1963 Crossmember Straps Missing | Ford Thunderbird club group 1955-2005 T-Bird models

1963 Crossmember Straps Missing

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rosie Jones
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Rosie Jones

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Thunderbird Year
1963
Hi,
Just purchased my first T. I ve noticed the flat metal bars coming diagonally off the front crossmember are missing. The car recently had a new exhaust system made up and I suspect they were removed to accommodate this.
Can anybody shed light on how important these are and what is their function. Ive seen a few pictures of cars running without them.

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Those two brackets are crucial to the structural integrity of the car and should be in place. Ford engineers knew what they were doing when they designed the car. It's very possible that the exhaust shop left them off accidentally, or, as you suspect, it could be that they were purposely left off to accomodate bending deficiencies in a custom bending application. When purchasing a ready made exhaust system from Thunderbird vendors, the tubing is specifically bent and shaped to avoid clearance issues with these brackets. As you can see from the photos, clearances between the brackets and the pipes are very tight, and it would be all too easy for an inexperienced shop to make a bending mistake in this area. The used Thunderbird parts vendors should be able to supply you with the brackets if thay can't be retrieved from the exhaust shop. Of course, you may have to deal with fitment issues upon installation. If that's the case, a good exhaust shop can rebend and modify the H pipe to accomodate the brackets.

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Thank you for your time and trouble.
I was told that they were originally used for transportation from the factory but have no clue about this. Seen some pictures of cars with these missing and a few of the later models with them missing AND also the crossmember mounting lugs gone.
Suspect they were removed for exhaust fab as they could nt be assed to put the extra bends in when the exhaust was made here in England.
 
I have two '64 Tbirds, both built within days of each other in Oct 1963. The convertible has the braces and the forward mounting tab and nuts welded to the crosssmember. The hardtop's crossmember has no mounting tabs and therefor no braces.
 
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