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John saz
The Bird has arrived from it's 20 year wait garaged in the AZ area. The motor is frozen, but it will work with a little tinder love and care.
Background
My TBird was built on 17 February 1965 at the Wixom plant ( DSO - San Jose District) as a 2 Door Landau coated with a Dark Mountain Green Metallic paint and a Black Vinyl interior with an axel ratio 3.00 to 1 and a C4 Dual-Range shift pattern transmission. She (todate, I have not christened her with a name) passed from grandfather to father to son and has been garaged for the past 20 years in the Phoenix area. The son was more a Chevy guy than a Ford guy and she was placed on sale late September 2019. My daughter knowing my interest in a 57 TBird thought I might be interested in this one. I was. She arrived in the Piedmont, MO area in mid-October 2019. The engine was frozen and the son had done some cosmetic work on the car, the fan shield, stiffing bars, and the shock caps had been chrome plated.
Plan of Attack
It was love at first sight, the body is in excellent shape and the interior is pristine including the seats and the headliner. Unlike your TBird, I needed to start at the front end of the car, specifically, the engine. The carb needs to be rebuild and the engine needs to be freed-up and running before embarking on rebuilding the rest of the car.
Long Story Short
Eight of my TBird’s little push rod feathers were bent (strange, only the intake pushrods were bent). Assumption: The son broke the first rule of freeing up a frozen engine. He used the starter to turn the engine over and bent the pushrods and ruined the starter. I found a perfectly grease and grime free starter on the engine. I removed the valve lifters on each on each side of the engine. The engine would rotate 360 + degrees. New pushrods are on the work bench. After using a rubber hammer to free the intake valves, I’m ready to install the push rods and rocker arms to factory specs and try turning the engine over using my super long breaker bar. After getting the engine running, I will take a quick drive into town and cruse through the McDuck’s with Linda (Piedmont does not have a Steak and Shake) and then back home to review your video’s and really start restoring the car.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
Background
My TBird was built on 17 February 1965 at the Wixom plant ( DSO - San Jose District) as a 2 Door Landau coated with a Dark Mountain Green Metallic paint and a Black Vinyl interior with an axel ratio 3.00 to 1 and a C4 Dual-Range shift pattern transmission. She (todate, I have not christened her with a name) passed from grandfather to father to son and has been garaged for the past 20 years in the Phoenix area. The son was more a Chevy guy than a Ford guy and she was placed on sale late September 2019. My daughter knowing my interest in a 57 TBird thought I might be interested in this one. I was. She arrived in the Piedmont, MO area in mid-October 2019. The engine was frozen and the son had done some cosmetic work on the car, the fan shield, stiffing bars, and the shock caps had been chrome plated.
Plan of Attack
It was love at first sight, the body is in excellent shape and the interior is pristine including the seats and the headliner. Unlike your TBird, I needed to start at the front end of the car, specifically, the engine. The carb needs to be rebuild and the engine needs to be freed-up and running before embarking on rebuilding the rest of the car.
Long Story Short
Eight of my TBird’s little push rod feathers were bent (strange, only the intake pushrods were bent). Assumption: The son broke the first rule of freeing up a frozen engine. He used the starter to turn the engine over and bent the pushrods and ruined the starter. I found a perfectly grease and grime free starter on the engine. I removed the valve lifters on each on each side of the engine. The engine would rotate 360 + degrees. New pushrods are on the work bench. After using a rubber hammer to free the intake valves, I’m ready to install the push rods and rocker arms to factory specs and try turning the engine over using my super long breaker bar. After getting the engine running, I will take a quick drive into town and cruse through the McDuck’s with Linda (Piedmont does not have a Steak and Shake) and then back home to review your video’s and really start restoring the car.
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
- Location
- Piedmont, MO
- Thunderbird Year
- 1965
- Gender
- Male
- Occupation
- Retired