the huge stack of receipts in the glove box, has never been opened? Your call, but I don't think so.

 

Charge weight for this car is 34 oz of R-134a with 7.5 oz of PAG 46 oil. Evacuating the system does not remove oil, so I added 3 cans of pure R-134a. Considering losses from hose purging, what gets left in the manifold gauges after charging, and that little bit of refrigerant that is left inside the can that won't come out, I'll bet I was pretty close to 34 oz. Performance is just as good as it was (45-50F), just more consistent. Capillary tube systems like this don't adjust refrigerant flow based on temperature, so an undercharged system on these can manifest as "cold-warm-cold-warm-cold-warm" air when the A/C is on. That's gone now.

 

Not sure if I ever mentioned it, but the intake manifold has been replaced with the updated one with aluminum coolant passages. This is a good thing - the original version is a time bomb.

 

I also did a little research. The woodgrain trim on the interior was not a factory option like I had thought - it's an aftermarket kit made by a company called Sherwood Innovations. They still make kits for these cars to my utter amazement. To the three of you including me that read this - should I put it back on? I really kinda liked how it looked, and it's part of my childhood memories of this car. It's also over a hundred bucks for the full kit.

[HOrnbrod]

28 minutes ago, Minuit said:

We're not supposed to be interesting in this thread. This update will continue that tradition.

 

It did.  

 

 

 

 

[Minuit]

5 minutes ago, HOrnbrod said:

 

It did.  

 

 

 

 

Perfect!

[bluenotenick]

I know this isn't supposed to get interesting, but if you get a bug in ya...(and feel like burnin' some cash) maybe some radial T/A's? 

 

Oops! Sorry just noticed that post where you say it is kinda falling apart. Probably not a candidate for expensive tires.

[RustyRodder]

I always dug these- had a chance to get a light blue one with 34k years ago, was asking 4400 bucks. 

[Minuit]

1 hour ago, bluenotenick said:

 

 

 it is kinda falling apart

 

 

Currently working on fixing that. I've put a stop to the falling-apartness, I think. The issue is that the oil has been changed very regularly but other than that, problems were allowed to appear and ignored until they became major, and then ignored some more. Not helped that I'm convinced that every hack, lowest-bidder mechanic in TN has touched this poor car at some point. Wanna know what destroyed the back half of the headliner? Some dingus was vacuuming the seats and didn't realize the hose from his vacuum was smacking the headliner every time he made a pass. Another example: car wouldn't hold a caster alignment. So obviously it has a bent lower control arm. Duh! Too bad caster is controlled by the radius arm (strut rod) bushings, and on these cars those are toast at 85k.

 

Whatever impression of falling apart this thread may give, it really drives pretty damn well and has good bones. There is not a single spot of rust on this car anywhere. Needs some suspension work but what MN12 doesn't. That fancy radius arm suspension does not tolerate the American tradition of fixing stuff on a clunk-by-clunk basis. I have lots of parts sitting around waiting to be installed. Blend door actuator, radius arm bushings, front rotors and pads, door hinge bushings, etc. Just need to find the time to fix it all. At the risk of sounding like a pretentious a$$hole, I'm a senior in engineering and free time does not come easy.

 

re tires: Those look really nice, but more than I'm willing to spend. If at all possible I'd like to be under $100 per corner. $350 for the set would be even better.

[Minuit]

1 hour ago, RustyRodder said:

I always dug these- had a chance to get a light blue one with 34k years ago, was asking 4400 bucks. 

 

They're nice cars. If maintained properly they're very nice cars (mine has not yet achieved the status of "maintained properly"). The V6 engine (excluding the super coupe) is an inexcusable turd. A friend in high school had a '95 Cougar with the 3.8. It had really low miles so it drove pretty good, but that detestable boat anchor of an engine ruined the whole car. They aren't even reliable, either. I wanna say the V6 cars do 0-60 in something like 12 seconds. That's 4-cylinder Jeep territory.

[bluenotenick]

19 minutes ago, Minuit said:

If at all possible I'd like to be under $100 per corner. $350 for the set would be even better.

Yeah... Those T/A's are going to be at least double that. But you'll be graduating school soon! I hope you have plenty of cash in the near future to do whatever you like to your vehicles.

[Minuit]

9 minutes ago, bluenotenick said:

Yeah... Those T/A's are going to be at least double that. But you'll be graduating school soon! I hope you have plenty of cash in the near future to do whatever you like to your vehicles.

