Thread: Hello, Im new and this is what Im up to!

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Hey guys, just wanted to say hello. A bit about me... 8 months ago I purchased a 1966 thunderbird off Ebay for $700. It was a spirt of the moment thing and it paid off. The seller was not shal we say "E-Bay friendly" and I managed to get a complete car, one owner since brand new, including owners manual. NO rust anywhere, in fact, when I brought it home friends told me that I should go back and give him more money! LOL The chrome is perfect, interior has one tear in the seat. <---- As you can tell Im really happy with my purchase. Well fast forward to now, the car is in for paint, it will recieve a two tone paint (pearl green on top/champange on bottom) I have shaved everything, no handles, hood "v", emblems and will be putting on some 18" Intro wheels. Here is what it looked like last week before it left for paint.

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This is the direction I am taking with the car.

Nice! I just recently saw that two tone bird in a magazine...now where did I put the dang thing...i gotta go dig that up! Welcome to CHR!

Hey,,,nice car there Thunderchicken,,,i have a 1962 and my son has a 1964 Thunderbird,,i live in Mission B.C.
Nice to have someone local to me.

Hi Thunderchicken. In my younger days (about 69-70) I worked with a guy who had a red ragtop with factory wire wheels. I always loved that car. Yours should be beautiful, too!

Nice buy Looks like you are going to have one sweet ride!! I love them old T-Birds, you should post some pics as you build it up.

"we can rebuild it. We can make it stronger, faster, better than before. We can make it the $700 t-bird!" Welcome to the club thunderchicken. Thats a nice looking project you have there

Originally posted by drg84
"we can rebuild it. We can make it stronger, faster, better than before. We can make it the $700 t-bird!" Welcome to the club thunderchicken. Thats a nice looking project you have there

you've been watching too many six million dollar man re~runs Dave

Originally posted by Thunderbucket
Hey,,,nice car there Thunderchicken,,,i have a 1962 and my son has a 1964 Thunderbird,,i live in Mission B.C.
Nice to have someone local to me.

Holly Crap! No kidding, this alone makes signing up to this site worth it! I have not been able to pick someones brain that is local yet. I may be getting some info off you for the next little bit if you dont mind?

Update on car... Front half has been blocked and is in primer. Hood (now with no "V" emblem in it, just smoothed) front fenders ( smoothed antenna and signal indicator holes, rolled inner fender lip, filled in holes for chrome trim) and the whole lower valance.

One question for you T-Bird guys, now that I do not have the idicator lights, will I have a problem with my marker lights not signaling? Is it a complete circut? If your indicator bulbs burn out, do your marker lights still work? I probably should have checked this out before I ripped the car apart LOL! Ya Im still pretty new at this>







I was totally amazed to find no rust is some of the areas that are known to get eaten away. These are a couple more before it went to paint. Ill take some more next week to show the progress. Thanks for all the feed back guys!

Hey Thunderchicken,,,just in case you dont have this information,,,,one of the best places for New Thunderbird parts is Concours...............you can order a free parts catalog at www.concoursparts.com
and the toll free number for USA and Canada is: 800-722-0009

also,,,have you been in touch with our local Thunderbird parts Guru,,,,?
Kens Classic Thunderbirds in Port Coquitlam?
i'll get you his number if you need it.

and as to your question about the indicator lights,,they should still work without the telltale lights.

I was in Mission on Saturday and came across 3 Thunderbirds!!? One was a 1964 it was cream in color and was for sale for $18K and came with a second car another 1964. There is also a used car lot and the gentalmen that owns it has a 1966 thunderbird for sale for $15k. It was pretty strange in that we were not out looking for them and there they were. We also passed another 1965? thunderbird for sale on the side of the road between Mission and Maple Ridge close to the Jeep dealership Super Daves. It was for $4800 but it had a pretty bad case of car cancer.

Ya Id love that phone # if you could get me it. Currently I have been getting my parts from the Birds Nest but Id love to have a source this side of the boarder.

When you finish your project you will be amazed of the attention you will get. I have a 64 completely done and I have more fun at the cars shows when people come to me and can not believe what I did to it. It takes a brave sole to take on a T-Bird and change its status. We are rare THUNBS UP to you and have fun with the car it will be beautiful.

Looks like you found yourself a really nice Bird, and some great ideas for finishing it off. Being the geezer that I am, only thing I would change if it were mine is to replace the 18's with some 15 X 8 wires, but hey, that's just me!!!!

So a bit of an update for you all. The car was removed from the paint shop 3/4s of it in primer. I guess it was to be under the radar of the owner ( they where going to give me a great deal for paint) but he caught wind of it and said it had to go. Aw well... one good thing was all the work that was done... he didnt charge me for it!! LOL It was pretty much ready to be painted. So at the moment its being stored at our shop and its at a stand still. I cant do body work on it at our shop cause it just gets the place way too dusty. I am working on another option and keep you guys in the loop. So below is a link with some updated pics, the car is actually further along than the pictures so I should take some more. The whole car has now been blocked and the remainder is ready for primer. I was quite lucky in that most areas where pretty straight... that being said though we did a light skim of filler on the whole car to ensure its straight. Something about all that sanding only to be back where you first started (no product on the metal at all) can be a bit discouraging LOL!! Enjoy!!

....http://www.bishopsales.com/feature_c...derbird_1.html




The colors I have chosen.... well pretty damb close anyways! I will have a thin copper met. orange pinstripe breaking the two up.



Changed my mind a bit on the wheels. Decided to go with a 18x8 in front and a 20x8.5 in the rear. Seems to be the way to go these days. That combo is all I saw at SEMA this year. They are the Boyd Codington Magnetos.... Im sure most know but.... I ordered my wheel and tire package back in early summer, the fronts are done but the rears are still not ready??! Apperantly Boyd does not put the crazy time lines on his wheels like he does his rods! LOL

So its had its hick ups but its coming along. I mean... it wouldnt be a project car if everything went smooth right???: