Vintage Thunderbird Club International

Don't know if anyone has swapped out seats like that, but it should be pretty simple.

Others have tried reducing weight, but with the unibody construction, there are not a lot of options: https://www.vintagethunderbirdclub.net/ ... =25&t=7209

~Steve

You can see in my photo that the shaft was a few millimeters too long, too. I know others that have used the a Rare Parts shafts with no trouble (Paul, you out there?), But I thought I was alone with this issue. Fortunately, I didn't have the trouble you did putting them together. Getting the old on...

I.e., was the bushing per the factory installation originally supposed to travel with the control arm as it went up and down with the suspension? Or was it supposed to be stationary? This has been discussed here before, and I believe the consensus was that the arm actually rides on the threads. Tha...

Thanks a bunch for the background, Alan. Your expertise is greatly appreciated. That explains a lot...including why the shop manual shows control arm bushings with no zerks in them. Mystery solved. I'm still curious as to why my rearward shaft bushings have what appear to be plugged holes in them. ...

stubbie wrote: ↑Sun Jun 07, 2020 9:00 pm Steve I lift my hood on and off with the engine crane and some ropes 2 front to back on either side and 2 left to right front and back, all meet at the lifting hook.

Do you have a photo of the set up? Having trouble picturing it!

I finally tackled this project today. My wife stood by for safety's sake most of the time, though once the engine was in the bay there was little chance of a catastrophic failure. 20200607_122720.jpg Overall, the project took 4+ hours, including time to set up a tool cart beforehand. Hardest part wa...

New timing chain the mechanic I brought it to, though the timing chain I put in was not align, so that was checked out. I checked my starter. one bolt was missing, one was loose though here is what I know, I did tighten all three bolts, thought one "bolt" was a hex bolt from the previous ...

On a newly rebuilt engine with a new flat tappet cam, it is very important to add ZDDP to help break in the cam properly. Rotella has more ZDDP that ordinary oil, but I'm concerned that one of cam lobes has been wiped. Pull off the oil filter, open it up and look for iron filings. Thanks for this r...

On my 64, the top end of the line terminates on the driver's side, where (normally) rubber tubing connects it to the check valve there. Perhaps you can reverse-engineer from there?

~Steve

I know you all are rolling your eyes by now. I did search for earlier posts, but couldn't find anything to address this issue, so here goes: 66 tbird with a rebuild stock 390 by a local reputable builder. Engine runs flawless. When I initially run engine, its nice a quiet. After 30 min or so on a h...

Rt.146 wrote: ↑Fri Jun 05, 2020 6:39 am . . . other than adjusting the timing chain and a new distributor.

Well, now I'm curious. Do you mean installation of a new timing chain? Because I can't think of any way to adjust it.

~Steve

64ZCODE wrote: ↑Mon Jun 01, 2020 2:40 pm Out here in California, to get more than $18K for a flair bird, it'll need to be a concours quality restoration.

I've seen decent convertibles in Northern California in that price range.

Thanks, everyone. I actually took a stab at this a few weeks back, and as you can see from the photo, I am an idiot: I (partially) welded the bung on before noticing that the flange was on the wrong side . I had to order some new bungs, then wait out a severe heat wave, but am hoping to cut this one...

I don't see any reason you can't keep the original valve covers--they are far superior to any other steel covers you can buy today. Switching to a taller aluminum cover could lead to clearance issues--might keep your car off the road longer. If the motor is otherwise running fine, I'd do a an inspec...

I'm curious to know what happened to the old spring that required replacement. Did it break? Rather than mess around with potential replacements that may not work as well, I'd replace the whole unit with a good used part. Many of the regular vendors have a selection of used parts that aren't catalog...