 

I'm seeing them on Tirerack for 132 a corner before shipping. But yeah, still out of my range. $350 before shipping and installation is really what I want to spend. It may have to wait, once it cools down and I get a chance to replace the tailshaft bushing I might start driving the '91 again.

 

Not all that long ago I got a set of new Michelins for the '91... but it has to have the best of everything. For this car - quiet, round, and not garbage are my needs. The tires on the car now are none of those.

[Pete M]

did you make a decision on the woodgrain or did I miss that?

[Minuit]

I want to find a set of black dash trim that isn't crumbled to pieces first, but I'm probably going to put the woodgrain back on. It's not the car from my childhood without it.

 

Now that it's cooled down some I've been driving the '91 instead of this. Over the winter I'm going to work on the front end, then get some tires put on. It needs tires pretty bad, but needs front end work first.

 

 

[carnuck]

How about a ‘79 4 eye Mustang with roller cam 5.0L and T5 (was a turbo 4 cyl)


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Minuit]

I just realized that this car has directional wheels. Never occurred to me. Anyway, on with some boring stuff.

 

I finally got annoyed enough by the very squeaky belt that I went out in the cold and did something about it. The idler pulley bearing was looking a little worn out, and  the belt was looking a little bit old so while I was in there I replaced it with a Continental quiet-whatever belt (formerly known as a Gatorback belt). Anyway, it doesn't squeak anymore. The idler is a Motorcraft part. A much as I try to go for a "high end", whatever that means, restoration on the '91, I use way more OEM parts on this. They're just a lot easier to get. Say what you will, but Ford has a good thing going by making OEM spec parts so much more available.

Idler pulley that's right in front of you. Automatic tensioner that takes a 1/2" drive, no socket needed. Easy as it gets. The trick is to get the belt on every pulley but the alternator and then work the tensioner. The tensioner felt strong and all of the other pulleys checked out, so I just replaced the belt and idler for now.

 

I finally worked up the courage to change the blend door actuator! And it wasn't really that bad, to be honest. Most of it is working by feel and figuring out where the three bolts for it are. The service manual has "remove instrument panel" as step one. HAHAHAHA no. TCCOA consensus says to remove the glove box and climate control head, but I managed just fine working through the glove box hole. Taking the climate control out would've made getting to one of the bolts easier, but I probably came out about even versus messing around with the fiddly "stick a tool in the slots and wiggle it" method of getting the radio and climate controls out of the dash.

 

With the glovebox and part of the climate control ducting removed, this is the view I had:

The actuator is the thing with the ATC sticker on it. Once the 3 screws are out, installation is the reverse of removal. Of course, all of those metal braces and plastic ducts are sharp as hell and you will get cut up. Fun fact: the Standard brand actuator I bought on Rockauto is 100% identical to the Ford part, just without the sticker.

 

I naturally had to take the old one apart to see what was wrong. Easy enough, it just snaps together.

Hmm, that all looks fine. Or does it? Anyway, there was less carnage than I expected considering the awful noise this was making.

 

Enhance!

Cheap Ford Plastic Gears(tm) strike again! Look at the smaller of the pair of gears in front. Notice that there's a tooth missing right where those gears should be meshing. Every time that tooth came around, the blend door would slip a little bit and make an awful "CLACK" noise when it did. End result - stuck blend door. Every once in a while you'd get lucky and it would eventually work after a few minutes of clacking.

 

What's that? It's been more than 10 minutes since I messed around with a radio? Ok.

I found a NOS faceplate for my original radio on Ebay. The original was in perfect working order, except for some messed up buttons. The T-Bird and Cougar have green illumination and no clock, which is apparently a unique combination, so this was harder to find than you'd imagine.

 

 

Now I gotta polish the climate control screen. No aux on this yet, I was in a little bit of a time crunch. Plus, I need to get the right service manual. I have the 1996 audio service manual, but the section on the single DIN radios just says "refer to previous year". Bastards.

 

If that's not the '90s I don't know what is  

 

While I'm on the subject, Ford's manuals (radio and otherwise) blow Jeep out of the water in pretty much every way. Not only is there full diagrams, but very lengthy and detailed descriptions of how everything works. They're just easier to use and have way, way more detail. The service manual that covers just the '96 Thunderbird/Cougar is almost exactly the same size as the 1991 Jeep service manual that covers the XJ, YJ, SJ, and MJ.

