SwedishMark
Well-Known LVC Member
Hello!
My name is Tim and I (as my name and topic title) live in Sweden.
I'm a 19 year old student and I've studied (finished) airplane technician (heavy jets) and at the moment studying helicopters (turbine and piston).
Grown up in a family with big car interest and my parents emigrated to Canada in late 80's and then moved to Texas where I was born (Texarkana).
But silly as my mother was she wanted back to Sweden so 1½ years after I was born they moved back to Sweden and ofcourse bringing a few cars with them. There were a 1989 Ford Bronco (lifted and supercharged with Paxton supercharger), 1991 Lincoln Town Car (which was nominated to Europes finest car 1990 and up 2 years in a row in Europes biggest car meet. I think had like 6k miles since brand new till we sold it in 2003 or something) and they also brought a 1988 Ford Thunderbird SC.
The Bronco was sold (in superb condition) and the Lincoln was sold but my father kept the Thunderbird and after that the Ford family grew. We do like GM too and my father used to own a 1969 Chevelle Malibu 396 but because of some very odd reason GM cars are heavily overpriced in Sweden we stick to Ford. And to be honest, their cars 80's and up are just better.
Skip to now.
The Thunderbird my father brought with him home from the states has been heavily modified with a 347" stroker, T-56 transmission, Ford 9" rear end, upgraded suspension all around, upgraded chassies etc. But still somewhat of a sleeper. And ofcourse, purple paint
That car can be seen here: http://www.garaget.org/?car=247957 (swedish car site, like cardomain)
He also had a 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis LS but that one was rear-ended on Autobahn in Germany. He got insurance money for it (Alot of money, they most likely did some f'ed up calculations) he fixed it up and sold it to his friend.
After that Mercury he bought a 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis LS which he still owns today. And I must say, good build quality on that one (well, not the interior but the metal work). Gone well over 200k miles in Swedish winters (LOTS of salt) and not a single rust bubble even underneath the car.
Anyways, after my father understood he couldn't get more HP out of his Thunderbird without cracking the original engine block he faced the expense of buying a competition engine block.
This is where the funny part comes in.
Instead of buying a new block (which isn't that very expensive) he goes out buying a 2003 Mustang SVT Cobra 10th Anniversery for a daily driver Imported from Wisconsin in 2008 (he imported it). Funny story is that the guy who sold it didn't want to sell it someone outside the state (!!!). How my father got him to sell it to a Swedish guy is still a mystery.
It's whippled with lots of goodies. Can be seen here: http://www.garaget.org/?car=183155
But between all of this I turned 14 and my father thought it was time for me to have my own car.
So we bought a rust-bucket Thunderbird. From 1988 no less. $2000 for a total rust bucket but hell! I owned a v8 car!
The car has been in the garage for restoration for over 3½ years now (can't work on it now because I'm studying 600 miles away from it). The car has everything new. Fully restored and the only piece that is not restored is the inner floor (boot is fixed though, the floor will be fixed when I have time. It's not rusty. Not a bit. Just not grinded down to perfection). The current state of car is failed paint job so I started grinding it down and then I moved away to study in another town as I mentioned.
It has the original 5.0 but has got lots of Mustang parts on it and everything is blueprinted. Homemade 2½" stainless steel exhaust with Magnaflow race-cats followed by Flowmaster 40 series.
Car can be seen here: http://www.garaget.org/?car=159087
Well enough of all that. Why am I here?
I recently bought a new winter beater because I was sick of the Saab 9000 giving me constant trouble (what else can you expect from a crap car like Saab?).
So I bought myself a 1995 Lincoln Mark Viii for $6000.
Sounds like alot to you guys but in my opinion and most others, it's not that much even for a student with no income.
I present you, The Ugly Duckling! Yes, it's named that because the car is so darn ugly.
If it's ugly, why did I buy it? Simple. The car is great. I was thinking of Cadillac STS with the Northstar motor but all of the headgasket problems and FWD I changed my mind. Then I thought of Lexus LS400. But that one has timing belt and I HATE IT! I will never own a car with timing belt (The Saab has it yes but it was only temporary and free). Lexus choice fell out. Left me with the Lincoln Mark Viii (note I wanted 250+ HP). Airride suspension, 285hp, v8, the Ford Modular 4.6 that I always wanted. Well, I could ignore the looks of the car
The car is Willow Green with the Ivory (I think) interior. Never been driven on winter in Sweden and 100% rust free. Only a bit of surface rust on the bar that's under the gas tank.
