As someone who grew up in the Northeast, and began dabbling in project cars while living in New England, I am quite accustomed to rust. In fact, one might say that my threshold for rust is quite high, and I’m rarely spooked by a project even if it has some signs of prolonged exposure to road salt. This 1989 Ford Thunderbird Super Coupe is one of the very few left that came with the factory 5-speed manual transmission, but it is a project with some rust in the floors. Is it worth saving? That’s a tough question, as it’s doubtful the rarity will pay for the cost of repairing the floors. Find this Thunderbird here on craigslist for just $2,500.
The shame of it these cars should be worth more. This Thunderbird was loaded up with both technological and performance tweaks that made it a standout in its class, from adjustable suspension featuring Tokico gas-pressure shocks to a locking differential, there was no shortage of high-performance hardware on the Thunderbird. A body kit gave it a more aggressive appearance while color-matching was used extensively to give the car an even racier appearance. The Thunderbird as shown here looks mostly stock from the outside, with the only tweak I can see is what looks like painted “coves” on the factory alloy wheels.
The manual transmission came standard but relatively few customers seemed to opt for it. The 5-speed came from Mazda; an optional 4-speed automatic transmission seemed to be the gearbox of choice for most car shoppers. The interior also came with deeply bolstered bucket seats and a unique steering wheel. The rest of the cabin was more or less the same as lesser T-Birds, and it was clear the car was intended as a final swan song of larger personal luxury coupes that were near extinct by the time the rear-wheel drive Thunderbird SC hit the scene. The interior is partially disassembled due to the removal of an aftermarket sound system, and the seller notes that a few functions don’t work, like the driver’s side door handle.
The paint job is a respray, and it sounds like it wasn’t done all that well – and black is very unforgiving when not in great shape. The seller notes that the Thunderbird SC runs, stops, and starts, which means you’ll have access to 210 horsepower and 315 lb.-ft. of torque. When new, these numbers meant it could pull down 0-60 times in the range of 7.5 seconds, not bad for a car weighing around 4,000 lbs. The seller notes that the rust is present in both floor pans and “…through along the area where they attach to the rockers.” Is the rarity of a 5-speed SC worth the trouble of repairing it? Thanks to Barn Finds reader Mitchell G. for the tip.
If that rust is in the floor pans and the rockers? Good luck. We had a ’93 V-8. After the clear coat peeled off, I repainted it. It looked like a new car…until you looked underneath. And that was after only 6 years of NE Ohio winters, and getting an oil spray every year.
Your lucky to get 6 years out of any car in NE Ohio winters! That is why everone in Cleveland area bought a new car back in the day every 3 years unless you used a beater for winter driving. They would really rust out from underneath with all the road salt used.
My very first Pony was a Raven Black 1971 Boss 351 when I was 16. It was stolen 6 months after I finished paying for it. MAN would I love to own another one exactly like that one.
And I’d love to build my ultimate 71 Boss 514 twin turbo 6 speed. Raven Black of course!
Superchicken! If the body is the same as the standard Tbird of that gen, which I don’t see why it wouldn’t be, source some dry metal from the South West and go for it! I am biased though, I miss mine.
I am glad there are still some fun budget classics like this one left so people new to the sickness can buy in and row some gears. Only drawback I remember is the ABS system. Perhaps a delete is in order?
Interesting find… definitely a project for a diy er. Add it to the collection of FoMoCo outliers of the period: Taurus sho manual, Lincoln LSC BMW diesel, Merkur and a Mustang cop car for good measure.
I think we all have the feel for this car. The Super Coupe was a fairly interesting car in its day: looked low and sporty, had decent performance, was trimmed nicely. This example is fairly well used up. But it is dirt cheap, and someone might have fun with it just doing this and that upgrade (or just keeping it running).
Love the sellers ad.
First paragraph, the big build-up.
Second paragraph, the big let down lol.
These were a very nice car to drive in the day. But, it isn’t the day anymore. Parts availability is sketchy at best. The throttle position sensor is not available from Ford service parts among pretty much everything else!
There just isn’t a significant number of people restoring this generation of thunderbird. The lack of Availability of the Majority of electronic controls and such makes restoring one of them a very heavy lift! Same thing goes with the Taurus SHO.