 

At some point during all of this the alternator died - 13.2V at the output terminal with absolutely nothing on. The alternator has always seemed a bit weak (lights on the dash would dim at a stop, for example). I wasn't feeling like giving the parts store any money for a remanufactured pile of garbage, I was off to the junkyard. It's your standard 130A Motorcraft 3G alternator, and pretty much every 4.6L equipped car used this particular version of it for a few model years, so it's an easy part to come by.

 

Not only that, but Ford was kind enough to put it right on top of the engine with only 3 bolts holding it on. I could get used to this...

Wait, that looks a little bit shiny for a junkyard part. Sure enough, a '96 Crown Vic had an almost new (new production, manufactured in 2014) alternator on it, so I adopted it for the wallet busting price of $20 after core charge. I've always heard of people finding brand new parts on junkyard cars, and it finally happened to me! Anyway, the charging system is great now.

 

Yes, I know the plug wires were under the alternator before. No, I'm not taking it back off to put them back. There's a reason why all of the pics you find on the internet of a 4.6L engine bay have the wires zip tied to that bracket.

 

Not pictured: I rebuilt the passenger side lower door hinge and replaced the door striker. The door closes like a vault now. Props to 91Pioneer for his article on MN12Tech - I basically followed it exactly. Now I need to do the rest of the hinges, because they're probably getting close to failure too even though the driver side door doesn't really sag. The passenger side hinge collapsed very suddenly, so I'll have to check the other hinges frequently until I get around to rebuilding them.

 

Continuing to check stuff off of the MN12Tech article list, I decided it was time to pay attention to the vacuum lines.

 

Yeah. I still need to replace a few more, but the car definitely runs better now.

[Minuit]

Chapter Two: One Word

 

Sometimes I need to be reminded I still own a 1996 white Ford Thunderbird, so no shame in it if anyone else has forgotten too...

 

Anyway, for those who have kept up with my life, I have recently made a big move career wise and life wise. I'm at my own place now, with a 2-car garage and a 1200 square foot 2-bay shop. I guess that means my stupid projects are back on!

 

Anyway, resurrecting the car was a simple matter of dropping a new battery in, airing up one tire, and recharging the A/C. And getting some earplugs for my nose, because damn. This car stank when I was driving it (thanks, mice) and it has gotten no better in the 2 years I thought I was gonna scrap it.

 

A couple of trips around the block to inspire even the slightest bit of confidence and a new plate later, and...

 

 

Considering I've started it once since 2020, the drive to Alabama couldn't have gone any better. The brakes are actually really good, the alignment hasn't magically fixed itself so it pulls to the left a bit, but otherwise I was really most of the way through getting this thing sorted before the transmission (more precisely, the torque converter clutch) really started giving up on me. Which gets me to...

 

ThunderCobraFalconBird

 

The automatic versions of these cars have a peculiar feature. One thing that I have come to notice over my ownership of this car is that the MN12 chassis donated much of its DNA to later Ford platforms, even if Ford didn't care much to admit it. You see a lot of it in late model Mustangs. If you look at an SN95 Cobra IRS next to a Thunderbird unit, the inspirations are obvious, even if the Cobra unit is simplified and geared for Mustang use. Hell, you can even bolt a Thunderbird rear brake caliper onto a Mustang.

 

There's one dimension that's of particular interest to this project, though.

 

The distance from the rear of the engine block to the hole in the floor for the automatic shifter. It's within a quarter of an inch of the same on a manual transmission Mustang starting in 2005 possibly to the present day. What does that mean for me?

 

A manual transmission for a 2005 and later Mustang will not only directly bolt up to my engine, but the shifter will be located exactly where the automatic transmission shifter is currently.

 

Do you see where I'm going here?

 

In the lower third of this picture, you're looking at the rarest automotive parts I own. Nothing Comanche related even comes close. The CD player Jeep radios didn't even come close. This set of clutch and brake pedals came from a '94 or '95 manual Super Coupe, and I've been looking for them for four years. Between those two model years, the Super Coupe Club of America can only account for around 1500 cars.

 

What's this clutch pedal going to be hooked up to, you may ask?

 

Let it be my honor to introduce you to the Tremec T-56 Magnum XL. Intended as a direct replacement for the 5-speed transmissions in 2005-2010 Mustangs, by pure, dumb, happenstance this transmission is practically a direct fit for this car. The factory driveshaft can be retained with a new 31-spline slip yoke and a 7" shortening (or more likely - I start with an aluminum one out of a Crown Victoria cop car and shorten it 4"), the approximately 32,000 pulse-per-mile speedometer digital speedometer output must be converted to an 8,000 pulse per mile analog output, the Super Coupe clutch system needs to be adapted to the Mustang style internal slave, and that's about it to get the transmission in the car.

