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69t-birdchris

CHR Member

Registered: May 2005
Location: bath , England UK
Posts: 17

1969 Ford Thunderbird

VIN: 9J83N112768
Decoded:
9 - 1969
J - Built In Los Angeles CA
83 - 2 Door Hardtop
N - 429 (4v)
112768 – Consecutive Numbers
Production Codes:
Body 65A – 2 Door Hardtop
Color I – Medium Lime Metallic
Trim 2A – Black Vinyl
Date 09K – October 9th
DSO 71 – Los Angeles
Axel Trans 4U – Axel 4 is a 2:80:1
Trans U is a C6 gearbox

Things That Need Doing

Since having the car I have purchased new exhaust manifolds. I have fitted the driver’s side manifold and have taken out studs from the passenger side of the head so I can continue fitting them. At the moment, there are problems fitting them, as the screws don’t want to go into the head, maybe it needs re-drilling???
Once the manifolds are on I will need to replace the whole exhaust system. It has one on but a silencer has broken off, exhaust does not look to be the correct one for car. I may temporarily fix the current one so it is drivable.

The headlight covers don’t rotate anymore – this can be confirmed when exhaust is fixed as they are only supposed to work when engine is running. The hydraulic motors may need replacing, these can be found reconditioned in the U.S.

I will need to check all lights, indicators etc when car runs to see if they work, I know the headlights work but still need to come to grips with the button for them.

All of the driver side electrics bar the rear window do not work. Drivers door panel needs removing to get to the buttons, as this is a known problem and will most likely be the buttons. They will need cleaning and maybe replacing. The electric seats also don’t work so this will have to be checked.

The rubber seal between passenger front and rear window has perished and will need replacing before I wash the car as it will leak.

Things That Need Buying

Set of 4 original hubcaps < $300
Exhaust - £350 from Power flow Exhausts Essex

What If I Want To Tune Her Up

The car has C8VE heads on her so I should get 18 cc Pistons or Flattop Pistons and deck the block one zero and run a .040” compressed gasket.
Exhaust porting will reveal tremendous gains in any ford block.
Get an xr292r cam; this is a solid roller cam with a pretty choppy idle,
- 750 – 950 cfm carburettor. Punch out the holes.030 to make a 466 cid.
As this is a streetcar use a weiend stealth intake.
This is a recipe for about 600hp if the heads are done right.
Dependant on what you intend to do with the car. If it's street driven, a 950 carb is going to be way too big. An 850 will work well on a highly modified motor, a 750 will work well on a warmed over motor and a 650 would be the choice for a cruiser that will see no drag strip duty.
The stock timing chains used to stretch real quick at low mileage. Remove the distributor cap and watch the rotor while you rotate the crankshaft back and forth with a 15/16 wrench (I think) the wrench shouldn’t move more than about 5 degrees with out moving the rotor. A new roller timing chain set at 0 like tech inspector is good for 30 horses

Cost Of Tuning

Bigs 950 double pumper holly carburettor - $900 (approx.)
Rest is unknown as of yet!

Although there were several variations to the engines of the 385-series family, only two displacements were available---the 429 cubic inch and the 460 cubic inch. Both were introduced in 1968 and lasted until 1973. These engines were heavier and larger than Ford's predecessor---the FE Family

Ford 385-Series Family
429 (Thunderjet)
· Two-bolt main bearing cap
· Bore and Stroke 4.36x3.59
· Cast-iron crankshaft
· Forged-steel connecting rods with 3/8 inch rod bolts
· Cast-aluminum pistons
· Hydraulic lifter camshaft
· 2.08 inch/1.66 inch intake/exhaust valves
· Non-adjustable rocker arms
· Cast-iron intake manifold
· 4 barrel or 2 barrel carburettor
· Was available in Ford and Mercury automobiles
· Full Size (Custom, Galaxie, T-Bird, Etc)
· Year: 65-72
· Bolt Pattern 5X114.3
· Lug Size: 1/2 –RH
· Lug Type: Nut
Usefull Things To Know
C-6 tranny problem. Most of the C-6 installations in Cougars have a vacuum kick down line with a 3-inch curled vacuum hose to connect from the transmission to the vacuum line. This likes to open up! With the vacuum leak, the transmission will not downshift. The leak also can make the engine run roughly. Crawl underneath your car and check the condition of this hose. There will be lots of grease, so you will have to pull the vacuum hose off to really check for a crack or tear. Use good line and install a full loop in the line instead of the original formed "J" shape. Using an Edelbrock/600 cfm setup would be about right for the car.
Calculating CFM: Engine size (CID) x Maximum RPM / 3456 = CFM
- CFM @ 100% Volumetric Efficiency.

