Features Ford Thunderbolts Photos Wanted

Damn I hate when that happens

 

Wish I could of seen this race live

 

Nate Cohen's other Fairlane

 

Anybody have any pics of the Leal car in the California Flash paint scheme?

 

Try this...

www.butchleal.com/flash.html

According to his website, the steel doors on the T-Bolt were replaced with fiberglass ones soon after he won S/S class at the 1964 Nationals in Indy. With the new doors, that's the first time the name California Flash was used on one of his cars.

 

Ford had sent me a pair of fiberglass doors
for the Thunderbolt so when we painted them,
I got one of the local guys to put the
"California Flash" name on them

 

Using fiberglass doors would have taken the car out of S/S and put it into A/FX but that was late in the season after he had won at the Nationals. It was probably only matched race after that anyway.

 

Or maybe he was thinking about switching to Plymouths and thought "Mr. 427" wouldn't sound right!

Thanks for the link. I had been there once but didn't see that pic that Mercuryjunky posted from the site.

 

Heres a series of pics of Gas Rondas T-BOLT and his Paint transfermation.

Would of loved to see this race also.Running against Len Ritcher

 

Looks like here he justed changed dealerships and hadnt changed paint scheme yet.



Nothing like putting the holeshot on the competion.

 

After new paint scheme

 

I think that's Len Richter.

Mercuryjunky, have you seen the vid on Youtube that has the Tasca T-Bolt and Don Bowles car in it? I can't find it now.

 

Something I find interesting is that you can clearly see the original single tailpipe left on a lot of these cars, such as in post 827 and 828. Either that was an NHRA class rule that it be left or these guys were so anxious to go racing that ther didn't bother yanking it off. In S/S I could see it being a class requirement, but in A/FX?

Interesting....

Deron

 

Your right I posted too fast.I posted too fast.Merry Christmas 64 cyclone.Still snowing here.Cant get nothing done outside.Dad and I are starting a new T-Bolt Project for the winter.Just started hoping to have it ready for the 50th anniversary year.Just finished up the shock tower conversion.

 

We are going for something similar to this.Dad worked at Johnny Harper ford a rival dealership to this one here in Denver.So it will look like this but S/S T-bolt style and the Johnny harper sponser.

 

I cant find that vid also.I thought I had it in my favorites but I guess not.Do you remember how its titled?

 

Here it is. On a second look I have no idea who's car the second T-Bolt is. It doesn't look like anything I recognize. Maybe an early Tasca/Al Kitts car??? I really need to order some of these old videos. This one looks like one of the best. T-Bolts around the 2:30 mark in the vid.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HbUFa7l3DM&feature=channel

That looks like a darn good car to start with Mercuryjunky. It's a post and a 500, that's better than most people start with. It should make a great car!

 

How cool is this going for a ride with Phil Bonner in his Thunderbolt.

 

^^Something tells me he was wanting to hold it down to the floor against the Alderman car!

 

It did look like he was wanting to go for it.

 

Is the second car lamonts norristown car?It is hard to read.

 

Here's what I can see. It still has the single exhaust hanging...so it seems early. It has a fiberglass frt bumper. No lettering on the quarter panel where several of the cars had "Thunderbolt". A sponsor on the door. Something painted on the frt fenders and c-pillars. I went through all of my pics and can't see anything close to this car. Not a clue??? I'd say unknown...at least to me.

 

That car look familiar...

 

The man himself with his car.

 

I don't think the clip here is the tailpipe showing. It looks to me like a rear mounted set of traction bars. The car is squauting down in the rear, not lifting as a car with the stock bars would have done. This is, I believe Island Dragway in northwestern NJ so it isn't likely that it is the Bill Doenges Ford out of Tulsa, Ok but the bars do look like the ones on the Doenges car. (actually, I'm not sure based on the Doenges photo that the rear hanging ? bars did anything anyway ... possibly there for weight?)
Joel

 

^^If it is it has a different paint job. Frt bumper is different. I'd say no???

I'm guessing this may be an unknown east coast car.

 

Does anyone have any history on or know what happened to the Bridenthal Ford (Greensburg, Ohio) ThunderBolt? I saw a pic posted of it in this thread at Dragway 42 and Bridenthal was listed as one of the Ohio dealers that got one. Greensburg, Ohio (now the city of Green) is still a really little town. I was surprised to see that Bridenthal even got one. I remember my dad telling me he looked at a small block Cobra there in '64 or 5. They must have been big into performance back in the day. The dealership has been gone a long time.
Thanks, KRH