2002 Ford Thunderbird

[NastyGT500]

2002 Ford Thunderbird
Black, 42,166 miles
3.9 Liter 4 valves per cylinder DOHC V8
252HP/267TQ
31,368 produced



This is a new client who was a referral. They love this car; however, it really needed some love from me! The paint was full of swirls, scratches, etching, more swirls, some hazing, and some beginning stages of clear failure on some horizontal panels.

Average paint readings were 3-3.5mils, so my usual approach of being as conservative as possible while achieving the ‘most %’ of correction would be appropriate here.



The nuts and bolts:

2BW with SCG Pro shampoo.
GYEON mitt.
Clayed via medium clay mitt.
Sonax wheel cleaner. (Thanks Ron!)
Adam’s tire and rubber cleaner.
Misc. brushes.
303 top cleaner.
Dried via Griot’s PFM drying towels and Master Blaster.
Adam’s APC for engine bay.
DeFelsko PTG.
Flex XFE 7-15, Rupes MkII 21, Rupes iBrid.
Misc. foam and wool/MF pads.
Griot’s Fast Correcting Cream.
Griot’s Perfecting Cream.
Misc. MF towels.
Scangrip lighting.
McKee’s 37 Fast Metal Polish.
McKee’s37 Hi Gloss Tire Dressing.
Auto Finesse Glass Cleaner.
Beta Test glass coating.
Optimum Panel Wipe for final wipe down/prep for coating.
22ple Mistico Elemento Forte as the LSP.
IGL trim coating was used on the engine bay plastics.
Metro Vacuum.
Pinnacle leather cleaner.
Pinnacle leather conditioner.
Adam’s Interior Detailer.
Adam’s Odor Neutralizer.


Thanks for looking! This Bird is ready to fly now!




Before shots:

 

[NastyGT500]

During:

 

[NastyGT500]

Final shots:

 

[SID297]

Came out pretty good. I like the hard top version of those cars for some reason.

 

[NastyGT500]

Thanks SID, yeah, the hard top with opera window gives it a more 'retro' look IMO.

 

[mighty mouse]

I love those cars! Nice work...

Sent from my SM-G960U using the svtperformance.com mobile app

 

[NastyGT500]

Thanks mighty!

 

[CobraBob]

Yeah, Sid, the hardtop does look good. One of those cars I've always been intrigued with but not to be point of buying one. I don't see many on the road, but when I do, they get my full attention.

Scott, you gave that TBird all the attention it deserved. Really well done. The owner has a real stunner there.

 

[PaxtonShelby]

Nice work as always sir! Didn’t they ditch the 3.9 after the first year? I’d go for the additional cubes of the later years. Neat cars though. They don’t get much respect, which keeps the prices reasonable.

 

[me32]

Nice work as always sir! Didn’t they ditch the 3.9 after the first year? I’d go for the additional cubes of the later years. Neat cars though. They don’t get much respect, which keeps the prices reasonable.

No they ran the 3.9 v8 through the whole cycle. Same as the Lincoln LS.

But in like 2004 they up the HP/TQ
280hp
286TQ

 

[PaxtonShelby]

Ah thanks - I knew there was some change in output.

 

[SID297]

Nice work as always sir! Didn’t they ditch the 3.9 after the first year? I’d go for the additional cubes of the later years. Neat cars though. They don’t get much respect, which keeps the prices reasonable.

The Jags on the platform had the 4.2.

One of those would be fun with a manual swap and a 7.3L Godzilla.

 

[offroadkarter]

I'm really surprised this thing measures out at 3.4mil, any idea if it was ever corrected before?

 

[NastyGT500]

Thanks everyone!!!

offroadkarter: I'm not sure. It could have been, I had some areas a bit higher, but that was pretty much my average.