r/FordThunderbird

Is this a bad idea? The matching hard top looks great and the soft top is "good."

What should I look out for?

Does the front bumper look a little off? Or is that normal?

https://preview.redd.it/4dxsvxcblxsh1.png?width=960&format=png&auto=webp&s=eade0c822967caa34527fa3186a08c8a18720172

Bought a pristine 03 TBird with 65k miles on it, two months ago. After buying it, realized that the tires were 19 YEARS OLD!!!!! Which tells me it has been stored for extended periods of time. New tires of course.

Took it to the dealership and asked them to just crawl over it and make sure everything was okay. They were completely worthless. The service writer had never even seen one before.

Everytime we drive the car something breaks. Literally. On the ride home from the dealership, who did change the oil and service the transmission, the thermostat housing cracked and overheated. Took it to a different shop and they fixed it reasonably cheap. On the ride home from that fix, it went into limp-mode and the code was for the throttle body. The electrical connector just fell off. Easy fix. Took it to a car show and the check engine light came on. PCV valve. Another easy fix.

Today i drove it and the electric door locks just stopped working, wouldn't unlock the door. Went to lunch in it and the locks worked just fine. But after lunch I'd start the engine and the alarm would go off and shut the engine off. After starting it four times, it finally stopped setting off the alarm.

On the plus side the body is in great shape, as is the interior. The engine runs great, ice cold AC. Stereo works but the CD changer has discs jammed in it and it won't do anything.

Generally, if you run it or drive it on a super regular basis, the gremlins seem to go away. If you let it set several days without starting it, when you finally do, the gremlins take over for the first few miles.

I love the little car and I'm going to continue to drive it and fix it as necessary. In two years it will be considered an antique in my state and hopefully the value will go up.