Vintage Thunderbird Club International

Seriously, this is so cool.

Ok, our first big trip and we averaged 13.8 mpg. I am certainly happy with that. My timing was set at 14* but near the end of our trip in a nice long grade, I was able to check for pinging so I open it up a little and heard pinging under load. I readjusted timing to 12* and will test again tomorrow....

I remember your posts on the fibers, that must have been a challenge to figure out also. My fuel cell is spotless. the jets are squirting, I'm not sure if the vacuum advance on the distributer is working, the carb and filters are new. Thanks for the reply Bob Hey Rich, if it's squirting, make sure ...

The 57 builds up a lot of heat within the engine compartment, some say the 312 is a big engine in a small compartment. They also say the waterpump does not have a lot of flow. So depending on driving conditions you may or may not see any result of the fairly small gap created. For me, anything that ...

PaulUK1955, any update on this?

Over the last year I could actually watch the gauge go down as I was driving, used about ½ tank cruising up the freeway about 20 miles. Obviously today it is a different story. Over the last couple weeks, I drained and clean my fuel tank, dialed in my timing, adjusted valves, cleaned and adjusted ca...

When I had this issue with mine, it was the accelerator pump jets. The small jets were plugged with small fibers that were coming from the fuel tank. When You hit the throttle you should see fuel squirt, if you don't see the squirt then the jets are plugged, the spring is not installed correctly, th...

Yea, we like cruising locally with the top down, but I expect long freeway driving will be more comfortable with the top up. I guess that's why some people have a soft top.

paul2748 wrote:Your AAA card can be your best friend.

Got that right.

http://r.search.yahoo.com/_ylt=A0SO8wVm6_JYp2kAlXdXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEycDU0b3FnBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwM3BHZ0aWQDQjMzODdfMQRzZWMDc3I-/RV=2/RE=1492343782/RO=10/RU=http%3a%2f%2fwww.faxonautoliterature.com%2f1957-Ford-Car-Thunderbird-Repair-Shop-Manual-Original-P13240.aspx/RK=0/RS=JZ7hN_c96lJYTfXdayTllMMkFp0- ...

I am curious, do the wives like it better with the hard top on with the vents open, or hard top off with the wind and hair whipping them in the face the entire trip. We are headed to San Diego coast, its about 80 miles down a busy freeway, temps probably in the mid 70's, lots of cars, lots of trucks...

So far so good. Running sweet, can't wait for Wednesday (birthday) cruise to sandiego. Gonna take some tools, parts and my AAA card just in case.

Driving with the top off I am a bit worried about where to park... Nutts, if it's not one thing to worry about, its another. On those long trips I Imagine you have nervously parked in a couple of questionable areas. Does it get easier to pull up into a parking spot and walk away, without looking bac...