Thread: New Project 63 Thunderbird!

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Well the 64 has been basically a "filler" project that I work on when I hit a stopping point on other projects (like waiting on stuff from the body shop etc.

It's pretty much in the same shape as it shows in the last post I made to the build thread. As my next major project is building a new shop over the next year or so (and currently that is where all the money is going). It will probably come back into the shop for a while after I get back from vacation at the end of the month however. I have all the parts to do the brakes including a front disc conversion, so it's something I can do without sending any money. I do fire it up and move it occasionally, but it's not a lot of fun when I only have the emergency brake

The Plymouth I built was my 57 Plaza. I stuffed and old Hemi with Tri-Power and a 4 speed in it to drive to Tulsa to see them dig up the Buried Plymouth last year. You might recognize the hood scoop on it (hint…. it came off the same car your working on).

As far as the Tri-Power intakes go, the 61-63 Birds had the engine sitting fairly level (but they still use the spacer to finish leveling the carb on the single 4BBL versions. The Tri-Power intakes sit level with all the carbs at the same height. They are also a VERY low rise style in order to have sufficient air cleaner clearance (as it is the air cleaner actually sits up in the hood scoop.

On the full size cars like my 64 the engine actually tilts back at a pretty good angle (if you look closely at some of the pictures in the other post you can actually see this). The Tri-Power intakes for these cars were a high-rise version and the height of the carbs was higher in the rear than the front plus the bases were also slightly angle milled (if memory serves correctly). Basically even though the engine was not level on the full size cars the carbs and air cleaner gave the illusion that it was. A T Bird tri-power can be used on the full size cars (the floats may have to be adjusted down a bit) but the full size car version will not allow the hood to close if used on a Bird.