blksn8k2

Finally had a chance to give it a wash and get a few photos. She ain't perfect but that was to be expected of a 36 year old car with 62k miles. It has its fair share of little door dings and dimples, the hood needs an adjustment or possibly a hinge replacement, one piece of trim on the pass side front fender needs replaced (I already have the replacement part), etc. The interior is okay but, again, not perfect. A trim piece on the inside of the driver's door needs new clips, the review mirror needs re-glued to the windshield bracket, the driver's seat shows some wear, etc. Mostly minor stuff but not as quite nice as I had hoped. Just needs some TLC. Seems to run fine and not much signs of rust. The underside was given an oil bath by the previous owner and that needs cleaned up with degreaser as well. I am actually surprised by the amount of used parts that are still available for these.

The '89 Thunderbird SC that I had was one of the best cars I ever owned. I kept it for over 20 years. The only major issue I ever had was replacing the fuel pump which was a major pain in the ass. You had to drop the fuel tank which was under the rear seat but you also had to drop the exhaust system first. I decided that if I was going to have to take the old system off anyway I might as well replace with something "better". Big mistake. The only thing available at the time was a Flowmaster system and IMHO that 90° V6 sounded like pure crap with that system. You can't beat the sound of a V8 which is another reason why I went with the Mark VII this time instead of another T-Bird SC.

So what are everyone's thoughts on the Mark VIII? In my opinion, they are nice cars but I honestly think Lincoln took a step backwards on the styling compared to the Mark VII and that is probably one the factors affecting current resale values. The VII was just a classier looking car. The VIII no doubt was a step forward in technology but it was also the ultimate expression of jelly bean styling. IMO, even the '89 Thunderbird, especially in SC trim, was a much nicer looking car than the Mark VIII. I also wasn't a big fan of the T-Bird's styling "updates", especially the nose. If Ford had had the guts to eventually offer the 4.6L 4V in the T-Bird that would have been the ultimate MN-12. Instead they chose to put that glorious engine in a bland Jujubee shell.

Finally did a wire transfer of the funds to pay for the car today. The car is in Hamilton, Ontario. I also contracted with a shipper and a customs broker. The shipper I chose is TFX International who handles shipping for Barrett-Jackson in Canada. Those added quite a bit to the final cost but I honestly didn't want anything to do with all the border crossing nonsense. Even with those extra costs added on the final price was still way lower than almost any Mark VII I could find in the states, especially for decent cars like this one. As an example, there is a really clean 1985 Mark VII at a dealer in Washington state that has about half the mileage of this car but the asking price is more than double what I paid for this one. It's also about three times as far away so the shipping cost would be considerably higher as well even without the customs broker fee. That '85 car also has a 140 hp version of the 5.0L as compared to 225 hp in the '89. A couple of differences between the Canadian version and ours were obviously that the speedometer reads in kilometers and they came standard with DRLs. I also saw mention that Lincoln did extra rust proofing on the cars sold in Canada but I don't know how true that is. From the underneath photos it's obvious that this car has a good coating of rust proofing but I'd be surprised if that's how it was built. I also got to talk to the gentleman today who bought the car new and then gave it to his father. He said the car hasn't seen a winter in decades. And it won't under my ownership either.

Waiting on the 4V 4.6 was my assumption as well. Sales of the Mark VII had really tapered off by the end of its run so you would think they would have replaced it sooner. I thought the first car to get the 4.6 2V was the '91 Lincoln Town Car? Anyway, I also looked at several Thunderbird SCs before settling on this Mark VII which is ironically the exact opposite of what I did in 1989. The SC that I bought new in 1989 was super reliable but I have heard lots of horror stories about blown head gaskets, etc. The resale value on those is horrible as well with even less parts availability compared to anything with a Fox chassis. Hard to beat the reliability of the good old Windsor small block but I wouldn't be at all opposed to an eventual Coyote/10-speed swap on this one. The cool factor would be awesome.

Correct. The Fox based Mark VII's last year of production was 1992 which seems a bit odd since the first year for the MN-12 platform as used under the T-Bird and Cougar was 1989 and the Mark VIII, which also used the MN-12 platform, didn't come out until 1993.

You're right. One of the good things about this being a 1989 model is that that was the last year for the AOD 4-speed auto which means that it still has a cable driven speedometer and minimal electronic controls. That should make it easier to correct the speedometer for my planned tire change because the speedometer cable still uses a plastic gear on the end of the cable where it plugs into the trans and those gears come in various tooth counts. That might not even be necessary since there is only .5" difference in tire overall diameters. 1990 was the first year for the AODE in the Mark VII and the speedometer was also fully electronic.

Thanks! The history of the car is that the seller's father bought the car new as a gift to his father, the seller's grandfather. The grandfather passed away so they decided to sell the car. I'm not sure how much the car has been used lately but based on the age of the tires and the amount of tread left on them I would say that it probably hasn't been driven much in the last thirty years. It's obviously spent most of it's life in a garage and I doubt that was in the one where it's being stored now.

Here are a couple of photos of a nearly identical car with Mustang Cobra R wheels and lowered suspension. This is very close to what I'm planning for mine. The wheels are a little different from the '99 Cobra wheels I have but they are a similar five spoke design.

OK, seller just told me he is taking the ad down so I guess it's safe to share a few pics. Most of these are from the original ad although I did ask for the underneath and wheel/tire shots. Once I get the car home I'll get better pics. Either his camera doesn't have a zoom out feature or the car was parked in a really narrow alley or both. LOL BTW, the missing driving light has been replaced.

Once the deal is finalized I will share pics and more details.

In the process of buying one. The exterior color is Midnight Currant Red Metallic with red leather interior. It has a moonroof. Not 100% sure what other options it has but everything works including the AC and air ride suspension. It has the 225 hp 5.0L HO and 4-speed AOD transmission. About 62K miles in excellent condition. No rust anywhere that I can see. Paint and interior look flawless. All I'm waiting on now is for the seller to give me his info so we can do a bank-to-bank money transfer and for the shipper to send me their paperwork. Have already agreed on pricing for the car and for shipment to my door. It will need new tires. They have plenty of tread, they are just really old (1992 DOT date code, YIKES!). That's not an issue though since I was planning to switch from the factory 16" wheels (which are in excellent condition) to the original 17x8 wheels from my '99 Mustang Cobra anyway and I'll probably go with Nitto NT555 G2s in size 255/50ZR17. I also plan to eventually swap the air ride out for a ride height adjustable coil-over setup since these cars are basically the same underneath as a Fox body Mustang with the exception of a longer wheelbase and all of the suspension bits available for a Fox Mustang can be made to work. I've always wanted one of these and almost bought a 1988 black Mark VII LSC in 1989 but decided on a new '89 Thunderbird SC instead. I just couldn't pass this one up since it's in really good condition and the price is lower than I expected.

Although it was never my intention, now that it's finished it appears as though I've built my version of a New Edge Eleanor. 😲

Side scoops installed as well as a small diffuser panel under the rear bumper.

I've also seen youtube videos that claim some of the noise comes from the VCT (Variable Cam Timing) solenoid which is located in the driver side valve cover. Interestingly, on my '23 F-150 Tremor with the 5.0L there is a foam cover on top of that valve cover only (separate from the foam covers on the injectors) and that engine is worlds quieter than the one in my previous '18 F-150. It's also the Gen 4 Coyote vs the Gen 3 and I'm sure there are other more significant differences including cylinder deactivation. When I was looking at '23 F-150s a dealer salesman told me that Ford had issues with noisy 5.0Ls in '18 and '19 F-150s but that was probably just BS in hopes that I would take less for my '18 on a trade.