Features Ford Thunderbolts Photos Wanted

Taken @ Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale last week.

 

Here's Tommy McCroan's (McGroan?) T-Bolt at Amarillo, TX in the spring of '64. This is enlarged from the background of a picture focusing on Dick Harrell's Z-11 Chevelle in the foreground. First color I've ever seen of the car.
Joel

 

Yes, it's McCroan. Interesting color photo, correct a first.

Either that is a big shadow on the interior driver's door or it looks as if it painted black with a black door panel. At first I thought glass doors without a panel, but with the door tag on the white exterior they are probably the original steel doors. Plus the date is a bit too early for glass doors and they may of not had the pull to get them, even if they were.

Regards,
Dennis

 

I have a photo of the Jack Mefford car. My father was the body shop manager and drove the C-stock mustang that was part of this team. The other car was the Thunderbolt.

 

My $.02 on this whole "Original", "Restoration", "Re-body", "Clone" & whatever other terms you can come up with. There is no such thing as an "Original" car other than a paper trail of the original VIN number. Ten minutes after these cars rolled out of DST & into the hands of racers they began to evolve away from "Original". Spark plugs, carb jets, wheels, tires, rear gears, transmissions, engines, sheet metal, fiberglass & the list of things that got changed goes on and on. Engines blow up, parts break, cars get wrecked & repaired. They even evolve into AWBs or whatever. So unless someone got a DST car & hid it away in bubble wrap for 48 years there are no "Original" T-Bolts. There are however a few documented (VIN remember) DST "Restorations". These cars are painstakenly as humanly possible returned to their previous condition at a given point in time. Which owner, which paint job doesn't really matter as long as it is documented. Some of these cars may be found in such bad shape that sadly only the VIN plate is salvagable but that is still enough to do a restoration. Because in the end a car is the product of its heritage not the sum of its parts.....Mike

 

Great vintage photos from the Detroit area, drag and show from the 1960's-1970's. Great color pictures. Nicholson '61, early Mopars, some AWB cars too.
Joel
http://www.joestevensphotos.com/NHR...SGdCcw/1018922736_WYEiq#!i=1018922736&k=WYEiq

 

Here's a pic of the Drew Ford tbolt right after it was purchased in 1969 from Larry Larsen.

Len

 

Looks like a 55 chevy gasser in the garage across the street! What a neighborhood!

 

Here's a color photo of the Bender Ford "GIGI" car I was recently able to obtain.

Len

 

Oops. Wrong one. Here's the right one.

Len

 

#68 OF 100

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/e...250991730268&ssPageName=ADME:B:SS:MOTORS:1123

 

I'd be afraid, there's not a CarFax on this one.

All joking aside; after taking time to look as carefully as the online pics allow, under the hood and inside the interior of this car look more correct than any I've seen restored. This is one of the few I've seen with the carburetors mounted in reverse. Tom S.

 

I think member Funnycar65 is doing it the right way. He started with parts off of the original car....not the car. Rather than letting the remaining parts of the original car rot, he built a recreation (as he calls it) of the Funny Car. The restoration/recreation has been documented to the public here. It's great to see someone who actually cares about the history of the car doing the right thing.

There are people out there who would've redid the car, hid the truth and then sold it on Barrett Jackson as the original.

 

Hi T Time, I was looking at your post on the c2ae-9430-A manifold. I have a set like that and was wondering did you ever found out what they actually fit. Im into galaxies and i have other 427 cast iron headers , but these are a little different . The numbers are c2ae 9430 A and c2ae 9431 A . I have the right and left. Any help would be appreciated . Thanks Kenny.

 

Sorry that this one is out of focus ... it is the ex-Dobbs Ferry car, here as the Far Rockaway Ford in 1965 running S/S class at Englishtown, NJ. Somewhere I have an engine shot too.
Joel

 

Thanks Joel for getting this thread back on track...

 

Yeah it was starting to drift out of the groove and it looked like we might have to abort the run...but this thread has been saved by more Thunderbolt info.

 

There's more pictures and information out there ... we just have to keep the search going!
Joel

 

There's a picture of the Turner Ford Thunderbolt on Jim Amos tape 40th T-Bolt reunion. At about the 1:50 + minute. Syl

 

Here's two more ... I don't think these have been posted already ... if they have my apologies for the repetition.
The first may be a Sol Stewart photo ... Emmett Austin's Alabama T-Bolt at Phenix City Dragway, AL.
The second is at Phenix City again ... Steve Honnell's War Eagle car.
Joel

 

What's with the traffic light just above the "War Eagle"-- an early 'christmas tree'?? Replaced by the real one in front of the car? Syl

 

BTW, I saw a classified for a fiberglass Thunderbolt front end, with picture, in this week's edition of National Dragster.

 

^^ The listing in National Dragster is by the guy that is making the fiberglass Fairlane bodies.

 

I wonder who won this race?

 

Not sure if this is repeat. Sidney Foster

 

Have these been posted? I was doing some research on the track at Hardinsburg, Ky. and came across these. Maybe this will get this discussion forum back on track.
Tom S. in Tn.

 

Photos from US60 have been posted several times on many HAMB threads. Your first picture is posted on page 65, #1288 of this site.

 

Here's a different pic of the Jenkins & Wynne Greenfield Thunderbolt. In this one there is another Thunderbolt seen on the left side of the photo. That area was cropped off of the other pic.

I think this pic was at US60 so the other T-bolt is probably the Joe Brown Ford Walt Derringer car from Louisville KY.

 

With great sadness of the passing of Len Richter, Ford Motor Co special test driver and driver of numerous Bob Ford 427 team cars the 63 lightweight Galaxie, 64 Thunderbolt Fairlane, and the 65 a/fx Mustang.. R.I.P Leonard..