 

 

What Else?

 

Let's start at the front of the car and go to the back.

 

Headlights

I don't remember if I ever bitched about it in this thread, but the headlights in this car are horrible. We're going to do something about that. If you know you know. After having a car with projector HIDs I can't go back:

 

Morimoto Bi-Xenon lighting will be making an appearance in this thread, for off-road use only of course. I would say I'm ordering a used set of headlights to dick around with adapting the halogen housings, but it's honestly cheaper to buy a new set of aftermarket lights, and probably easier to get them apart as well. I also think I'd like some form of DRL. There might be some custom "Headlight Control Module" funny business coming up to prevent this from turning into a wiring rat's nest.

 

Engine

The propulsion is decidedly outdated. That's not the highest priority item, a fully functioning transmission is, but eventually I want to have some fun and dig in the Ford parts bin. I want to build up an all-aluminum DOHC Modular engine based on the Teksid block found in the sister car to this, the Lincoln Mark VIII. Swaps to the DOHC engine are almost routine in the Thunderbird community, but there's a dizzying amount of OEM and aftermarket parts to choose from (C heads are better on a naturally aspirated daily driver than B heads, adapter plates from a '99 and a '99 only Lincoln Continental allow you to install a B head manifold on C heads while also deleting the IMRCs, and 96-98 Cobra intake cams are the best all around OEM option... stuff like that ). The engine build is a fun topic to think about, but the engine in the car right now works, and it's best to keep it that way and wait before I mess with too much all at once. But one thing's for sure: you can bet your bottom dollar I'll be taking that stupid sea of plastic off and letting that sexy intake show. Honestly, the early Mark VIII intake isn't the best of all the DOHC modular intakes out there, but I'm glad it's the only one that would fit under my hood just for looks alone.

 

Brakes/Wheels

The brake and wheel hub situation took the most deliberation of all before I actually decided on something. Ford decided to use a 5x4.25" wheel bolt pattern for these cars with a 36mm offset and a 63.4mm hub bore. Good damn luck finding anything good looking, OEM or otherwise, that comes even close to those specs!!! The largest wheels these cars ever came with were 16x7. Decent semi-performance tires in this car's size simply don't exist anymore. I thought I had an option: the wheels from a P3 Volvo. The pattern and hub bore matched, and I wanted an idea of whether I could live with the huge difference in offset you get from putting a wheel from a modern FWD-based platform on a 30 year old RWD car.

 

Here's a Magni from my S80, 18x8 +55mm offset:

Not doing it for me.

 

That's not counting the fact that the center cap doesn't fit, the wheel hits the spindle, and the tire hits the spring. But the bolt pattern is right, so that's something.

 

After a lot of head scratching, a lot of browsing of very ugly aftermarket wheels, and more back and forth than anyone can possibly imagine, I decided to take the easy way out:

...and decide to install Mustang hubs.

 

The front is very uncomplicated. Purchase new Mustang wheel bearing and axle nut. Install new wheel bearing and axle nut. The rear is somewhat more complicated. I can either buy $250 a piece rear Cobra hubs from Ford or $160 a piece rear hubs from another company, both of which require wheel bearings to be pressed on rather than being a complete assembly like the front (WTF Ford?), at which point the 10.2" Thunderbird rotors are no longer compatible unless I choose to re-drill a 5x4.5 bolt pattern in them. I'd rather not, so the natural choice is the 11.6" Cobra rear rotors. Well, to use those, it's another $125 to another small vendor for a set of relocation brackets that will position the Thunderbird rear caliper in the correct position over the Cobra rotor. I could make these, but honestly, someone has to support the people who support these cars, and I wish some of the vendors I pay thousands at work would turn out quality like this:

 

If I'm gonna use Cobra brakes in the back, why not use Cobra brakes up front?

 

 

Those brakes require a bare minimum of 17" wheels, by the way. I refuse to join the trend of people putting Cobra R wheels on Thunderbirds. In fact, if they made a 17" version of the directional swoopy Grandma specials this car came with, I'd run 'em. Unfortunately, no such luck. However, I want to keep the '90s look of this car. So with that being said, I think the best fit are these SN95 Mustang wheels from approximately 1997, 17x8 +30mm offset. That should give excellent fitment in the wheel wells with no clearance concerns, give plenty of tire choice, and not clue anyone in that something isn't quite right about this car... until they see that the brakes barely fit under them, but I'm a fan of that kind of "clue"

I think there's even a Thunderbird OEM center cap that fits 'em.

