Introduction to my 1965 Hardtop Thunderbird

[gist901]

Hi all,

Big greetings from the great state of CT. I wanted to introduce myself and my beautiful girl that I have. She has been with us since my great grandmother, was past down to my grandfather, father and now me. See is completely original and only has 36k miles one her. Mechanically she drive very well ( idlying a little high ) and the interior is completely intact. The speedo works, but the gauges don't seem to be working. However that is only a slight problem.

One of the big issue that i have run accross recently was that we had a little mice infestation in the car. So I decided to pull the rear seats and found 3 nests, 2 that spanned the bottom left and right seat, and 1 that lived in the upper right portion. I have moved forward with removing the nests and hosing down the seats. I also removed all of the thermal insulation as it was contaminated with mice excrement.

So now I am left with the cardboard like dampening material. This material is also rich with mice excrement. Much of this contamination could have occurred over the past 30 years. So now I am left with a cardboard material like substance that I am assuming acts like a sound dampening material. I want to replace this material and the thermal insulation.

My questions are:
1. What is recommended or most commonly used for sound dampening and thermal insulation? ( Could you kindly provide a link to resource )

2. I would like to replace the rug as well, what is / who provides the best replacement rug? ( Or would it be best to remove it, clean it and re-install it since it has no rips )

Thanks for the help and I can't wait to get more involved in this forum,

Best,
Gist

[Rt.146]

Noico insulation and this closed cell insulation www.carinsulation.com/buycarinsulation.html, I used both the Noico on the floor,firewall and tunnel then placed the aluminum sided closed cell foam over the Noico, had the same problem with mice, stripped and heated all the black insulation off.

[stubbie]

You could use Dynomat or similar.
http://www.dynamat.com/automotive-and-t ... superlite/
https://wiki.ezvid.com/best-sound-deadening-mats

[BillD]

Always nice to have a car passed down that has been family owned. My wife has a 66 LTD (true LTD), that was her dad's. I had a 69 Falcon once that had an ant farm under the front bench seat. At least the mice had good taste. All in all,, great car, and for you, great sentimental value.

[sseebart]

I also used Dynomat to replace my insulation. It's easy to work with and does a nice job. I put down two layers.

If your carpet is in good shape, I would absolutely recommend cleaning and reinstalling it. Replacements are generally lower quality and are not simple to install—they come oversized and require a great deal of trimming, fit and finish to look nice.

~Steve

[cacockrum]

I have been very happy with reproductions from Auto Custom Carpets (accmats.com). The one for my '66 was molded so it fit well with only a little trimming, help from a heat gun, and spray-on adhesive. It had padding in the required places on the back side, and to me the carpet material looked just like the factory original. My only complaint was that the heel pad was plastic and looked cheap, so I replaced it with an authentic-looking reproduction.

They also made a set for my '68. Unlike the '66, they did not have a pattern for this year Bird so I sent them my old carpet. It did not fit quite as well as the '66, but it's ok after some trimming, and the material was just like the original.

Regarding soundproofing, I used a combination of Dynamat and the thicker Dynapad material. Rather than buying it from Dynamat, I found to be a lot less expensive if I bought it from another on-line vendor.

[Rt.146]

The covering on your back wheel wells, looks in very good condition same for the back wall, mine had that blacktar insulation in those places, if what is shown in your pic is original Ford was using a better insulation in the 65.

[gist901]

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the responses and the valuable information. I had a family friend who rebuilds classic cars as a hobby come over and check it out today. He told me that the whole interior needs to be replaced, from the headliner, the rugs, and even the the front seats which are in good condition. His logic was that we will never get the smell out of the car unless we replaced everything. Also if we tried just replacing the vinyl on the rear seat and or the front seats, it would look out of place with the headliner and rugs being original. Plus the headliner does need replacing because there are holes in it from where mice have eaten through. There are probably some nests up there.

I think the issue with the smell and the mice wasn’t from just this one incident. But from many small incidents over the years. This last incident was the first time I really decided to take a crack at taking apart the interior and doing some serious investigation. I found taking out the interior to be so much easier than working on modern day car interiors and side paneling. Modern side labeling is such a pain, you pull on the paneling wondering when the clip will release or if it’s just going to break or if it’s actually being held on by a carefully hidden screw. But I digress.

Taking his advice I am going to contact an of auto upholstery shop that he recommended to get a quote. I feel like I could do the upholstery work myself, but I’d rather leave that to the professionals as it’s work that is noticeable. Kinda of like a paint job, I could do it but no. I’ll stick to busting my knuckles while wrenching.

