It finally got to 11 above zero today so I wondered out to the garage to take a couple shots of the new paint job on the 1961 Thunderbird Junior body. It still needs some polishing but looks a heck of a lot better now. Above is what it looked like when I got it. A little weather worn but complete and what was missing I make reproduction parts for. I will still need to find a pinstriper to do the detail lines for the doors, fender skirts, trunk and hood. I am working on the drivetrain now! It was originally a electric powered unit but I am putting in a 5.5 horse electric start with forward and reverse transmission. Disc brake and i am even replacing the old #55 bulbs with LED units. I custom built the headlights and bought a set of Tail/stop light LEDs. My wife is detail painting the grille now. Here is what the original looked like in a factory photo. I am trying to find some custom 4 inch rims for it but no luck so far. I have even looked at using some of the custom aluminum underdrive pullies and rim centers but have not found anything that works yet. I hope to have it fininshed by show season and will be pulling the interior and fininshing the frame when the weather gets better. I will also work on installing the custom wiring harness complete with remote kill, light and horn activation. Lots of fun!
Here are my custom headlights that are the size of a quarter. They will produce plenty of light, generate very little heat and draw very low power from the battery so I can leave the lights on at shows and not worry about a dead battery or melted lenses (happened a lot on the originals)
You Hamb'rs never ceese to amaze me. Where do you come up with this way cool shit!! Love the two little kids..... dressed for church or grandma's house. Is it a pedal car or motorized? My buddy has an electric type 35 Bugatti kids car. Wish I could post some pictures. Will try later. Any more vintage kid mobiles out there?? JT
I have been dealing with Powered promotional cars for a number of years. The ones I deal with are not pedal powered they are electric or Gas powered and were originally made for dealership promotions. Scale is normally 1/3, 3/8 or 1/4 so many of them can be drive by adults Thi 1961 Thunderbird was built in 61 and used as a promotional tool to bring in customers. (normally with thier kids dragging them in) Read my website for more info on them! http://www.jrcentral.com
Here is a magazine ad from a 1961 Playboy magazine that used the T-bird JR in the ad. They made mini Tbirds from 1955-66 with Ford company stylist making the mold bucks prior to the introduction of the full size cars so they could be used in opening day festivities!! They attract a lot of attention so they were used in a lot of promotions. The first TV commercial Pizza hut ever ran back in 1965 had a 1965 Mustang JR in it. The guy get his Pizzas to go and jumps into his Junior and takes off.
Should have painted it teal..........I'd have to come steal it! That is just SWEET! I've never seen one.
might i suggest you DON'T paint the door and skirt lines? back when i built a lot of models, i always thought that painting the lines stood out too much and looked worse than washed out details. but that's just my opinion.
I have used some of the thin line stripe tape before (black) and it looked good on my 67 Mustang JR but it had a tendency to get streached and then pull loose or back from the edges. I thought that paint would work better?
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