1973x2's 1995 Ford Thunderbird

1995

Ford

Thunderbird

White

LX 4.6

Originally bought and used in Florida, it was imported to Sweden by an elderly couple some years later. And it is, as anyone can tell by the pictures in near mint condition, in the way that a car that has been owned by old people can be. Apart from some traded paint on the front bumper, and the driver side mirror, which buffed out, it is spotless. I drove over 300 miles to check it out, and even though the car was promised to be sold to someone else, I begged on my bare knees (not really) that the dealer would sell it to me. And it worked! Go figure.. It had less than 90000 miles on the odo when I bought it, a year ago.

All original, except for a.. eerrmm.. "garden hose enhancement". Some of the vacuum hoses from/to the EGR had worn out, at some point, and the person who fixed it thought that some glued on green garden hose would do the job nicely! Reluctantly I swapped them out for some good old (well, new) proper rubber hoses. I'm sooo dull, aren't I?

Oh dear.. the dreaded green one. Luckily, any control surfaces are black, like the steering wheel. I remember my old '92, that had a blue interior, where EVERYTHING was blue, steering wheel included! This is one step above that, at least.

The car was in its original US state (specification) when I bought it, with MPH on the outer scale, well, we have KMH here, so by pure stroke of luck, I managed to locate a Canadian spec instrument cluster, with KMH (or KPH, if you will) on the outer, dominant, scale. (see image)

Moon roof.

Not a single spot on it. It hasn't even been rust proofed underneath, which is almost unheard of here! So, I'm only driving it during the warmer half of the year: April - October. See, Gothenburg, on the west coast of Sweden, is a hardened killer of cars. And its method of snuffing cars in one word: rust. The weather is.. think Seattle, and you got a pretty good idea. A bit colder, perhaps, which means that they salt the roads to melt the ice that forms around freezing temps.

I am very reluctant to do any drastic changes, but I found a one-din DVD/CD/MP3/USB player, with screen, for cheap. AND it has a video-in connector, and a lead that is connected to the reverse lights. I've bought a reverse camera, but I need to find somewhere discrete to hide it. And I don't want to make any new holes in the car. I reckon that under the bumper with zip-ties will do the job.

It has one, yes, and it is a master when it comes to tackling the one million speed bumps that has sprouted up just about everywhere.

Speed sensitive power steering assist. 4-wheel disc with TC and ABS.

I've never heard of "Cordovan" before, but they're marked as "Made in the U.S.A.", so they'll do, for now. White lettering added by me.