 

Suspension

Suspension wise, it's tricky. My ideal is a recreation of the factory sport package. You can throw those cars around pretty well, but they're not back breaking. In an ideal world I'd just go down to the Ford dealer and buy the parts for the Sport package version of this car, but no such luck. That stuff was out of production 20 years ago and certain things are worth more than gold now. The springs show up fairly often in certain model years of cars and are easily found by reading the trim tag on the door jamb. Rear shocks are a direct bolt on from the Mustang Cobra, no surprise there if you've been reading this post. Addco makes an excellent rear sway bar option, and that's what a lot of people go with now that it's not so easy to just go to the junkyard and rob a rear sway bar out of a Super Coupe. The front sway bar is a mega pain in the @$$ to replace, and is generally adequate anyway. Front shocks, you're up the crick if you want a bolt-in performance solution. It's either pay out the @$$ for adjustable coilovers from one source, make your own from 350Z coilovers (an interesting solution), or make your own from hollowing out a Thunderbird shock and putting a Mitsubishi 3000GT front shock insert inside of it. So let's just leave it at "do nothing" for right now, shall we?

 

Interior

I have it stripped down completely right now:

 

Everything capable of holding a smell is either in the trash or will be receiving a deep cleaning. The carpet both inside the car and in the trunk is completely junk thanks to many years of drink spills, mouse turds, and other fun stuff. The insulation on the floor will need to be scraped off and trashed, and new vibration damper and heat shielding will be applied in its place where it counts. I recall the transmission tunnel getting very hot in this car thanks to the exhaust, so I may experiment with some products that have come out in the years since I was in the game.

 

The Taurus SHO/Super Coupe seats are practically required for anyone building a sporty Thunderbird, and for good reason. The stock seats in this one are in very good condition (if maybe a bit smelly) and comfortable, but not extremely supportive or adjustable. The SC seats are awesome. The originals will make excellent chairs after a few trips through the wash. Also, the Super Coupe back seat folds down, something I've grown to require. Seen here re-upholstered in perforated leather by a company that makes reproduction covers.

 

NOS Premium Cassette radio with CD changer control. Part number even maps to a 1996 Thunderbird. Oh yeah, I'm going full stupid with this. I've had that particular piece of the puzzle for a few years now.

 

Some Super Coupes had 145 MPH speedometers, but they can be converted to be whatever you want by switching out the gauge faces and resistors. I may or may not seek out the real deal, put some new odometer gears in it, and correct it to the mileage for this car.

 

That's all for tonight folks, come back tomorrow night for a conclusion to what might? be the first exciting thing I've said in this build thread since I started it?

 

To be Continued...

[eaglescout526]

6 minutes ago, Minuit said:

ThunderCobraFalconBird

I thought it was thundercougarfalconbird?.

[Minuit]

23 minutes ago, eaglescout526 said:

I thought it was thundercougarfalconbird?.

Well yeah, but in the end it's basically going to have a Mustang Cobra drivetrain

[89 MJ]

I like this. A lot

[eaglescout526]

10 hours ago, Minuit said:

Well yeah, but in the end it's basically going to have a Mustang Cobra drivetrain

Oh lol makes sense. 

[Pete M]

[Minuit]

Fun fact: Thus far, in the entire process of stripping the interior: I have broken 0 pieces of plastic!

 

Anyone remember when I used to photoshop people's trucks for them?

Not horrible for 15 minutes. I'm a bit rusty, and the source image was a bit crap, but you get what you pay for. I need to get a Thunderbird center cap to try on one of these '97 Mustang wheels, but I'm 99% sure it would fit.

 

So before I carry on with my plans with this thing, I want to address the elephant in the room: why in the blue hell would anyone plan to put a $4000 6-speed transmission, custom clutch hydraulics, a 7000 RPM, 340 HP (estimated based on the "recipe" I plan on using - a mix of OEM parts of various years) engine, leather seats, killer stereo, custom HID headlight retrofit, and more stuff I haven't told you about yet into Grandma's 1996 Ford Thunderbird with self-removing paint?

 

And by the way, it may photograph nice, but that paint is as self-removing as ever. There's a reason I don't show you the roof or the trunk.

 

You see, when you look at this car you may see an overweight, over budget, "bleughhhh" church cruiser with a plastic interior and a lot of obsolete parts, and corners cut at nearly every opportunity. And you'd be right about every single one of those things.

