Tales of the Thunderturd
Posted: Thu Apr 18, 2019 9:41 am
Ok here we go again now we seem to have a proper home. The quick recap !
I was looking for a new project at the end of last year and started out looking at Corvair's in the USA, but things went a bit wrong and somehow I ended up buying this '65 Thunderbird blind from a slightly dodgy geezer in Los Angeles. After about 6 weeks of worry and 2 grand in shipping costs it landed in the UK That was when all the real fun started. In some respects the car was better than expected but it certainly needed a lot of work. At some point in the mid 80's the car was taken off the road for a front suspension rebuild. This had obviously not gone to plan as one side had new ball joints and the front spring was in the boot. Getting the springs in and out is not a nice job and I ended up buying a lot of extra tools to do it and it was scary as fuck compressing them enough to get them back in. Once that was done it had a full brake rebuild and a hell of a lot of carb trouble to get it in a state that it would drive around the yard. Now to get more up to date. When it arrived I found that the small crack in the windscreen was a bit more than the seller described, so to get it back on the road I had to get a new screen. It was also a sensible time to get the top painted as they can do a far better job with the glass out. All the seals crumbled to nothing so more expence. It is now back from the paintshop but they lost one of the chrome trims that has to be fitted before any of the interior can go back in. I am now stuck waiting for the new trims to arrive that should be here next week. It does look good so far though.
I was looking for a new project at the end of last year and started out looking at Corvair's in the USA, but things went a bit wrong and somehow I ended up buying this '65 Thunderbird blind from a slightly dodgy geezer in Los Angeles. After about 6 weeks of worry and 2 grand in shipping costs it landed in the UK That was when all the real fun started. In some respects the car was better than expected but it certainly needed a lot of work. At some point in the mid 80's the car was taken off the road for a front suspension rebuild. This had obviously not gone to plan as one side had new ball joints and the front spring was in the boot. Getting the springs in and out is not a nice job and I ended up buying a lot of extra tools to do it and it was scary as fuck compressing them enough to get them back in. Once that was done it had a full brake rebuild and a hell of a lot of carb trouble to get it in a state that it would drive around the yard. Now to get more up to date. When it arrived I found that the small crack in the windscreen was a bit more than the seller described, so to get it back on the road I had to get a new screen. It was also a sensible time to get the top painted as they can do a far better job with the glass out. All the seals crumbled to nothing so more expence. It is now back from the paintshop but they lost one of the chrome trims that has to be fitted before any of the interior can go back in. I am now stuck waiting for the new trims to arrive that should be here next week. It does look good so far though.