What to look for 68-T-bird buying tips

[Justdigit]

Hi,

First of all greetings from the Netherlands.... I have always been an big fan of T-birds in general.
My favorite Bird is the Square-bird..... but as these are all most to expensive to buy for me, i have narrowed my wishes to the Fifth generation.

Till 1966 T-birds there are lots of info to find and even books (which i own) with buying guides and original specs etc etc.
Unfortunatly after the Forth generations there is less to find..... i know i know for most enthousiasts the forth is the real last T-bird.
But at least it has the 429Ci standard....thats a plus ;)

But my question:

What to look for when buying a Glamour Bird?? What are the weak spots to look for??

Greets Justin

[cbaskin]

get a 2 door, no unusual weak spots, just a beautiful car to drive, love the 67.

[voltron]

I bought a '69 Tudor new and had it for 15 years and was going to have it repainted for the second time when we put it on a lift the rear of the frame was collapsing when it was raising up. When up you could see a lot of rust on the firewall below the heater a/c unit. It had 150,000 miles, the valve covers were never off the engine, only thing ever replaced was water pump. The 429 was a power house its whole life. I could of cried when I had to let it go.

[cacockrum]

My first TBird was a ’68 2-door which I bought in 1970 from a local Ford dealership near Dallas. Being one to hang onto things that I like, I am now finishing a ground-up restoration on this car --- after having recently finished restoring my ’66 convertible. While there are similarities, for the most part they are very different cars. Despite the fact that the ’68 is only 2 inches longer than the ’66 (207 versus 205 inches), it looks significantly longer, maybe because of its longer hood. And they weigh about the same. But the ride is completely different. The ’68 is smooth, quiet and vibration-free, while the ’66 has a much firmer suspension and has some annoying vibrations that come and go on their own accord. It appears that Ford went to some trouble to achieve this (smoother ride) by converting to a coil-spring-based rear suspension and a two-segment drive shift. The rather strange looking vibration damper mounted to the transmission tail piece probably helped too. At the risk of being excommunicated from the Forum, I don’t fully understand why the so-called Glamour Birds are not as popular as the earlier models, but that’s the way it is.

I would put rust at the top of the list of things to watch for. Fortunately, since my car has lived exclusively in Texas and California, except for occasional summer vacations to the Mid West, it avoided winter’s salt baths so the underside is completely rust free. However, there was some easily repaired rust at the bottom corners of the front and rear window openings, and some surface rust on the interior surfaces of the quarter panels and rear roof pillars which I cleaned up as best I could and coated with POR15. I would also dig around the rubber drain seals on the lower edges of the rear quarter panels as they eventually quit draining and instead trap water and later rust. (I suspect that our friends at Ford weren’t too concerned with the thought that some marginally unhinged enthusiasts might be concerned with such things 60 years later.) The other issue is parts. Almost anything you can imagine is available for the first four generations, not so for the fifth (and I assume for later generations also). I found most of the mechanical parts (engine, brakes, suspension, transmission) still available, but not for model-specific stuff. A few specialty places exist, so don’t hesitate to drop me a PM if you are having trouble finding something.

Good luck;
Art

[Justdigit]

Thanks for all the tips.... And sorry for late reply...

I went up to buy a 1964 T-bird....