GREAT LOOKING CAR! and awesome candidate for a drivetrain swap, however looking for trim parts will be a pain. I work in a Ford Parts dept and we have a regular who is slowly but surely restoring his 88 T/C. the car is in GREAT overall condition but time has taken its toll and he has been looking for certain trim peices for years now. he does searches across the country looking for certain things and more often than not he efforts are fruitless.
I still say this is a worthwhile purchase if you get it for the right price.

 

And transplant a 427 cid SBF into it!!!!!!!!!! and some more !!!!!!!!!! Then again I dont know if you'd have to do something for hood clearence. If so then its a 369 cid SBF ( 4.125 bore on a 3.400 stroke short deck windsor) so maybe only !!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, I always thought that was the best looking T-bird

 

Basically turn it into this?

 

This is true. There are certain trim parts such as the padded dashes, door armrests and trim, console armrests, body side moldings and other moldings that are infamous for not surviving age and wear. New parts are impossible to find. Used parts are as bad or worse that the ones you may be replacing if you are lucky enough to find a salvage car that is not already stripped of them. For me I have been improvising doing some custom work and utilizing standard newer parts where I can.

If the car you are looking at is really that clean and in great shape, try to snap it up as this will be one of the best examples you will ever find.

 

These are some of the best ones I have ever seen...

 

Here is what I am slooooowly working with...

 

Great job on the interior.

 

777 looks a lot like my old bird .. a 429 fits well into those things ..

 

So I went to take a closer look at the Thunderbird today and I don't think I'll be buying it.

First of all, there is some rust after all. Not much, but its still rust.
Second, it took car a while to start. When it finally did both "Check Engine" and "Service Engine Soon" lights were on.
But my main problem is the salesman. I asked for a test drive and salesman said he will let me test drive it only if I buy a car today. I asked him what his final price is and he said he wouldn't take less than $3,500 (which is the same price that was on a car).

So ...

 

I love these cars, I had an 88 Turbo Coupe and, for all it's flaws, of the cars that I have owned it remains among my favorites. In fact, I honestly think the 87-88 Thunderbird is one of the very best starting points for a street machine because it offers all the mod-ability of a Fox body Mustang but is

1: roomier
2: better looking
and 3: almost always cheaper to buy

Yes, they are heavier, but IMO that is a small price to pay for a very good looking starting point. That said, even if it was really clean the one you asked about was priced a bit high IMO. For example, I was recently looking at a 87 Thunderbird with similar miles that had already benefited from a pretty well done 4.6L SOHC swap and asking price on that was just a bit less than you mention here. Of course, region does make a difference as it is a lot easier to find a nice, clean car in Northeastern Tennessee than in the northern states.

 

Yup. I like 'em too.