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Power Tour 2015 pics

Here is a link to my photobucket account with pictures from Power Tour 2015;http://s495.photobucket.com/user/50tbrd88/library/Power%20Tour%202015

We had a really good trip this year.  I'd never travelled with other cars as a group so that presented its own challenges.  One of the guyshiznit some railroad tracks the 1st day and had a front end vibration at anything over 60 mph afterwards, he tried keeping up but ended up going home after the St. Louis stop.  My 'bird started running hot so anything over 70 mph on the interstate was really pushing it...we did run the actual power tour route so the slower speeds helped keep things cooler.  On our last night in Birmingham my friend John's '74 Lincoln sprung a leak on one of the lines for the hydroboost.  Of course no parts stores carry many parts for '74 Lincolns, so we ended up pulling the belt of the PS pump and he drove it all the way back to IN with no PS or Pwr brakes!  The other car that went was a new Stingray so he obviously had nothing to worry about.

Overall my T-bird did well.  I used about 1 1/2 quarts of oil over the whole trip and as I mentioned it did run a little warm but never overheated (gonna flush the radiator to see if that helps).  As some of you remember I fought a driveline vibration for quite some time and seemed to remedy it mostly with an aluminum driveshaft.  I noticed on this trip there is still a vibration 70 mph+...I'm going to check the pinion angle again to see if maybe its off.  I also got a nasty door ding at one of the hotels, going to contact some body shops today to see about doing paintless dent repair on it.

I got a TON of comments on the car.  One guy said "of all the thousands of cars in here, this is the only Fox T-bird I've seen.  Love it man."  Another guy in a 80's G-body Cutlass who was stopped along the road in some small town along the route ran over and said "beautiful car, very nice".  This made me feel that maybe there are car people out there that like our cars as much as we do!
'88 'bird, 10.9:1 306 w/TFS top end, forged rods/pistons, T-5 swap & bunch of other stuff, 1-family owned, had it since ‘98, 5.0tbrd88 on Instagram and YouTube

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #1
I was wondering how it went. Nice that your Bird made the trip with no major issues. Hopefully your door ding comes out alright. Will have to check out the pics later.

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #2
Nice looking pics.  I am sooooo jealous of you being able to make the trip.  I hope to be there some year for the long haul.    In the meantime I'll have to live vicariously through your pics.   
Sorry to hear about the door ding.  I am so careful with mine I'm almost OCD about it.  I hurts you when that happens.  My wife got hit once on her 13.  The first one it ever got.  They were able to get all but the tiniest little ripple out of the car.  So I do recommend the paintless dent repair.  It worked for us.    Good luck with it and thanks for sharing.

Go Fast the first time.  The tickets the same.
86 Thunderbird 5.0.  All original good weather driver. Tbird Reg #53035
86 Thunderbird TC.  All original good weather driver.  Tbird Reg # 58555
87 Thunderbird TC.  All original good weather daily driver.  Tbird Reg # 64647

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #3
Yeah, I'm OCD about door dings.  But at Power Tour there are so many cars you have no choice but to park next to other cars.  Most of the time its not a problem because other "car guys" are OCD too, lol.  I parked next to a mini van at one of the hotels, I'm thinking that may have been the culprit.
'88 'bird, 10.9:1 306 w/TFS top end, forged rods/pistons, T-5 swap & bunch of other stuff, 1-family owned, had it since ‘98, 5.0tbrd88 on Instagram and YouTube

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #4
If you have a clutched fan, check the clutch out too..

Nice pics!
'84 Mustang
'98 Explorer 5.0
'03 Focus, dropped a valve seat. yay. freakin' split port engines...
'06 Explorer EB 4.6

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #5
Has a brand new fan and clutch, replaced them with "police spec" ones a year or two ago. 

Thanks!
'88 'bird, 10.9:1 306 w/TFS top end, forged rods/pistons, T-5 swap & bunch of other stuff, 1-family owned, had it since ‘98, 5.0tbrd88 on Instagram and YouTube

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #6
D'oh. I remember your thread now. :D

I'd do as you've suggested, flush the radiator and see what happens next
'84 Mustang
'98 Explorer 5.0
'03 Focus, dropped a valve seat. yay. freakin' split port engines...
'06 Explorer EB 4.6

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #7
I love good stories....the power must happen some year.

Thanks for the pics.

Travis

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #8
Cool pictures :)

If flushing the radiator doesn't work you can always upgrade to a nice aluminum unit.
88 Thunderbird LX: 306, Edelbrock Performer heads, Comp 266HR cam, Edelbrock Performer RPM intake, bunch of other stuff.

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #9
We did Power Tour also but took my 86 Capri....this was it's 3rd Long Haul: 2001, 2002, 2015. Tons of great scenery and cars, but I feel it's become "gm power tour" instead of Hot Rod. It got real old hearing about how great the generic-motors  is/was and always will be shoved down your throat. Enough about that though.

Luckily for me, the Capri only sustained it's normal rock chips and bug splatter. LOL  I too, surprisingly, got alot of compliments on it. Seemed the farther South we went the more it was appreciated. No mechanical issues for the Capri (ran cool the whole time, used no oil- I checked it on Wednesday and again after we got home- and even managed to average 26 mpg with a best of 29.6!!) but my buddies 70 Maverick managed to eat both rear shocks and Dad's 40 Ford Street Rod popped a hole in the aluminum radiator. Luckily both were fixed at nearby exits and we continued on without too much hassle.

