Vintage Thunderbird Club International

[birdstheword]

Hello all, found this place searching for info on my new project. I didn't see any place for newbie introductions... :D I've been lurking here & at fordfe.com gleaning what I can for the past couple of months, looking forward to getting input & advice from the knowledge base here. :)

this is how she sits now... I've stripped the roof since the pic...




this is where I'm hoping to go... 445 stroker... etc.


Bill

[TsNStangs]

Welcome aboard, Bill!
I've always liked that body style in its two-door version, looks like you've got a great car to start with there, too .
But WOW, that last pic!?! That's a knock-out! Now THAT I might even consider giving up my '66 for! Wowwww
Best of luck with your build, and please keep us up-dated!
_________________
~ Daniel
"No trees have been killed in the sending of this message,
but a large number of electrons have been inconvenienced."
'Wendy' - '66 Q-code (428) Town Hardtop, Diamond Blue w/ Silver Mink Interior
VTCI #11333

[birdstheword]

Thanks for the welcome. :) I think this model of Thunderbird is really overlooked potential-wise, I've only been able to find a couple 67-69's that have been resto'd/modded on the internet. That last pic is a photoshop, when I was deciding whether or not to pick this one up I played with a few options to see how it'd look. It was a free car, so it wasn't a hard choice to make...




I like the lines of this car as a roadster, but too much work for me.


I don't really like the look of cowl induction, so I'm planning on cutting the hood, simply because I don't want to be confined by it when building the engine. Considering how far back the engine sits, I think cutting a notch out of the back of the hood and building the scoop as part of the air cleaner/cold air assembly will be easier than trying to blend a scoop into the hood, although I still have to figure out what that will do to the hood structually.
On to a little tech... When stripping the roof, I found that the trim around the rear window had trapped debris & moisture and cause a little bit of rot. It's really the only rot I've been able to find as of yet, but I'm not sure how I should go about fixing it.

driver's side-



pass side-



Considering that this part of the car is covered by vinyl, is cutting it out & replacing with a patch panel warranted? Could I get away with using something like a rust converter/POR15/body filler and epoxy-primering over it? It's only eaten a hole thru on the passenger side. It doesn't seem to have caused any problems in the trunk yet, the drain tubes that run from the 'vent' below the rear window were rotten, and had caused a little surface rust in the bottom of the trunk, but nothing major.
How does the rest of the trim around the roof come off? The rear window trim was easy enough to get off without tweaking, but I don't like to force things without knowing how it's made to come off...

I removed all the pieces of the grill/headlight assemblies I'm not going to use.



I'm planning on a one-piece black billet grill that the headlights will shine thru. I'm trying to figure out a way to convert the outer lights into combo hi/lo beams, and use the places where the inner 2 lights were for cold air intakes with ducting thru the radiator support to the air cleaner/scoop assembly. Depending on how the new grill looks, I may/not use the grill emblem in the same place.
Some more pics on page 2 of my flickr.
_________________
'67 Tudor Landau
'51 GMC Series 150