Vintage Thunderbird Club International

So I'm seeing how the uploading works on this site since photobucket has gotten greedy. Mostly been trunk work last month, the 2 open boxes above the flat floor will be plexiglass so you can see the IRS (I didn't want to hide something that took so much work). The flat part of the floor will have the fuel cell/tank in it. like I said in my last post, I'm messing with the dash (primarily the dash cap), I've also cut out some rust and will eventually be repairing the rear quarter; its 1/2 as bad as the drivers side though.

Not to sure how fiberglass would stick in the long run on vinyl. It may delaminate over time. I think I would grind off any lumps and bumps then drill some 1/8 holes into the urethane foam so that the resin soaked into it and acted like an anchor point.

Finally got a chance to paint the front wheel wells, trunk, and underbody with raptor bedliner, pretty happy with the results - now I can start bolting the IRS up for good. The dash fiberglassing is going pretty well, I drilled holes in the foam like stubbie suggested and it feels firm, just need to start 'profiling' it, hoping to have the dash back in the car in a few weeks to be ready for wiring.

No real progress recently with life getting in the way but figured I'd check in. I bought the rest of the mark viii harness and Ecm that I think I'll need to get the engine running (eventually). hurricane Irma came by last week and knocked out power for a bit. My parents live on the coast here in FL so they came inland for the storm bringing my dads car so potential storm surge didn't wash it out of their garage (ended up not having any surge, everything's fin everywhere for us). I'm also switching jobs here next week and picking an extra 30mins up on my commute so we'll see how much time that will take from the project too, but things will still get done!

Been a while, making optimistic progress on wiring, and have the clutch installed but with the new job and the holidays things are slowing down for now (goal is 5-8hrs/wk) I think th stock engine harness will work almost unaltered, need a month or,so to save for some fuel system and EEC hardware...oh and my daily driver truck got hit while parked so I need to fix that so I have something to take to work now, just no getting ahead.

Slow progress, but better than none! In case I havnt offended anyone yet with this build, I found a nice pair of Cadillac sts heated/cooled/full power seats to put in instead of the stock buckets; they were $40/ea! I had to cut some more of the floor out to make them sit low enough (they are the same footprint as the stock ones, except the seat back is higher -plus I'm 6'5" and wasn't going to fit nicely without lowering something anyways). I'm still playing around with wiring; hoping to make some major progress on that front soon though.

Seats like that leave just enough room in the back seat for a sound system. Extra credit, too, if you make the cooling system in them work.

~Steve

That seat position is a bit deceiving, but like I said, being 6'5", any back seat is uninhabitable behind me for adults unless it's a megacab truck. I intend to get the cooled seats working, it doesn't have a/c ducting like you would think, just a small blower motor to blow air on your butt and back.

I've been following along with a lot of interest, but now that the motor's shot in my 64, I've been looking at options. This kind of work my be (at least today) a little out of my skill level, but still . . .

There haven't been a lot of updates this year. I was wondering if you hit a fatal snag in the project (something that just won't fit or operate correctly) or if it's just that something else has taken your attention and time.

~Steve

I would like to see more as well. Looks like a big project. Most people would not tackle a car with that much rust. My hat is off to you. Good luck.

Your skills restoring this car are showing up nicely, you do make it look easy, though I know otherwise. Have you ever considered putting a Tiptronic transmission vs manual?

I’m thinking about undertaking a similar project with my bondo sled 66 when it comes apart for body repairs later this year. Got any updates for us?