It amazes me that I never saw your Bird on the trip, but then again there were so many cars I bet we really only saw about 1/4th of them!!! Heres a quick pic of the Capri at the beach in Gulfport, MS
My toys:
Two 84 Turbo Coupes-twins
Two 86 Mercury Capri's-one's stock, one's NOT
93 Mustang LX 5.0-3,980 miles, 100% factory
55 Ford Customline-I6 powerhouse, waiting on a plan
95 F350 Dually-KILLER, don't ask why
94 Bronco XLT-going to be a lowered 2 wheel drive

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #10
Man I hope to do some of this next time, I live in Pensacola, Fl.  I was hoping I was off but I worked when everyone was coming through Gulf Port, Its only 2 hrs from me.  Great shots and glad everything went good and made it home safe.

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #11
Quote from: Silver5oh;450186
We did Power Tour also but took my 86 Capri....this was it's 3rd Long Haul: 2001, 2002, 2015. Tons of great scenery and cars, but I feel it's become "gm power tour" instead of Hot Rod. It got real old hearing about how great the generic-motors  is/was and always will be shoved down your throat. Enough about that though.

Luckily for me, the Capri only sustained it's normal rock chips and bug splatter. LOL  I too, surprisingly, got alot of compliments on it. Seemed the farther South we went the more it was appreciated. No mechanical issues for the Capri (ran cool the whole time, used no oil- I checked it on Wednesday and again after we got home- and even managed to average 26 mpg with a best of 29.6!!) but my buddies 70 Maverick managed to eat both rear shocks and Dad's 40 Ford Street Rod popped a hole in the aluminum radiator. Luckily both were fixed at nearby exits and we continued on without too much hassle.

It amazes me that I never saw your Bird on the trip, but then again there were so many cars I bet we really only saw about 1/4th of them!!! Heres a quick pic of the Capri at the beach in Gulfport, MS

You know I only remember looking at one Capri and it definitely wasn't yours.  Nice car!  And yeah Power Tour is fairly GM-biased (GM is the main sponsor after all).  But lets be honest, in the car world there are truly more GM fans than anything else. I lean more toward ford but I just like pretty much any and all cars in general as long as its cool and nicely done.  What I really get a kick out of seeing is something oddball (Studebakers, AMC's, etc).  I do dislike "Rat Rods"...seems there weren't as many this year, thankfully.
'88 'bird, 10.9:1 306 w/TFS top end, forged rods/pistons, T-5 swap & bunch of other stuff, 1-family owned, had it since ‘98, 5.0tbrd88 on Instagram and YouTube

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #12
You mean there was another Capri on the tour!?!?!?!?!

Yes, I know gm is the main sponsor but like I said, it was SUPPOSED to be Hot Rod Power Tour but obviously they've sold out.
My toys:
Two 84 Turbo Coupes-twins
Two 86 Mercury Capri's-one's stock, one's NOT
93 Mustang LX 5.0-3,980 miles, 100% factory
55 Ford Customline-I6 powerhouse, waiting on a plan
95 F350 Dually-KILLER, don't ask why
94 Bronco XLT-going to be a lowered 2 wheel drive

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #13
50tbrd88, clean out your inbox. :D

We did the long haul this year in our 04 Mach 1 (Bird sat in the garage :( ). Managed to jam the wife and kids in there be we all had a blast. Wish we would have been able to meet up with you Chris but some of those drives really take most of the day. Memphis was so hot we checked in at the event and then spent the rest of the afternoon in the hotel pool until Beale St.

Nice Capri, Silver5oh. I love those bubble hatches!

If you're on Instagram I have a sampling of my Tour pics on there. Search Mean90LX.

BTW I thought Hot Rod mag was always biased towards GM? Although, I will say the mag is much improved since Freiburger got in there.

[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
1986 T-bird 3.8 *SOLD*
1990 Mustang
2004 Mach 1

Power Tour 2015 pics

Reply #14
Quote from: Silver5oh;450186
We did Power Tour also but took my 86 Capri....this was it's 3rd Long Haul: 2001, 2002, 2015. Tons of great scenery and cars, but I feel it's become "gm power tour" instead of Hot Rod. It got real old hearing about how great the generic-motors  is/was and always will be shoved down your throat. Enough about that though.

Luckily for me, the Capri only sustained it's normal rock chips and bug splatter. LOL  I too, surprisingly, got alot of compliments on it. Seemed the farther South we went the more it was appreciated. No mechanical issues for the Capri (ran cool the whole time, used no oil- I checked it on Wednesday and again after we got home- and even managed to average 26 mpg with a best of 29.6!!) but my buddies 70 Maverick managed to eat both rear shocks and Dad's 40 Ford Street Rod popped a hole in the aluminum radiator. Luckily both were fixed at nearby exits and we continued on without too much hassle.

It amazes me that I never saw your Bird on the trip, but then again there were so many cars I bet we really only saw about 1/4th of them!!! Heres a quick pic of the Capri at the beach in Gulfport, MS


nice ride, dude