Also, wheels in the front are on backwards. I know.
But the car hasn't been treated with rust preventing goo (no idea what it's called in english) the car has to sit in storage over winter until summer when I can fix it.
So my father and I decided we need a spare parts car.
Simple enough, I went out buying this heap for $3000.
The car isn't too bad actually. It's just that my father is very perfect about things and I've taken the behaviour from him so if a car has one single little rust bubble I consider the car as a rust bucket.
Lots of trouble with it but never mind. Electrical issues for example, god those are always so entertaining
Rusty, broken AC compressor (sounds like a diesel) and bad valve sealings so the car smokes like a steam locomotive.
But hey, it works better than my Saab even though it's electrical problems and mechanical issues! And it's faster too. And more economic (My Saab really wasn't healthy at all. Not at all).
You'll find both Marks here: http://www.garaget.org/?car=267820 Most pics are on the good car, the spare parts car is the last 5 pictures.
Future of the parts Mark. Will be slaughtered on everything useful.
The motor of it will become either spare parts motor for my fathers Cobra (he wants the aluminum engine block) or a replacement motor for his T-bird (if so the engine will be supercharged no doubt).
The rear end is mine. Gonna use it for my future FFR Type 65 Coupe build and also the full air ride suspension is mine (I will definetly need spare parts for that. It will break down sooner or later).
Future of the good Mark (the green one). Turn into a good winter car. Gonna rust proof is as much as possible and just use it on the winter. The car is so sturdy built that I think with good rust protection the car will NEVER rust. No way it will.
Wow, this turned into a long post. I don't have much to do ...
Damn I need to get pictures of all our Fords together. We've got quite a few of them (atleast for being in Sweden). Atm we have 6 Fords. 3 are mine and 3 is my dads.
Anyways, hope you like my Ugly Duckling and I will (ofcourse) take care of it.
My name is Tim and I (as my name and topic title) live in Sweden.
I'm a 19 year old student and I've studied (finished) airplane technician (heavy jets) and at the moment studying helicopters (turbine and piston).
Grown up in a family with big car interest and my parents emigrated to Canada in late 80's and then moved to Texas where I was born (Texarkana).
But silly as my mother was she wanted back to Sweden so 1½ years after I was born they moved back to Sweden and ofcourse bringing a few cars with them. There were a 1989 Ford Bronco (lifted and supercharged with Paxton supercharger), 1991 Lincoln Town Car (which was nominated to Europes finest car 1990 and up 2 years in a row in Europes biggest car meet. I think had like 6k miles since brand new till we sold it in 2003 or something) and they also brought a 1988 Ford Thunderbird SC.
The Bronco was sold (in superb condition) and the Lincoln was sold but my father kept the Thunderbird and after that the Ford family grew. We do like GM too and my father used to own a 1969 Chevelle Malibu 396 but because of some very odd reason GM cars are heavily overpriced in Sweden we stick to Ford. And to be honest, their cars 80's and up are just better.
Skip to now.
The Thunderbird my father brought with him home from the states has been heavily modified with a 347" stroker, T-56 transmission, Ford 9" rear end, upgraded suspension all around, upgraded chassies etc. But still somewhat of a sleeper. And ofcourse, purple paint
That car can be seen here: http://www.garaget.org/?car=247957 (swedish car site, like cardomain)
He also had a 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis LS but that one was rear-ended on Autobahn in Germany. He got insurance money for it (Alot of money, they most likely did some f'ed up calculations) he fixed it up and sold it to his friend.
After that Mercury he bought a 2001 Mercury Grand Marquis LS which he still owns today. And I must say, good build quality on that one (well, not the interior but the metal work). Gone well over 200k miles in Swedish winters (LOTS of salt) and not a single rust bubble even underneath the car.
Anyways, after my father understood he couldn't get more HP out of his Thunderbird without cracking the original engine block he faced the expense of buying a competition engine block.
This is where the funny part comes in.