 

What I see is about 60% of a really cool thing. And it's one we don't get much of here in the US. A true GT car in the fashion of something like a Ferrari 456, but with the advantage of a truly usable back seat, even for someone of my not insubstantial frame. A sporty, yet luxurious car you can load up with suitcases and go on a cross-country roadtrip with.

Why the hell would I think that? Think about it for a second. This thing was, at a certain level, designed for extended time at speed. This car has a very clever double-wishbone front suspension, a just as clever rear suspension (the Mark VIII version even lowers itself at highway speed), a just-aggressive-enough rear gear ratio that still allows good cruising RPM, an absolutely massive cooling duct under the bumper and a simply ridiculous electric fan, let's step over the pitifully undersized factory front brakes, truly excellent aerodynamics, a pretty good cockpit layout that generally puts relevant controls where you want them, great seats, wonderous visibility (seriously, this is a car you can SEE out of!), and a fairly soft, quiet ride.

 

But Ford, in their infinite wisdom, bean counted and "value engineered" the absolute $#!& out of it! By '97 you couldn't even get a power passenger seat in your "luxury" car unless you got one of the final edition Cougars. Any attempt at high achievement was gone by the later years of this car.

 

Actually, they made three of basically what I'm going to make (except they used a T45 transmission - what they had at the time), but they crushed them.

 

That's without mentioning the sentimental attachment I have to this car. Those Coke stains in the carpet that contributed to me throwing it in the trash? Woops, sorry. I've found stuff between the back seat cushions that I'm pretty sure I left there when I was 5. This car rolled off the assembly line 7 days after I did, so I suppose we're joined together in that way.

 

This project will address as many of the shortcomings of the stock MN12 chassis as I can, while also boosting the fun factor without harming general usability. And no, I'm not lowering it.

 

So we get to the three main themes you'll see popping up all the time in this project:

 

1. Ford had a cost target for each car, and they sold these things super cheap. I get paid every two weeks, and so long as this build continues to bring me enjoyment, I'm not keeping score.
2. I have access to way better technology and parts than Ford did in 1996. Except front shocks. I don't have access to front shocks.
3. I actually have the desire to do something cool with it. It's not a question of ability, because as you're going to see, I'm going to be using many parts straight out of Ford's late 90s parts bin to make this car way better!

 

Ok Minuit, now that you've written half of a dissertation about nothing, what are you going to use it for?

 

I have discovered that I greatly enjoy taking extended road trips. In fact, one of the inspirations for this project was this one last month:

(Someone who didn't know me at work called me "that guy with the thick Northern accent" - which I found absolootly hilarious)

... and how much I'd rather be doing that absolutely gorgeous and sometimes challenging drive in a car that was actually fast, fun, and engaging to drive rather than a Jeep Cherokee. Sorry Jeep guys.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So to cut it short, I want to build a reliable, fun to drive, comfortable, reasonably luxurious, and reliable car to go on vacation in. Hopefully that goes some way to explaining my component choices so far.

 

Jeremy Premium Sound

The radio I showed earlier already outputs a pre-amp level signal, so that's taken care of for me. There's loads of room inside the cassette model for additional modules, which in my case would be Bluetooth. However, there's a second option I haven't told you about yet:

I have this nice, but not NOS, CD player, also out of a '96 Thunderbird. As far as the car is concerned, this is interchangeable with the cassette unit from last post - with the exception of external CD changer controls. This one has a little less room inside for a Bluetooth module, but is basically the same electronically. So it's just a matter of which slot for outdated media I'd rather have. For what it's worth, I do slightly find myself preferring the looks of the CD player.

 

There is the small matter of how the car is configured currently. If you remember, it is an "in between" car options wise, with the standard sound system, standard suspension, no ABS or traction control, cloth seats, but rear disc brakes, automatic temperature control, power antenna, automatic headlights, and V8 engine. The standard sound system cars have an entirely different audio harness than the "Premium Sound" cars that used the two radios I've shown you in these two posts. My original radio which I put a new faceplate on a few years ago, is one such "Standard Sound" radio. It's a totally traditional radio with an internal amplifier wired straight to the speakers. The Premium Sound setup used a headunit with no internal amplifier, with the amp mounted in the trunk and, in some model years, a subwoofer with its own amp as well.

 

So, in order to "correctly" use one of these Premium Sound radios in this car, I'll need to re-wire this car as a Premium Sound car. So that's exactly what I'm going to do - essentially lay in all of the premium sound harnesses to get the correct plugs in certain places, and then use the Premium Sound wiring to trigger much beefier wiring for the modern audio gear I'll be installing.