Although there were several variations to the engines of the 385-series family, only two displacements were available---the 429 cubic inch and the 460 cubic inch. Both were introduced in 1968 and lasted until 1973. These engines were heavier and larger than Ford's predecessor---the FE Family
So far!
So far this is the story: After buying her in late 2004 I stored her in a garage for around a year or so whilst I got a new job and found laces that could fix her up etc. etc. I pulled her out around January 2006 and got hold a place that could get her running and do the necessary work on her. I knew the guys at this particular place and they knew a lot about these type of cars - Real Cars not some jap crap, and they started tinkering. The heads were sent away to be re-drilled as they were a mess and one hole where the manifolds bolt on had been re-drilled previously and had burst through the water jacket – not good. Anyway I had that done and then they started looking at the rest of the car. I had the air con and heater matrix all re-cored as they were badly corroded, at some point in the past the cover for these had been broken and played with and it was in a number of pieces when it came off of the car so I had to replace that. I couldn’t find one anywhere and it was a must have so my dad got his fibreglass kit out and got busy with it. He got it done and it now looks pretty smart so we got that put back on. In the mean time whilst I was waiting for that to be fixed I found a complete wiring diagram online for the car and had printed that out so we could get things like the rear sequential indicators working as they were dead so that was getting started – the pop up headlamps at the front had been sorted – all the piping was worn out so it was replaced with copper tubing to prevent it failing again and now they work fine. One of the rear silencers on the exhaust was fixed back on as a temporary bodge as I’m gong to drive the car to a place in London to get a new one put on so that’s nothing to worry about just yet. Lets see what else has been done and what have I found out??? hmmmmm. Yes, I need to get a new air filter as the carb is an aftermarket one and we don’t know what make it is but the air box doesn’t fit on so I will replace that with a nice chrome one - I’ll get some valve covers too, I see them on ebay all the time so that’s not to worry about. I have found out that the car has somewhat been lowered and I don’t know if the springs have been cut or how much lower it is but I know its probably just around 5 inches off the ground, I hope that’s not a problem for me when I come to get over speed bumps! INDICATORS! The garage guys gave me some kind of relay for the rear sequential indicators as it needed either fixing or replacing , so far I haven’t been able to do anything to it or find a new one so I went down the other day and got wiring up a new set through the reversing lights as they need to be amber in colour for the MOT, I got two Vauxhall relays, one for the left and one for the right , and so far I nearly have it all there. I had the left working all round and got the front driving lamps to flash too - I had to switch the side lights around as the wrong ones were indicators but now they’re fixed, the goodies inside the steering column were a bit fiddly, I had to do a little soldering do make a connection for the left signal and but currently I have lost the right indicators completely so I will have to look at it all again as I had to stop due to bad weather - it keeps raining!!! DAMN .She sounds great though, I can go and start her up anytime and she never fails to start, no horrible sounds anywhere in the engine, its great.
So, here we are its July 2006 and the cars been in the garage since around February - I’ve missed nearly all of this years car shows but what the hell – she’s nearly road worthy - next step – getting the body work sorted as there’s a few little bits of rust and I might replace the vinyl roof as it has a few marks on it and I think it may be starting to rust a little from the inside. Not Long Now I hope!

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we came , we saw , stood around for a bit , we went home

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