If anybody has any auto upholstery suggestions for tri-state area ( CT, NY, NJ ) please feel free to let me know.

Best,
Gist

[Richard]

There is a good but expensive auto interior shop in Lynbrook Long Island NY called Sunrise on Sunrise Highway..They have been around for a very long time and have a good reputation.
There is another called Phoenix in Franklin Square LI and stay away there work is terrible..Did a real bad job on re foaming my front seats,had to bring back 3 times to get just OK..Also stay away from a LI shop called Dyna Mat also terrible..Hacked my shock tower brace when doing my dual master cylinder and I had to replace and mod myself..Good luck...

[gist901]

Hi all,

Just thought I would give an update on how redoing my interior is coming along. I have finished removing the original sound dampening material and glue in the trunk and in the back seat of the vehicle. Spent too many hours trying to remove the glue that was put down, and there was a lot of it. I tried many different ways of removing the glue but found normal GooBGone and a plastic putty knife to be the best option. Spray the glue, the longer you let it sit the better. Still have to put a little / a lot of elbow grease to get the glue out. I would say I successfully got about 90% of it out, which I was happy with the results.

I finished everything up with a nice wire wheel grind on the rust I discovered under the seats and in the trunk. I also used this opportunity to just remove any remaining glue. I was surprised by how little rust I have on the vehicle. Most of it was surface rust or had pitted the metal already.

So my next plan of action is to apply a rust converter paint to the really bad spots, followed up with Rustoleoum Rust Converter Spray paint, then just spray paint the bare metal spots, apply new sealant where needed, then put down new sound dampening material.

Here are some picks of how she stands:

I have a question about the interior. I am kinda of stuck on how to remove the rear mounding assembly. I have been studying the Interior Manual I have and I think for the side molding trays, I push up on them to releases them from clips that are on the side body? And for the center molding tray I just need to pull it towards the front? (After removing the necessary screws of course)

TIA

[David Langhorne]

You are correct. The side pieces are held in by 2 clips and need to be pushed upwards and then forwards so you have to remove some stainless trim from the rear window edges first. The center tray which comes out first is held by clips at the rear edge and is just pulled out forward although some people have had a struggle with this I seem to remember. Mine came out easily enough though.

[gist901]

You are correct. The side pieces are held in by 2 clips and need to be pushed upwards and then forwards so you have to remove some stainless trim from the rear window edges first. The center tray which comes out first is held by clips at the rear edge and is just pulled out forward although some people have had a struggle with this I seem to remember. Mine came out easily enough though.

Thanks David for the verification. I went back, removed all 10 screws from the center tray. Removed the trim pieces from the side pieces and tried pulling forward and got nothing. Dam thing won’t even budge, got the car rocking quite nicely before I decided to give up.

There aren’t any great places to really hold onto to pull this sucker out. Does anybody have an tips. I don’t want to break anything that is avoidable.

[gist901]

Hi all,

I have made some great progress on my TBird at this time. I have also come across some bad news. First off I got the center package tray out. Took me and a friend to pull that sucker out. It wasn’t rusted to to the clips, but there was tape over the clips that made for a tighter fit. I also got the headliner out and found some nice mice nests up there. And lastly I finally pulled the rugs. That’s where the bad news comes in. The floor pans on the passenger and driver side are competely rotten. Worst of all is that the rocker panel running from front to back is completely rotten as well.

I got a quote today that was to replace the rocker panels and the floor pans. It was quite a shock. The shop quoted me at 8K to replace the rocker panels and floor pans.

Does 8K seem a little high for this type of replacement?

Edit: Sorry I don’t know why some photos have shown up upside down

[Terry64HT]

It seems a bit steep. I checked Classic Sheet Metal in Charlotte, NC and they have the floor pans and outer rockers for less than $500. Putting them in should be pretty straightforward.
Terry
64HT

[David Langhorne]

Sorry to be a kill-joy but just how attached to this car are you? If it were mine I would offload it quick to someone who could do the repairs as a hobby. $8000 could be the tip of a very large iceberg and I reckon for what you will be spending you could get a nice convertible, in fact $8000 would buy you a decent roadworthy car. I never knew my gran but from what I've heard she was careful with money (haha) and wouldn't have appreciated spending
anything without getting a return at the end. It's just a piece of tin when it comes down to it. Of course you could learn to weld and then it may be worthwhile doing it yourself. I doubt you will get a sensible quote as the shop will have no idea of what's involved until they've removed all the existing rust and that's the main part of the work.