pOrk, a friend from my club and S10Forum (for which I help run), told me about this site when I asked him some advice for my new project, a 1961 Thunderbird. Little history on the car, my great uncle bought it from an estate sale on the cheap, then decided to build his 53 chevy instead. I found it behind his shop under a mountain of snow, all forgotten looking. Fell in love with it, asked him how much he wanted, traded him a new computer for it a week later. How I found it, after some snow removal: The spring after: most recent pic: Got big plans for it, that start with taking it down to the last nut and doing some rust repair / body alterations, air ride, throwing out the interior except dash and door panels, and starting over. Cover it with a 60's style candy green paint job once It's ready, humoring ghost scallops, white paint or white vinyl top (like the 62 landaus did, minus the bar on the side). Origionally was going to go with some 18 inch billet wheels but I'm leaning hard towards keeping the steelies and getting some whitewalls. My summer ride, 95 GMC Sonoma, Scorch. Sees more miles than a map factory, but hey thats what it's all about... getting in and just going. pOrk's seen it in person, and he lives 4 hours away heh. Here's my old daily driver/year round ride, my 93 S10. Lots of good memories with that one, wound up with too many projects then cracked a cylinder head doing 140 on my way to Chicago. Made that trip from Minneapolis to Chicago in 4.5 hours though, hah. Long *** story I'm trying to forget. Used to just pick up and leave at random in this one, wind up in another state when I'd get the road trip itch. Trying to sell it to someone who'll give it a good home but that's neither here nor there. I got a boring daily driver/winter rig 94 taurus wagon I picked up for 300 bucks, great condition, from an older guy who got mad at the dealership for only offering him 300 on a trade, turned around and sold it to me. Everyone needs a Clark Kent car to their Superman though. Mine even came with a bumper sticker that says undercover police car lol... those who know me understand the irony in that. Anyhow, great site, I'll probably be checking back once in a while. How bad's the hazing here? *ducks*
heh... no promises. I'm not one to chrome and polish everything to the point of unusability, but I've become a ****er for billet wheels. The stock steelies really look right on this car though, and they fit the budget better, so it's about 90/10 for the steel vs billet decision. I don't like the glitzed up trailer queen rides, where they spend $200,000 on something that they're afraid to run down the road, or other such trendy garbage. I'm a fan of simple, clean, and basic. That's what caught my eye about the bird. It's a very clean and uncluttered car, very elegant yet still retains a bad*** quality if done right. My decision making process is all about the car as a whole, not a collection of this or that part cobbled together (this is why I'm not into imports anymore... lots of potential in a few cars, but tons of clueless weiner heads who own them and drive the direction of the industry/aftermarket by tossing every trendy product on their cars no matter if it fits or not) Besides, I can take a little hazing. You get thick skin after starting out in imports, going to trucks, picking up a 60's car, and no less a Thunderbird, and wanting to do anything but restore it. You should see the hair stand up on some of the purists necks when I wanted to turn it into a nomad style wagon lol... couldn't find a donor roof I liked though so the idea got round filed. Restoration purists take all the fun out of new ideas. sketch:
The Jalopy Journal
