Vintage Thunderbird Club International

Wow you have been busy! looks fantastic, the clean accessory mounting set up is nice!

Got it running Saturday night. Still have a million details to work out but I should be able to take it for a drive in a couple days. Still gotta put the exhaust on...it's real loud right now






Everything has been to the chrome shop. Still gotta reassemble the heater motor but it's just a dummy now(a/c).




Going to put most of the wires and hoses in chrome convolute tubing.

I was reading through the old forum and found your post . I love what was done to your car and am thinking about
doing the same thing . As far as 4 wheel disc brakes what did you use and did you go to 15 inch wheels ?
thanks
Dan

The main thought I have from observing all this is to hope omnce again that batteries come down in price and I can convet my Bird to electric. Gas powered systems are so wildly convoluted it's obvious that had there been cheap batteries back when Henry Ford was attempting to build an electric car,
no one in his right mind would ever have owned a gas powered vehicle.

Rokhopperyj,

PM sent. Hope to hear from you.

Bill

I have a 393 windsor c4 in a 1955,i did disc and power steering.i found it would be a lot easier installing a 302 size for fitment but the mistake i made was not installing a aod,car is great except on super highways with 373 gear the motor is at 3000 rpm .i will change someday

You can use the t bird shifter on the c4,just tinker a little bit

Got my 302 and Unisteer rack installed in mine. Was easier than I thought it was gonna be. Trying to work out steering shaft from ididit column to the rack now. I installed mine about 3/4" higher than you did but moved it as close to the firewall as possible to get the weight distributed more toward the center of the car. Also allowed me to modify the stock trans x member instead of fabbing something.

Hello, I have recently purchased a 57 thunderbird with a 302 in it. There are no side motor mounts. I will have to manufacture them. I am very interested I. What you have done. Can you email me please a_stoppler@telus.net. Thanks so much

I'm planning a Windsor and AOD in my 55 and am also interested.

Mustang, I would appreciate detailed info. on retaining the OEM shifter when installing a C4. Gene (Flat-O Products) recommends using the Mustang shifter, but I don't like the T-handle. I'm considering using a Lokar shifter, but my transmission builder doesn't like them. He, too, recommends the Mustang shifter. I prefer to keep T-bird shifter, but I want to be able to shift manually through all of the gears. I've read about one C4 conversion/w T-bird shifter being retained, but the owner said that it could not be manually shifted in low gear. PM if you like Thanks.

I'm interested in that as well.

Rokerhopperyj, considering the SBF and C4 have a combined weight that's approximately 300 lbs. less than the Y-block and Fordomatic, what coil springs and shocks did you to to level the car?

I guess Mustang has no personal knowledge regarding using the T-bird shifter with the C4 transmission. Not very helpful.

I have a 56, yblock and a C4. Using the Tbird shifter. Because of the limited throw of the Tbird shifter, you will not be able to use low. A friend who did the same thing, also cannot use low. He originally was able to access all gears, but had a problem keeping it in park because of the limited throw and readjusted the shifter , not utilizing low.

I have no problems with not using low