 

The sound system on all 1996 Thunderbirds consisted of four 5x7 (or 6x8 depending on who you ask) speakers: two in excellent locations aimed directly at the passengers in their own small "enclosures" in the doors, and two in less-than-excellent locations below the rear quarter glass. Due to the very open layout of the interior, the rear speakers being fed a full-range signal kill any chance at good stereo imaging even if they weren't 30 years old.

 

Fun fact: Right before I bought the '08 Volvo in 2021, I had a Crutchfield gift card and used it plus about $150 of my own money on a set of Morel Tempo Integra 6x8 speakers for the front, so this car has speakers in it worth as much as the whole rest of the car right now. The factory headunit isn't even CLOSE to enough power to run them

 

By 1996, the option to even have a subwoofer was gone, but when it was still around, it was a single 6.5" in a tiny box bolted to the underside of the parcel shelf area. I have one, and I was going to use it for originality's sake, but I think I can improve on that concept while also taking inspiration shamelessly stealing an idea wholesale from my Volvo:

I'm thinking dual 8" shallow-mount subs concealed behind OEM looking grilles inside a custom tuned box (which hopefully doesn't protrude too far into the trunk) should do nicely. The amps will rest in a somewhat OEM location near this box. I'm no basshead, but 4 5x7s are pathetic.

 

I do plan on relocating the battery to the trunk, which will make audio wiring easier, considering all of the audio gear will be in the trunk other than the radio, which will get powered by the factory circuit. It'll also move about 60 lbs from the front to the rear, a nice benefit on this somewhat front heavy car. (FYI: these cars have roughly a 57/43 weight distribution stock. By ditching my cast iron engine block, automatic transmission, and battery from the front half of the car, it'll get at least a little better)

 

Chassis

The MN12 chassis, much like any other Ford unibody of this time, is as stiff and resilient as an egg noodle in a rainstorm. Even my car with a blistering 205 horsepower and standard suspension has developed some firewall cracks. While I'm sure the wonderful Nashville roads this car was driven on its entire life had something to do with that, I'm about to significantly up the power and slightly stiffen the suspension, and I want to prepare for that. The MN12 aftermarket produces a number of pre-fabricated braces for various locations, some of which I'd consider relevant and effective for the purpose of this car, and others not so much. One thing that does absolutely make a difference is to add a member tying the front bottom frame rail to the bottom of the front subframe (K-Member in Ford speak):

Adding another path for stresses to travel directly to the frame rail will hopefully reduce the tendency of the firewall to stress-crack in the future... I'm not building a high revving DOHC engine and putting a 6-speed transmission in this to drive like a grandma!

Another weak area is around the rear windshield. I don't see any cracking in this spot, but with a manual transmission and the stiffer rear sway bar I plan to install, I don't want to chance it. Since I plan on using both a sub box and fold-down rear seat, I want to see if I can make a more elegant design than just a straight bar (gusseted to prevent it tacoing under hard cornering) to take up less space in the trunk.

 

I am fully aware that I am taking a car with a very cluttered engine bay and planning to stuff it even further. The stuffing will continue until no access is possible, with the possible addition of a front shock tower bar, contingent upon me finding one of the very few that got made and/or making one. This is another in the "keep fatigue loads away from the firewall" series of modifications, because I'd like to only plate and weld up the firewall on this car once.

 

Racks on racks on racks on racks (Steering)

The steering rack is a curiosity in these cars. First of all, replacing it with the engine in requires damn near removing the K-member from the car. I'm still on my factory rack, and it's not leaking, although the variable assist does act up sometimes. Fun fact time: Guess what parts bin the rack bushings come from? If you guessed Fox body, you're also right, but they were first used in the '76 Pinto! If you guessed first gen Dodge Dakota, you're also right, interestingly enough.

 

The steering feel in this car, true to its late-90s Grandma cruiser goal, is relatively slow, relaxed, and easy without much road feel. Not that there's anything wrong with that, and the steering is very tight and direct considering the car's age, but I can see myself wanting more in the future. What am I going to do about it? Well, here's a Thunderbird rack right next to an SN95 Mustang rack:

There are a couple of small mods that have to be done to make this work, but I think you can see where I'm going here. Apparently the best one to get is from the 2003-2004 Cobra, coded SPR-ZM on its body.

