Motor swap in a 65

soufkackicustom · Post by **soufkackicustom** » Wed Dec 05, 2012 11:21 pm

Little background on the car. I got it when I was 14 from the original owner s granddaughter who couldn't park it in the school parking lot. It's a 65 landau, i y gold/ivy gold. power driver seat, recline passenger seat, a/c and a few other odds and ends. The car had 84,000 miles on it when I drove it home. It smoked because of bad valve seals. So father/son project time. We pulled the motor, had it rebuilt. Figured why not the tranny, so off it went, rebuilt the brakes, suspension, and rear end....well I graduated high school,
And the car was never finished. It had been started
Maybe 4 times since 94 and the brakes never had fluid in them. So iam about to buy my first house and my tbird that has seen 4,000 trailer miles since 2000, will finally have a home.

Enough rambling, iam thinking of selling the 390 (yes it is a numbers matching car) and swapping in a 5.0 or a 347 stoker FI motor.
Since I can visibly see the rubber lines off the brake booster, I would like a brake upgrade too. I can get a hold of ex police cars pretty cheap, and was wondering if a crown Vic would make a good doner, and maybe use the 4.6 out of it. And I do have a 2000 explorer 4x4 that has a 8.8 31 spline 3.73 posi in it....any one gone as far as swapping in all modern stuff?

sseebart · Post by **sseebart** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 1:09 am

From the tone of your post, it looks like you're mostly interested in getting the car going again, not creating a one-off custom with modern mechanicals and a retro look.

I have seen at least one project with a new, fuel-injected drive train in a flair bird. Sorry I can't point to a link. I can say that it looked like tens of thousands of dollars had been invested.

Swapping out drivelines is far more complex than it seems. On my car, someone put in a transmission that is close, but not quite, right for the car. Even though the trans is similar, the shifter, kickdown linkage, throttle, trans cooler lines, etc were all cobbled together and didn't work right. And that's just the trans!

Bottom line on motor swaps is that a small block just won't motivate all that iron:
http://www.vintagethunderbirdclub.net/p ... php?t=1092

Of course, if you're looking to spend some serious time and money on the car, it's possible to build something pretty special on the Thunderbird platform:
http://www.vintagethunderbirdclub.net/p ... php?t=6013

~Steve

soufkackicustom · Post by **soufkackicustom** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 9:12 am

I am either looking to do a full resto, or a resto mod. Since day one of owning this car we had talked about not keeping it original...but that was almost 20 years ago. In 94 a FI swap wasn't really a logical option...now it is. And since I don't live close enough to my parents anymore, I will now be the father in the father/son project, as I really have all intentions of giving the bird to my son when he turns 16..he his 2 now.

Iam not to into fords. Now a ls Chevy swap is no problem, did one in our 85 c-10 show truck, and of course swapped a few Hondas. And I've built my fair share of bagged/body dropped s-10s. My current project is a 30 model a rat rod

The second link is right along the lines of what iam really wanting. Air ride, 4-500hp daily on pump gas, staggered wheels, disk all the way around. The 400+ hp isn't a problem, the mustang guys do it all the time around here, but they are all carb'd.

And a little background on me, I run a car customizing shop, so wheels, air suspension and stuff like that is everyday, we just don't do motors

sseebart · Post by **sseebart** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 10:57 am

In your first post, sounded like you were in a little over your head.

Guess I misread that. . .

I do believe, though, that it's torque you need, not horsepower, and the FE is not a bad place to start.

Post pics on the progress . . . would love to see how it comes along.

~Steve

soufkackicustom · Post by **soufkackicustom** » Thu Dec 06, 2012 12:41 pm

its not coming along at all right now...Iam finally ready to buy a house this year, and will finally have a spot to finish/redo what i started so many years ago...so Iam ready to start collecting parts.

as she sits now...yes outside

i store my car cleaning supplies in it, I try to keep the leaves blown off it everytime I do the yard..so this weekend it will be leave free..again

soufkackicustom · Post by **soufkackicustom** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 8:51 am

It's been awhile. Finally bought a house, so at least the bird has a home. It's still outside, I hope to have my shop built by the first of the year. But, Iam getting time to work on her. Today I stripped of the landau top, and to my surprise, there's three holes just under the landau bars. Iam thinking they are for the thunderbird emblem that's on a standard hard top. My buddy is going to come over and weld them up, then the plan for right now is to lay down a coat of flat black, then start stripping the paint, and flat black the entire car. I hope to have it on the road to go to the run to the sun in myrtle beach next year, and I should be able to start acquiring parts for when my shop is done, so I can tear it completely apart. I think the flat black with the ivy gold interior will look pretty good.

mcgsxr · Post by **mcgsxr** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 4:06 pm

At a recent car gathering near where I live in Toronto, there was a guy there with a 64 with all modern drag drivetrain, and NO interior. Just a seat, roll bar etc.

The car looked good in flat black for sure.

Oddly, he was running late model MOPAR 20's. They fit, and looked good too.

scumdog · Post by **scumdog** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 9:33 pm

soufkackicustom wrote:i

i store my car cleaning supplies in it, I try to keep the leaves blown off it everytime I do the yard..so this weekend it will be leave free..again

Yep, keep on top of those leaves - rotting leaves can be pretty acidic and your car won't thank you for leaving them there!

soufkackicustom · Post by **soufkackicustom** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 10:08 pm

mcgsxr wrote:At a recent car gathering near where I live in Toronto, there was a guy there with a 64 with all modern drag drivetrain, and NO interior. Just a seat, roll bar etc.

The car looked good in flat black for sure.

Oddly, he was running late model MOPAR 20's. They fit, and looked good too.

I wonder if he had the stock disc.....I need a set of wheels to roll the car around on, and can get ahold of a set of steelies off a 300/charger no problem

soufkackicustom · Post by **soufkackicustom** » Mon Jun 17, 2013 10:43 pm

scumdog wrote:
soufkackicustom wrote:i

i store my car cleaning supplies in it, I try to keep the leaves blown off it everytime I do the yard..so this weekend it will be leave free..again
Yep, keep on top of those leaves - rotting leaves can be pretty acidic and your car won't thank you for leaving them there!

Since I just bought a house, it's no longer sitting under trees. I also got a canopy Iam going to put over it, so I'll have a little work space till my shop is built. 30x30,10 foot tall, 2 doors and a 2 post lift. I ran a car customizing shop for 7 years, and just recently changed careers, so I'll run my side business out of it as I still have a good size client list. I got a 2002 Saleen Iam upgrading the water/air system for the supercharger, and redoing the audio system. Working in the driveway is getting old, at least it's cement