1965 Restoring/ resurrecting a junkyard find | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models

1965 Restoring/ resurrecting a junkyard find

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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.
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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.
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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.
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When My Son gets back from his vacation next week he can begin putting it all back together.

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Spent time today stripping the hood and decklid, doing the minor dent repairs on both and getting them in Primer.
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I still had plenty of time left in the day so I decided to get the wet sanding bucket out with clean water and filled it with 1000,1200,1500, 2000, and 2500 grit paper to start sanding the front fender so I could see what it'll look like all smoothed and polished.
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Once it was sanded it was time to buff it back to a high gloss finish. First compound then final polish.
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Once it's fully cured it'll definitely need some ceramic coat to help keep the dust off. It wanted to collect on the fender shortly after I polished it.

I hope to paint he hood, decklid, scoop and cowl tomorrow sometime.
 
It's so nice when things go well for the day. I blocked out the hood and decklid, then set up another stand for the cowl and scoop so they could all be sprayed at once. Then laid down the base, Kandy VooDoo Violet and Klear.
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With time left in the day I started wetsanding the drivers door with each grit and then buffing to a beautifully deep shine.
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Unfortunately, I have to wait to wet sand and buff the rest as the compound order won't be here till this weekend.

Guess than means I'll have to find something else to do in the mean time.
 
We were finally able to make some progress this weekend after the materials finally arrived.

Tried out a wheel form the 2015 mustang to see how it would look and work if we decided to go that way. it would require a 1.25-1.5 " spacer to clear the inner bump stop.
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With this new compound I found the dust or droplets would bite into the paint if left on while buffing the next panel so I covered each panel after it was polished to help alleviate that and make less clean up later down the road.
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Eventually the main body was done.
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At least one of my five supervisors is always on duty making sure I was doing it right, didn't miss any spots and performing in a proficient business manner.


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Next up was setting up a long table with all the pieces parts spread out to organize and begin dwindling down the pile as we went along.
Some trim was reinstalled a long with new weatherstripping and rubber bumper(s) stops.
Didn't seem like we made much progress other than getting the body polished up, but we did after the 14 hour day in the shop.

More to come as we reinstall more and more parts.
 
It's been a while since the last update so here goes.
Body all buffed out, Misc. engine bay and fender shields blasted and painted semigloss black and installed, all interior pieces cleaned (seats) and the rest painted up to match again, Front and rear bumpers cleaned up and reinstalled, front and rear glass w/ trim installed with new seals, headlight buckets blasted painted and reinstalled, roof rail trim and weatherstrips installed, heater and A/C systems reinstalled, one vent window disassembled to replace with new seals and installed, new gas tank and fuel lines installed, underbody scraped clean of old undercoating and ready for rust inhibiter and recoating with Ziebart.

If all goes well this weekend, and my son expends enough energy, we should be able to get the other vent window completed along with the rest of the glass, fat mat sound deadener installed, carpet in, and interior buttoned up.
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My son's been out working steady on the bird this weekend and thanks to some direction and focus reminders from Dad, we've made some more progress.
Side windows are in (but need two front motors), seats and interior trim are in except the upper as we are waiting for the new headliner yet before we put that in, carpets are in, Started on re-installing the door panel trim, but will have to stop at the upholstery shop tomorrow to have them glue the lower carpet on the panels, Fuel system was double checked and 5 gallons put in, carb was rebuilt and ready to go. Fired it up tonight around 9pm. My son will stay up for while yet and put some roller wheels on for now so I can have my shop back for getting some paying work in done this week.

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Well, today I needed the T-bird out of the shop so I could get some other work done before Friday. Door panels are at the upholstery shop getting the carpets glued down and we're waiting for a few misc. parts to arrive this week.

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