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- Reaction score
- 3
- Thunderbird Year
- 1965
My son loves the 65 t-birds with all the innovative gadgets from back in the day. Last month we found one on FB Marketplace that wasn't too far away, so we headed off to look at it. It was located in an old junk yard. They picked it up with the fork end loader so we could look it over top to bottom and liked what we saw. It needed front floor pans where the driver and passenger feet go as well as the center trunk pan. Everything was pretty much there, Motor, trans, rear end, interior, all the trim work, body panels looked solid even though they had rust stains on the white paint. The wheels did rotate freely and had some air in them yet. After haggling back and forth a bit my son agreed to a deal and we brought it home with us as either a builder or parts car for his other (2) 65 t-birds.
We spent about 3 days working on mechanicals and had the engine fired up and running smooth as could be, trans rolled it forwards and back and got the brakes up and working (someone must have just installed them before it was parked because the pads, shoes, rotors and drums didn't have any wear in them along with all new(er) rubber hoses). Since we had it up and running well, we decide it was worth restoring instead of parting out for the other two.
One thing lead to another as I made and replaced the front floor pans and made a whole new trunk pan area as well.
We worked on it for the past month gutting the interior, heater system, A/C system etc, and stripped it down to bare metal for final inspection before bodywork which surprisingly was minimal with just minor side dents but absolutely no exterior rust on the body. Within a few days we had the bodywork completed, epoxied and in final prime. Spent two days blocking it straight and attacking minor pinholes on the mud work that only show up after applying primer. Go figure.
Edged out all the jams, engine bay and under the hood and decklid then let it set overnight.
The next day We masked off the jams and readied for painting the main body. The color of choice isn't white, but instead my son chose to go with House of Kolors VooDoo Violet to go with the burgundy interior. After applying a uniform sealer coat I started laying down 3 coats of base, 3 coats of VooDoo Violet and 4 coats of UC 35 Kosmic Klear to protect it all. 6 hours of spraying later it was done.
When My Son gets back from his vacation next week he can begin putting it all back together.
We spent about 3 days working on mechanicals and had the engine fired up and running smooth as could be, trans rolled it forwards and back and got the brakes up and working (someone must have just installed them before it was parked because the pads, shoes, rotors and drums didn't have any wear in them along with all new(er) rubber hoses). Since we had it up and running well, we decide it was worth restoring instead of parting out for the other two.
One thing lead to another as I made and replaced the front floor pans and made a whole new trunk pan area as well.
We worked on it for the past month gutting the interior, heater system, A/C system etc, and stripped it down to bare metal for final inspection before bodywork which surprisingly was minimal with just minor side dents but absolutely no exterior rust on the body. Within a few days we had the bodywork completed, epoxied and in final prime. Spent two days blocking it straight and attacking minor pinholes on the mud work that only show up after applying primer. Go figure.
Edged out all the jams, engine bay and under the hood and decklid then let it set overnight.
The next day We masked off the jams and readied for painting the main body. The color of choice isn't white, but instead my son chose to go with House of Kolors VooDoo Violet to go with the burgundy interior. After applying a uniform sealer coat I started laying down 3 coats of base, 3 coats of VooDoo Violet and 4 coats of UC 35 Kosmic Klear to protect it all. 6 hours of spraying later it was done.
When My Son gets back from his vacation next week he can begin putting it all back together.
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