1964 Thunderbird

[Classicman]

I just bought a 64TBird. I watched it sit under a tree for 5 years and finally got the lady to sell it to me. Not sure if 5k was overpriced for it but I still still got it. It really needs some love and it sat vacant for 13 years. I would like to do the work myself on what I can and have other stuff done professionally. Is it hard to get this bird flying again??????

[stubbie]

Depends on what might have been wrong mechanically to make them park it under a tree in the first place. Disconnect battery, take out the plugs and pump some kind of oil into the plug holes and crank it over by hand a few times. Fe engines are easy to bend push rods. Change the oil, filter, new plugs, fuel and battery and start the cranking you might get lucky and start. Push your steering wheel across to the right and chock the wheels just in case you have any transmission problems.

[ICON 1956]

First purchase the shop manual, Get yourself acquainted with the car. as Stubbie suggested try to get her started.

[Gillerd]

It would be cool to see that brought back to life. Enjoy

[Terry64HT]

When you get it running, don't give in to the temptation to jump in and take it for a test drive without checking out the brakes first. These cars didn't have great brakes at the best of times and it's almost a guarantee that they need work after sitting so long.
Another warning if you are unfamiliar with these cars, they have a tendency to slip out of park when idling. Swing the steering wheel over to the right if you are not sitting behind the wheel. Wheel chocks are a good idea when working on it as well.
Good luck with your car and welcome.
Terry
64HT

[JamesR]

Welcome to the forum. Ditto on not driving the car until everything checks out. As ICON said, get a shop manual. These are reprints of old factory manuals that dealer repair shops used back in the day. They're available several places on the net...but you won't find them at parts stores.

Check for sludge in the oil. You can't tell just by draining the oil, though you should definitely take note of what the old oil looks like. Use modern oil with detergent and let it run for an hour or so (with new filter) then drain it and see how it looks. Keep changing the oil on that schedule til it looks as it should.

I won't go through the process of starting a neglected engine here, partly because you didn't say whether it runs or not as is, but a couple of the first things to do when the car is running is check the oil pressure (NOT with the factory gauge...they're basically worthless) and check the compression. This is because you want to see how salvageable the engine is. Obviously, check for smoking and knocking...they are no good, but not necessarily a death sentence, either.

Five grand is a decent price, but as many people have said before, "there's nothing more expensive than an affordable project." Because decent presentable 4th gen T-Birds are still relatively affordable and available ($15,000 can get you a pretty nice car...if you look hard enough) worn out examples make poor candidates for restoration or even refurbishment, in my opinion. At least in a financial sense. If your drive train is weak and rust is a big problem on your new car, do yourself a major favor and unload it and get something that's more solid. If you don't have those issues, this site and the Fordbarn are valuable information resources. I'm a relative newbie too and I learn a lot from these guys.

[paulr]

When you get it running, don't give in to the temptation to jump in and take it for a test drive without checking out the brakes first. These cars didn't have great brakes at the best of times and it's almost a guarantee that they need work after sitting so long.
Another warning if you are unfamiliar with these cars, they have a tendency to slip out of park when idling. Swing the steering wheel over to the right if you are not sitting behind the wheel. Wheel chocks are a good idea when working on it as well.
Good luck with your car and welcome.
Terry
64HT

Trifecta: Brakes, steering column, get a manual. (I think the manual belonged to another commenter). If you don't focus on those things now, you will focus on them soon enough but run the risk of personal injury or at least unnecessary extra expense. The 64 Tbird is a treasure chest of midcentury modern miracles that will dazzle and delight you and your friends once you've put in a ton of time and $$ to restore but face the reality that these good old buggies were never intended to be rescued by anyone, they were intended to be crushed. So that's inertia you're up against. Do the life-saving stuff FIRST. Then do all the sexy stuff. Enjoy!