New Member from the Spokane, WA. Region

StrokedBird

Member
Jun 19, 2021
17
11
13
SPOKANE
Hey all, just signed up here, been messing with Fox Body Mustangs for several years but had been on hiatus for the past 15 years due to relocating and not having a shop to build in. Well that part is fixed the shop is mostly complete and I'm back at it. I switched gears a little this time around and went with a 1985 Thunderbird Fox Body, trying to apply all the things I've done in the past and finding out there are a few differences between the two body styles. I'm in the process of building a 410W Stroker and likely switching up to a T5 WC transmission over the factory AOD. I just installed an 8.8" 3:73 geared rear axle assembly with the addition of UPR upper and lower adjustable rear link arms. I have a QA1 K-Member on order along with adjustable lower control arms and Koni adjustable struts, still needing to order up my coil over kits. I've been reading about the ATS/XTS Brake caliper swap so I'm leaning towards getting the parts acquired to do that up front along with the Taurus rear brake calipers and vented Cobra rotors. I have had the car now for just 3 months and hope to get most of it completed before winter hits, I would love to drive it.
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Hey all, just signed up here, been messing with Fox Body Mustangs for several years but had been on hiatus for the past 15 years due to relocating and not having a shop to build in. Well that part is fixed the shop is mostly complete and I'm back at it. I switched gears a little this time around and went with a 1985 Thunderbird Fox Body, trying to apply all the things I've done in the past and finding out there are a few differences between the two body styles. I'm in the process of building a 410W Stroker and likely switching up to a T5 WC transmission over the factory AOD. I just installed an 8.8" 3:73 geared rear axle assembly with the addition of UPR upper and lower adjustable rear link arms. I have a QA1 K-Member on order along with adjustable lower control arms and Koni adjustable struts, still needing to order up my coil over kits. I've been reading about the ATS/XTS Brake caliper swap so I'm leaning towards getting the parts acquired to do that up front along with the Taurus rear brake calipers and vented Cobra rotors. I have had the car now for just 3 months and hope to get most of it completed before winter hits, I would love to drive it.
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Nice car man! Looks like you got a nice space set up as well! Look forward to seeing the progress!
 
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Thanks Guy's, I will try to take photos along the way, sometimes I get so deep into what I'm doing with it I simply forget about photos. This whole process will very likely take much longer to complete due to the Covid thing going on and parts being so tough to get, my K-Member is at least another month out. My thoughts are to get the suspension and brakes figured out first, the motor is just waiting on some AFR heads I'm thinking 195cc Renegades and an oil pan, the T5 is ready to into the car. Hopefully I will get to do a shake down run this fall but it's hard to say.
 

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Thanks Guy's, I will try to take photos along the way, sometimes I get so deep into what I'm doing with it I simply forget about photos. This whole process will very likely take much longer to complete due to the Covid thing going on and parts being so tough to get, my K-Member is at least another month out. My thoughts are to get the suspension and brakes figured out first, the motor is just waiting on some AFR heads I'm thinking 195cc Renegades and an oil pan, the T5 is ready to into the car. Hopefully I will get to do a shake down run this fall but it's hard to say.
Is that the rest of your collection?
 
Thanks Guy's, I will try to take photos along the way, sometimes I get so deep into what I'm doing with it I simply forget about photos. This whole process will very likely take much longer to complete due to the Covid thing going on and parts being so tough to get, my K-Member is at least another month out. My thoughts are to get the suspension and brakes figured out first, the motor is just waiting on some AFR heads I'm thinking 195cc Renegades and an oil pan, the T5 is ready to into the car. Hopefully I will get to do a shake down run this fall but it's hard to say.
Well..... Yes they were part of my collection but I recently sold them all within the past couple of months, just concentrating on the Bird for now. Since I am retired it's too much to try to maintain all of my vehicles by myself, I also have 4 additional cars that are not shown. The Shelby was a very interesting car but I'm more of a nuts and bolts kinda guy and that thing was all electronic and really not being used for it's intended purpose by me. The Fox Mustang was a one owner original 4cyl car that was going to be my main project but I found the T-Bird with low miles and in great shape so I decided to focus on that. The Ranchero has been part of my life for several years along with my '70 428CJ.
 

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Well, it's been a while since I lasted posted updates on my '85 T-Bird, lots of changes have taken place in two years. I have completed the Bird with all new Maximum Motorsports suspension components, ie: Torque Arm, Panhard Bar, adjustable rear lower control arms, Stifflers transmission x-member for the new TKX 5 speed. changed up to a 3.90 geared 31 spline 8.8 rear axle with 11.65" Cobra brakes, ATS/Brembo 4 piston front calipers, KONI SA coilover struts, KYB adjustable rear shocks, 13" rotors, subframe connectors and jacking rails, etc. Car runs and stops amazingly well and handles way better. I have since picked up a 1983 Mustang GLX 4cyl car, I have stripped it completely down except for the lower dash, ground it down to bare metal and just painted it last week. I built a new 347 roller motor for it and it will also be getting a new TKX 5spd, 8.8 3:37 geared rear axle, Cobra disc brakes front and rear, KONI coilovers in the front, KONI rear shocks. It's outfitted with all the Maximum Motorsports goodies also, same as the Bird. A few weeks ago I picked up an '03 New Edge car that I plan on building into a road course car, still thinking that one thru at this time.

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