So some of you around here probably know that I have always given thought to adding a "Retro-Bird" ('02-'05 Ford Thunderbird) to my collection of fun cars, and over the past year I have finally gotten to the point where I could seriously consider doing it from a financial standpoint. As such, I have been keeping my eye out for a car that met my color, equipment, mileage and condition requirements.

During this search for a Thunderbird, I have come across a number of fairly unique cars that have been interesting to look at, but were not T-Birds -- one of which caught my eye a couple of months ago on eBay. It is an '87 LTD Crown Victoria that has just a shade over 4000 original miles on it and has spent virtually its entire life covered and inside a climate controlled building.

Now a Crown Victoria has NEVER been on my radar screen as a vehicle I would like to own, but for some reason I was fascinated by this particular car since the late-80's body style is almost never seen anymore -- much less with such low mileage and in such pristine condition. So I burned up a few frequent flyer miles and cashed-in a few rental car points and traveled up to Ohio last month to take a look at it.

During my visit, I found the car to be everything you could ever imagine from a condition standpoint. It truly was a "time capsule" in the purest sense of the word, with the condition of the body, bright work, interior, underpinnings and engine bay all exceeding what I could have ever dreamt of. Driving the car was less that what I imagined -- comparing the acceleration, handling and performance of a late-80's 5.0 V8 to what we enjoy in modern engines is not even fair. Leaving Ohio, I was pretty much of the opinion that I was going to "pass" on the car, even though the condition of it was so appealing.

So over the course of the past few weeks, I have rolled it around in my mind and the owner and I have chatted a few times over the phone and I finally agreed to purchase the vehicle last week. The main reasons for this were because the owner came a LONG way towards me in price, and the more I thought about it, I realized that I would likely never find this kind of car in this kind of condition again -- it is truly what I would consider a "once in a lifetime" opportunity!

Right now I am in the process of getting it shipped down here to Texas, and for the first few months I suspect all I will do to it is go through a checklist of maintenance items that will need to be addressed -- fuel filter, coolant, transmission fluid, brake fluid, power steering fluid -- all of which are certainly straight from the factory almost 30 years ago.

After that, I will probably do something different with the exhaust and the rims and tires. The problem with a car like this is that you really don't want to modify it too much, or in a way that can't be easily reversed, since the true value and uniqueness of the automobile is its originality and condition!

Not sure whether the car will grow on me or not. If not, I figure I can always sell it (from a collector car standpoint I will have MINIMAL money into it) and pursue something different. I'm hoping it will be kind of an interesting vehicle to take on a cruise or to the local car shows -- I, personally, have always enjoyed looking at the "oddities" like this at a show instead of the endless rows of Camaros, Chevelles and Mustangs!

Here is a link to a gallery with a few early photos: https://www.f150online.com/g/album/3346830

 

That is incredibly awesome. I think seeing a nearly 30 year old vehicle in pristine, factory condition is far more intriguing than a restored muscle car (at least to me), even if that car may have been considered typical or standard back in its day. It sure is cool to see cars like that still around. Good find, and good choice.

By the way, that car is one year older than me

 

Looks awesome! I have always loved crown vics! That 91 we had was put through all kinds of hell and kept on going and never complained. I still miss that car for some weird reason.

About 10 years ago all of the tire test places used the crown vics just cause they were so damn reliable. I know of a 94 Vic that they have had since new and it rolled over 1 million a few years ago and last time i heard it had another 100k on it and was still going.

Crazy.

Once again congrats on the car and look forward to some pics with the new wheels etc.

 

Your Engine with 4k miles




And the one of my old 91 with over 300k miles





I don't know why but i love these speedometer's. Something about seeing that big long hand just stretch all the way to the other side.

 

Fixed it for ya!

 

I thought by the title of "left turn collector" you bought a Nascar vehicle


She's a quite a looker for a 30 year old tank

 

I've always loved the 80's Crown Vics...wife had a '83 that she got new and kept it 5 yrs. It had close to 100k miles on it then and the only problem was one oil pump went out at about 70k miles. Congrat's on the find!

