Vintage Thunderbird Club International

Tried stripping the paint off the quarter panel, but the grinder took it down better than the liquid stripper, there was a lot of bondo in there for no reason at all that I could tell. I welded up the big hole by the roof panel, but uncovered a couple smaller ones while I was sanding the paint off

So, you are filling the fuel door hole? Where is the gas tank going to be?

jtschug wrote:So, you are filling the fuel door hole? Where is the gas tank going to be?

What I've done in the past is put an aluminum 20gal tank in the trunk. It's a cleaner look for the quarter panel, with the tank in the trunk in the middle you can pull up on either side of a gas pump, and you don't need a locking gas cap with it in the trunk!

Here's my other car to give you an idea, with the depth of this trunk I bet the tank can be more flush to the floor.

Not sure if his was a sound decision, but I bought another engine...this project started around the drivetrain out of an 02 mustang GT, but after looking at other builds and threads if become more interested in the DOHC motors. This is from a 98 mark viii, so it should be a 'Teksid' block and ran when I pulled it, I think it'll look a lot better in the engine compartment than the SOHC and will be a better platform for any future mods. my goal is to have the underbody painted this week, order the body paint, and have the new engine installed for good by the end of the month.

That's an all-aluminum motor, isn't it? Gonna shave a bunch of weight off the car--should be very interesting to drive. What are you planning for clutch/transmission behind it?

~Steve

I'll be interested to see what the weight is too, I think I'm adding some weight with the IRS, but the front end with the aluminum k-member and engine should save a few.

The transmission is 5 speed tremec tr-3650, the stock clutch is worn so I'll need to replace it, but I don't know what I should replace it with. Im going to leave the dohc engine stock, So it should only be making 300hp (I'd think a stock clutch should be ok). The linkage I'm going to buy an aftermarket adjustable cable meant for the 00's mustang.

Things look better when they're painted all the same color! Still a lot of work to do, I've already sanded these panels since the pics, I'm hoping to paint the frame rails and firewall black this week. I ordered the paint for the body-it's going to be 'Arctic blue'!

It's hard to get a good picture of the black, but the frame rails, underbody, and firewall are painted with raptor bedliner, I'm really happy with how it's turned out. It's texture is very fine and has a satin finish (we've used it a couple other times on underbodies and stuff...). The rest of the engine compartment will be body color after a couple weeks of sanding.

Finally got to open the paint can and see what this paint looks like on the car. I've never sprayed anything other than primer before (my dads painted at least a dozen cars, so I never had to worry about it before), so I've learned a few things about what not to do next time...when I was spraying the base coat I realized that in the front corners I was blowing dried paint chunks off of the masking and into the paint. But overall I'm very happy with how things turned out

Next up is to change some seals on the engine, paint it, and hopefully install it in the car for good next weekend...I still need to decide on what to paint the valve covers though: ford racing blue, body color metallic, or crinkle black...

I think that this was the most gratifying day of this build yet. I replaced the rear main seal, oil pan gasket and installed new motor mounts and a new stock clutch before getting to see the transmission bolted to the DOHC engine for the first time. The engines finally installed, hopefully for good, now I have more space in the garage and can (re)turn my attentions to bodywork.

The engine looked clean inside when I took the oil pan off; I also had sent an oil sample out to get analyzed.

That looks fantastic, well done Hitman.

Going to be easy from here on! No, just kidding, heaps to do but this will give you some extra incentive.

Graeme

Not much new, just boring bodywork except I found a good deal on a set of headers, should be a good improvement over the stock logs...I also got an H pipe, an electric fan and underdrive pulley setup for a chunk less than a new set of headers

I got my parts back from powdercoating/ ceramic coating Next big move is to turn the car around in the garage so I can do rust repair on the passenger side. Planning a trip to the junkyard so I can get some rear springs and brake master parts too.

Just started following this write up and thoroughly enjoy it. I have a 66 and also have a Mark 8 IRS laying out by my garage, that I have been thinking of putting under it. Also am very interested in the K member you used, what is it out of and how much those cost? Any info on those would be appreciated. Keep up the great post. Thanks Mike

Thanks Mike. The front end is out of an early 00's lincoln town car, but I think are also in that same era crown Vic. I think I paid ~$300 for it, I think I also have $80 in steering u-joints and rods to connect to the stock steering. but there's still some money that I need to dump into it...I don't know how because on paper the town car is close in weight to the tbird, but I have the car on the ground now and bouncing my weight on the car the suspension doesn't move at all. So I'm going to have to do a bit of research and probably buy some lighter springs.