 

This is both a steering and exhaust topic, but in order to address a severe lack of clearance for headers on the driver side, it's common to add an extra joint to the steering shaft like this. May not be needed if I decide to go with a "stock" exhaust.

 

Here's the steering wheel I intend to run. I already have a Mustang steering wheel on it now (because the your hands turning gooey every time you drive your car is a big "no"), but this is a reproduction of the old Ford Racing FR500 part.

 

Exhaust

Don't put a stake from my heart, but I actually like the stock exhaust on this car. The 94s and 95s had an extra resonator and were way too quiet, but this one is "just right". It keeps its damn mouth shut until you ask for it. It has a nice resonance between 2500 and 3000 rpm and a just barely noticeable rumble at idle, but in cruising situations when you're not in a hurry it's just about silent. That's the kind of character I like, and I'm going to try to duplicate it with the new engine.

 

If I decide to go with a stock-style exhaust, actually putting it in the car is easier. That means I'd be combining Mark VIII components with Thunderbird components. Problem 1: For whatever stupid reason, Ford decided this was a good idea:

so a factory driver side manifold is almost $800, and this (the single-exhaust non-LSC version) isn't much better:

... but at least it would come pretty close to being a bolt-in affair for my car. I'm running cats and probably EGR in this no matter what, by the way.

 

Here's the dual exhaust LSC version from the '97 and '98 cars, apparently good for 10 horsepower:

I think, based on some reading, the dual exhaust would hit my gas tank.

 

This abomination is the Thunderbird version, along with the typical cast iron manifolds with studs that love to rust out and break:

 

As far as actually getting a "stock" exhaust with cats in the car with parts I can buy off the shelf, I think the optimal solution would be the Mark VIII single exhaust up to the third catalytic converter, and connecting it to my stock exhaust after that point. Best for performance? Surely not. But I have zero tolerance for annoying exhausts and the smooth character of this car is something I'm trying to maintain. Without taking any measurements, it looks like the only actual fabrication required to install the Mark VIII Y-pipe in the car is to add the hangers from the Thunderbird piece, and some posts on TCCoA seem to back me up on that.

 

And then there's these:

Expensive, and the only headers that clear the steering shaft in a DOHC swapped Thunderbird. And the downpipes must be custom. Don't kill me, but for some reason I'm gravitating away from a whiz-bang custom exhaust on this build.

 

But hey, if I mod the steering shaft to have an extra joint, I can use any 4.6 DOHC manifolds, factory or otherwise. The best factory option is apparently from the 03-04 Cobra.

 

Bodywork

Obviously, the paint is gonna need attention. At this point, there is no panel on the car that has escaped the horrors of SELF REMOVING FORD PAINT , and a re-paint was bound to happen. It's not this car without its White Opalescent Metallic paint job, simple as that. The pearl paintjob was very pretty in its day, but getting it right is beyond my pay grade. I'd rather not think about how expensive this is gonna be.

 

The sport package cars got this rather tasteful rear spoiler with integrated brake light (the one inside the car was deleted):

Also, you're very likely to see mud flaps on this car at some point.

 

I'm not against some subtle ground effects, such as the Super Coupe side skirts and rear bumper; see this picture from @91Pioneer's '96 upthread:

 

Fun fact: the tail lights in these cars are LED!

Sad fact: After nearly 30 years, one of my tail lights has some LEDs not working anymore. Common problem, and for a while replacement strips were available. It seems those dried up, so once I decide to worry about it, we might be seeing yet another Mad Science Project. After all, only the very end part of the tail light (the part on the car body itself) blinks with the turn signal, and that's just a shame.

 

Speaking of turn signals, I've become a big fan of mirror mounted turn signals, and I feel that something such as that might be needed to boost visibility in an older, loooong, low car such as this. Our solution may come from the last couple of years of Mark VIII:

With an integrated turn signal, heated glass, and puddle lamp, they've got all the desired features, with the added benefit of looking a little bit less useless than the stock mirrors. That's pretty neat, but the downside is that the mounting pattern (and possibly door shape) is different from the T-Bird mirrors. I may be able to adapt them by either drilling new holes in the T-Bird doors or pulling the studs out of the Mark VIII mirrors and placing them in the correct place. I might have to experiment with this!

 

So yeah, that about wraps up my thoughts and plans for what I want to do to it right now. Now that I've answered some of the "whats" and "whys", the next question is probably going to be the "hows".

 

Anyone wanna help pay for this? I've just jumped feet first into Mustang world with the added benefit of long obsolete parts and lack of aftermarket support