 

Coy -- do you remember if you ever replaced a little nylon bushing near the intake manifold on yours? Apparently these EFI 5.0's had a tiny nylon bushing in the transmission linkage that would often fail and burn-up your transmission in no time flat! My understanding is that there are some aftermarket replacement bushings that were made of brass that people have been installing in place of the factory bushing to avoid this problem?

I've never had a 5.0, so all of the quirks associated with this powertrain will be new to me!

 

I never replaced anything on that car other than a battery and tires and brakes. I do remember when it shifted into overdrive it was always a sloppy shift. Finally i thought OD went out and put a for sale sign on it. Next time i drove it OD started working again and continued until i sold it.

 

I agree -- you don't have to go to too many car shows before you get bored to tears with looking at restored muscle cars. At the end of the day, the vehicles that people tend to enjoy seeing the most are either '60's to '70's-era pick-up trucks, or vehicles that used to be commonplace but are rarely, if ever, seen any longer. Hopefully this car will fall into the latter category -- if nothing else, it will certainly add a different "flavor" to the cars I currently have in my stable!

 

are you going to drive it any, or is it going to sit there and look pretty?

 

My plan right now is that at four "fun cars" I am at the limit of what I have storage room for, so in order to get anything else it would probably mean I'd have to sell one of my other vehicles. My line-up as it stands right now:

- 1987 LTD Crown Victoria (4100 miles)
- 2005 F-150 (3000 miles)
- 2008 Mustang (650 miles)
- 2009 Ranger (37,000 miles)

Since my Ranger is easily the highest mileage vehicle of the group, and has spent at least part of it's life as a (sometimes) daily driver, I will probably keep insurance on it year around, store it at the house, and drive it from time-to-time in place of the Cavalier when the feeling moves me. It's bone stock right now, but I'm thinking about throwing a 4" lift on it and buying a nice set of rims and tires just to spruce it up a bit.

For the other three vehicles, my plan is to get into a rotation where I pull one of them out of storage and keep it garaged at the house for 4 months, which is enough time to drive it a bit and work on any modifications I might want to perform. At the end of the 4 months I'll give it a good top-to-bottom detail, put it back into storage, and pull the next vehicle out for its turn in the rotation.

By doing this I figure I'll get to enjoy driving each vehicle at some point throughout the year, and limit the amount of "down" storage on each ride to about 8 months out of every year. My goal has always been to put about 500 miles on each of my "fun vehicles" in any given year, although the realities of parenthood have kind of put a crimp in that plan over the last 9 years -- I just don't have as much free time to spend with my cars as I would like.

Of course, I'd still love to have a Retro Bird at some point, and with all the mileage money I should be bringing over the next few years driving the little Cavalier for work, I wouldn't rule that out as a possibility. At that point I'd have to decide if I wanted to rent an extra garage stall for the Thunderbird, or sell one of the other cars (I suppose the Ranger?) to make room for it in the storage I have.

 

sounds like you need to invest in adding on to your garage or a house with a bigger garage.

next house for me , hopefully in about 2 or 3 years, i want a minimum 6 car garage.

 

Yes -- I could kick myself now because when we built I originally staked out a corner lot with an attached 3 car garage, plus a detached 2-1/2 car garage in back. Once they staked out the perimeter of the buildings, I decided too much of the yard space was being taken up by structures, so we moved to an interior lot with just an attached 3 car garage. Huge mistake considering how many cars I have now and the fact that the only time I really set foot in my yard is when I am walking around the side of the house to take out the trash or doing some miserable variation of yard work.....

I think I'd look at investing in a "Car Condominium" before I would build a bigger house -- other than garage space, our house is just the right size for the family and is in such a convenient location that it would be hard to duplicate at today's prices. When we moved out to Tomball back in the day, it was kind of a sleepy little hometown. Now, with the Tomball Parkway and Grand Parkway intersecting about 1-1/2 miles south of where we built, our area has become "ground zero" for some of the most rapid growth here in the Houston region.

 

I have lived in Houston all my life, as a kid i had cousins that had family that owned alot of land in Tomball. we used to go there at least once a month and I remember 249 and Spring Cypress was 2 lane road and a blinking light.

room for a porte-cochère?

We all have our pet peeves, paying any kind of rent or storage just kills me. I know a couple of guys that own storage places and they make a fortune.