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3
User Rides / Re: Work In Progress. '88 TC
Last post by Mikey97D -
I've had the front spoiler waiting over a year to go on the car and earlier this Spring found the rear spoiler.  Thanks to Clayton for the idea and telling me it was a Camaro rear spoiler.





I have been feeling guilty about not following Aerocoupe's advice on the front control arms.  I had already ordered the front arms by the time he had posted and so far I really like them.  When the urethane unhinges I will rebuild the originals as Aerocoupe advised. 

The front suspension has been rebuilt with new springs, struts (KYB G2), and the control arms.  Also added the MM Caster/Camber plates that have been sitting on the shelf waiting.  Rear shocks were replaced too with KYB G2.

Improvements in driving are definitely noticeable although the ride is stiffer than the worn out OEM shocks/struts.  Handles like it is on rails (to my feeble driving prowess) even though it sits high.  New England roads are horrible so not being lowered is wanted for me not to bottom the car out.
4
Body/Appearance/Interior / Re: LED Bulb Conversion (Whole Car)
Last post by Ductape91 -
Sorry to bump this thread but i was curious if you ever got around to replacing the dash warning lights and such with led bulbs. If not can i share some observations even though the car isnt a tbird or cougar?

I was trying some led 194 bulbs on my mustang to see what looks best without being blatantly bright, since i had the cluster out, and the difference between type was very noticable on them. I had the flat 4 diode type and the single diode dome type 194 led lamps.
The flat type led worked best for illuminating the warning lights thru their colored plastic since the bulb type had visible bright spotting, bulb shape and washed out the graphic lettering when illuminated.

Example.



Top red is a dome type led, center green is standard incandescent and bottom is a flat type led.
I replaced the turn signals with the dome types since they were set much farther back in the cluster and needed the brighter lights to be "noticable".
Color of lights made a huge difference, using the white dome type led made the green light sky blue and looked terrible.
Im going to pick up those sylvania 194 led bulbs you mention and try them on the actual cluster backlighting since despite being dimmable the bulbs i got werent bright enough for that job and looked awful in those locations. My cluster has red backighting so im hoping they dont turn out orange.

My dash lighting on the tbird is fine but at some point im going to change the interior lights over to leds, but im waiting out untill a "softer" white led light is available for that since these lights are too "blue" looking for my liking and it would drive me nuts.
5
Suspension/Steering / Re: What front coil springs are best for '88 Tbird, or full set?
Last post by Beau -
Yeah, SN95 springs are ideal for these cars. I had some from a 97 GT on my Sport. Brought it down a little over an inch or close to it. For me, I didn't want much lower than that...didnt want to mess with bumpsteer kits and such.

Mine was too stiff in the rear, but that was more to due with poly bushings rather than how it was sprung.

The rear susp was pretty solid...didn't articulate much, rode rough as hell and on loose surfaces, would not stay straight with ANY throttle input, again, poly bushings at every point in the rear. And I'd even been told it would do that. Never again...lol
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Suspension/Steering / What front coil springs are best for '88 Tbird, or full set?
Last post by BradMph -
I been looking all over for coil springs to lower the car about 1½ to 2 in. body above tire, so about  1.5 maybe 2 inch lower in front, and matching the back. Stiffer springs would be good. Running good struts and shocks already.
I did cut one coil off old front springs and that was a great height for front.

What springs can I use:
SN95?
'94 to 2004?
are there any reasonable priced springs that will improve the handling, but not let it compress onto tires in front or overload wallet?


Any help or direction with positive results would be helpful please, I really am not into beta testing.  What have you used and what are your results?
9
Lounge / Re: Hot Wheels TBird
Last post by Chuck W -
My wife brought this home for me today.



(That's a movie I haven't seen in a LONG while)