Is the vinyl top padded on 66?

[Privateer]

Hi, when I bought my 66 Town Landau the previous owner had removed the vinyl top and liked the look of it without it so when he repainted it he left it off. I'm having a local upholstery shop put on a new vinyl top and they wanted to use their supplier, although they were uncertain if the top had any padding or not. I tried some searching and could not come to a definitive conclusion if it was and how thick the padding is if it is padded. I'm sure I could have avoided all of this by ordering the top from one of the Thunderbird parts suppliers... lesson learned. Any information would be great to I can get the correct top on it. Thanks

[60fore]

I believe the padding was discontinued either part way through model year '64 production, or after. So your '66 would not have had any padding under the top.

Corrections, if needed, are welcomed.

[David Langhorne]

My Feb build '65 had padding originally judging by the remains I found round the rear window aperture but lost it long ago by the looks of it.

[cacockrum]

My '66 (which was built late in the model year) definitely has padding, but not under the entire top. It extends from the belt molding, under the landau bars and up to the seam which is located at the break point in the top. It continues forward under the narrow portion of the vinyl above the door windows, but again stops at the seam. There is no padding around the rear window. I don't know the exact thickness, but it is fairly thin --- you can feel that it is there, but does not look puffy as is the case for some other cars of that vintage. The good folks at Original Auto Interiors ( originalauto.com or 586-727-2486) might be willing to tell you how thick it should be. My '68 landau does not have padding.

[60fore]

After some further investigation, I found a post from Alan Tast stating that the top padding deletion was a running change during the '65 model year, not '64 as I previously stated. But the answer for the OP remains the same ie. no top padding on '66 models.

http://www.vintagethunderbirdclub.net/p ... ing#p58601

[cacockrum]

I find the following very interesting:

After some further investigation, I found a post from Alan Tast stating that the top padding deletion was a running change during the '65 model year, not '64 as I previously stated. But the answer for the OP remains the same ie. no top padding on '66 models.

I bought my '66 landau in 1980. I don't know much about it's previous history, except that it was a California car with about 98000 miles and seemed to be in very original condition. I stripped it to the bare metal, saw no signs of significant body damage except for some rust in the lower part of the rear quarter panels, painted it with several coats of Wembelton white acrylic lacquer, and had the black vinyl top replaced with a white one of the proper width and grain. The old top had certainly seen better days, but it appeared to be original. The width and grain were correct, and it certainly looked like it was easily 15 years old. As I said in my previous post, there was thin padding extending from the belt molding, under the landau bars and up to the seam located at the break point in the top. It continued forward under the narrow portion of the vinyl above the door windows, but again stopped at the seam. I don't know where the seams were placed on the '64 and '65 models, but IF they were inboard of the break point in the roof, I can imagine that padding would need to cover the entire roof because stopping it at the seam would look strange. IF that was the case, I can understand why Ford would opt to delete the padding on these models, but I'm certain that my '66 had padding.

[Privateer]

I'd like to think those who posted replies which has definitely helped in gaining much more understanding of this. With this new information I was able to look at more pictures and videos of 66 models and was able to notice it seems those tops where the seam line is on the roof break (wide) do appear to have a very small "pull in" where the landau bars are bolted on and those with the seam lines higher on the roof (closer to each other) do not seem to have that same "pull in". Of course I'm sure there are those cars out there which don't follow this. Now to work with my installer on this. I do want to repaint the car in a few years so I may go cheaper top now and then the correct top then, as for me I think the top with the wider seams looks better. Once again thank you for the information.

Edited...
And now I'm feeling kind of dumb.... the old adage of "Take a look it's in a book" applies. I was looking for something else in the shop manual and came across the Landau Top pages 18-9, 18-10 and it clearly talks about the padding and shows the wide seam arrangement. Kind of embarrassed now.

Pad installation



Details of cover assembly with pad

[OIF/OEF-VET]

Where did you get the manual for your t-bird I recently acquired a 66 T bird original 1600 miles three original tires and wheels everything else is original needs new vinyl top

[stove]

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[stove]

Where did you get the manual for your t-bird I recently acquired a 66 T bird original 1600 miles three original tires and wheels everything else is original needs new vinyl top

https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R ... l&_sacat=0

And the correct top can be purchased for fair price, and LOTS of patience on your behalf from: https://smsautofabrics.com

Please post lots of pictures of this 1,600 mile car.

[Scott6T6]

Hello OIF/OEF-VET. I missed this post when it was initially placed a little over a month ago on July 13. Is this correct, your '66 has 1,600 actual miles on it? If so, I sure would like to see some photos of your Town Landau and ask you some questions about it as well. If you don't want to post the information here, you could pm me. Thank you!
Scott

[RAVEN]

IF this car is an original low mileage car, it is a gold mine of information for you, Scott and Alan, also.
Interested to know what you find.
My question would be does the car have A/C, does it have the raised shroud, and what does the Caution Fan decal looks like, both in size, font and colours.