Projects Grandma's Bullet Bird

I thought I would start a little build thread of sorts for a 62' Thunderbird project I'm working on. This car belonged to my Great-Grandmother and has been parked in her garage since 1974! Grandma has recently passed and I bought the car relatively cheap from the rest of the family members. I am the first person to touch this car since the early/mid 70's.

 

My son standing next to his Great-Great-Grandmother's Thunderbird!

 

All the original un-modified drivetrain is there. This car was a Landau model with power everything and A/C.

 

Cool.

 

Sorry to hear about your grandmother's passing, but I am looking forward to seeing this thing take shape. Love a bullet Bird.

 

Cool pics of you and your son opening the door to a family heirloom. I love bullet birds. What a great thing to bond over

 

Trunk contents: fender skirts, original hubcaps, and 100lbs of cinders for traction in snowy weather.

 

Cool, congrats.
A very under rated car.

But Hemmings has a writeup about the 32 collectable cars and the 61 - 65 T Birds are there.

 

Keep that great look of gleeful anticipation on that boy's face Dad

 

The windows were left down, this meant there was not a lot of moisture or mildew inside, but 42yrs worth of garage dirt made its way in.

 

Grandma had good taste, enjoy it with your son.

 

As said,sorry about your Nan,
Love the lines of the bullet birds,what are your plans?

 

Cool bird

 

Seeing daylight for the first time. Not exactly a pretty sight but I'm loving it.

 

Thanks for the positive comments everybody.

 

My plans are to mainly keep it original with a few modifications. I want it to be reliable enough to take my kids on trips up to a few hours away with the A/C on.

 

A good clean is a step on the right direction then move onto the mechanical side of things. Very sentimental, a feel good thing about it by keeping it in the family.

 

Nice bird ya got there. I suggest, when your kids are not around, that you wear a mask and look for mice and rat droppings under seats and areas like that. They can get in anywhere and that stuff is toxic. Good luck with it!

 

Agree, very underrated car indeed. A good wash and mechanicals is all it needs. Beautiful car.

 

My favorite T-Bird , great style lines. Do not have to do much to them to make them stand out. Does not look like there is not much to do to it to get it on the road. Keep us informed of your progress.

 

Be sure to ck the gas tank real good and replace those short rubber hoses between tank and engine.

 

They were produced on the line with the Lincolns.
All of them went on the test track for an inspection/test run.
Some customers when purchasing wanted to know why their new car had 10 or so miles on it!

 

This story is truly the pinnacle of bad assedness...if there is such a word

 

Sharp cars, those bullet-birds. Like mentioned, it doesn't take much at all (if anything) to make them standout. ( a set of K-H wires, or Supremes, etc, is nice icing on the cake)
A friend (RIP) got headlong into them in the early 90s. Did a coupe, a speedster, and a 'vert driver. You'll be surprised what a good, deliberate detail and a mechanical going through will yield. You have an outstanding start there, congrats.

There is in my book, and I agree this qualifies!

 

damn thats a super nice car, optioned well also. Have fun and keep the wee one involved all the way through it. It will stay with him forever.

 

Four flat tires made for difficult loading on the trailer but eventually got the car to my house.

 

The 40+ years off "barn find" dirt was cool but it was time to hit it with water. I basically sprayed the whole car with Simple Green and power washed it. Scrubbed all the chrome with S.O.S. pads.

 

Removed Grandmas old flat snow tires in favor of some 15" steelies and wide whites. I ordered five of everything so I have a matching spare.

 

Here's where I'm at after a good cleaning and $1,800 worth of new wheels/white walls!