Instead of buying a new block (which isn't that very expensive) he goes out buying a 2003 Mustang SVT Cobra 10th Anniversery for a daily driver
Imported from Wisconsin in 2008 (he imported it). Funny story is that the guy who sold it didn't want to sell it someone outside the state (!!!). How my father got him to sell it to a Swedish guy is still a mystery.It's whippled with lots of goodies. Can be seen here: http://www.garaget.org/?car=183155
But between all of this I turned 14 and my father thought it was time for me to have my own car.
So we bought a rust-bucket Thunderbird. From 1988 no less. $2000 for a total rust bucket but hell! I owned a v8 car!
The car has been in the garage for restoration for over 3½ years now (can't work on it now because I'm studying 600 miles away from it). The car has everything new. Fully restored and the only piece that is not restored is the inner floor (boot is fixed though, the floor will be fixed when I have time. It's not rusty. Not a bit. Just not grinded down to perfection). The current state of car is failed paint job so I started grinding it down and then I moved away to study in another town as I mentioned.
It has the original 5.0 but has got lots of Mustang parts on it and everything is blueprinted. Homemade 2½" stainless steel exhaust with Magnaflow race-cats followed by Flowmaster 40 series.
Car can be seen here: http://www.garaget.org/?car=159087
Well enough of all that. Why am I here?
I recently bought a new winter beater because I was sick of the Saab 9000 giving me constant trouble (what else can you expect from a crap car like Saab?).
So I bought myself a 1995 Lincoln Mark Viii for $6000.
Sounds like alot to you guys but in my opinion and most others, it's not that much even for a student with no income.
I present you, The Ugly Duckling! Yes, it's named that because the car is so darn ugly.
If it's ugly, why did I buy it? Simple. The car is great. I was thinking of Cadillac STS with the Northstar motor but all of the headgasket problems and FWD I changed my mind. Then I thought of Lexus LS400. But that one has timing belt and I HATE IT! I will never own a car with timing belt (The Saab has it yes but it was only temporary and free). Lexus choice fell out. Left me with the Lincoln Mark Viii (note I wanted 250+ HP). Airride suspension, 285hp, v8, the Ford Modular 4.6 that I always wanted. Well, I could ignore the looks of the car
The car is Willow Green with the Ivory (I think) interior. Never been driven on winter in Sweden and 100% rust free. Only a bit of surface rust on the bar that's under the gas tank.
Also, wheels in the front are on backwards. I know.
But the car hasn't been treated with rust preventing goo (no idea what it's called in english) the car has to sit in storage over winter until summer when I can fix it.
So my father and I decided we need a spare parts car.
Simple enough, I went out buying this heap for $3000.
The car isn't too bad actually. It's just that my father is very perfect about things and I've taken the behaviour from him so if a car has one single little rust bubble I consider the car as a rust bucket.
Lots of trouble with it but never mind. Electrical issues for example, god those are always so entertaining
Rusty, broken AC compressor (sounds like a diesel) and bad valve sealings so the car smokes like a steam locomotive.
But hey, it works better than my Saab even though it's electrical problems and mechanical issues! And it's faster too. And more economic (My Saab really wasn't healthy at all. Not at all).
You'll find both Marks here: http://www.garaget.org/?car=267820 Most pics are on the good car, the spare parts car is the last 5 pictures.
Future of the parts Mark. Will be slaughtered on everything useful.
The motor of it will become either spare parts motor for my fathers Cobra (he wants the aluminum engine block) or a replacement motor for his T-bird (if so the engine will be supercharged no doubt).
The rear end is mine. Gonna use it for my future FFR Type 65 Coupe build and also the full air ride suspension is mine (I will definetly need spare parts for that. It will break down sooner or later).
Future of the good Mark (the green one). Turn into a good winter car. Gonna rust proof is as much as possible and just use it on the winter. The car is so sturdy built that I think with good rust protection the car will NEVER rust. No way it will.
Wow, this turned into a long post. I don't have much to do ...
Damn I need to get pictures of all our Fords together. We've got quite a few of them (atleast for being in Sweden). Atm we have 6 Fords. 3 are mine and 3 is my dads.
Anyways, hope you like my Ugly Duckling and I will (ofcourse) take care of it.
. You will love her. I know it was a typo when your said dads 1988 bird was a SC,TC so close. LOL 
But darn the TC hoods are pretty. 
