A few more pics of when we got her home.
The bad stuff first. The damage to the rear quarter has not bent the sill, but has peeled back the door jam and creased the upper fin line. The rear window wont come down, and the door wont latch shut. There are dents and bruises pretty much everywhere. The motor is seized solid. The trans dose not look much better. They have been out in the weather for some time I would think. The motor and trans where out of the car when it was first advertised.
And now the good. Cant find any bad rust. The body, although bent, is solid. The floors and trunk, internal bracing, all looks good. The only visible rusting is in the bottom section under the tail light area, and its only a small section. Also a small amount around the trunk skin. It seems to be a complete car, air filter to hubcaps, nothing missing. It has been pulled apart some time ago and came in many boxes. Also, she has many new repo and NOS parts including new interior, dash pad, rubbers, repo chrome pieces, brackets, rollers and switches. So much stuff we could hardly get it all home.
So the plan is to go original seeing how its all there. Disc brakes and maybe custom hubcaps will be the only mods.
I'll up date as we progress with the build, Stu

Hi Stu

I look forward to hearing how the restoration progresses and the final product. It's good to see that another bird is being saved. It also helps when there are lots of parts supplied as chasing them overseas is costly and time consuming. Good luck!

Mark

A bit of a mission but a good solid foundation, keep us posted!

Hey Stu,
This is so cool! Keep us posted on your progress.
Richard D. Hord

that's awesome that you got almost a rust-free car.
when i used to buy japanese front clips for the motors. i would look for the ones that were in a accident, because i would know that is why they got rid of the car and the motors aways be fine.

I suspect your car was somewhat the opposite story.

also if you still have the front plate you can sell those on ebay.

pete

Saving another 59

Congratulations, Stu on saving another '59. If you want to learn the history of this car, check www.tbirdregistry.com and click on the Search tab and plug in the VIN # of this Tbird. IF someone has entered it into the Tbird Registry, you should find its Registry number and you can look it up and learn more about the car. If it is not in the Registry, you should enter it so that is in the registry for the future. If you have the Data Plate codes, that will also tell you what it left the factory as. You can look up the codes and find out. Also, if you can find the ROT/Build Sheet, that will tell you how it was put together at the factory also. They can often be found in the seat springs, under carpeting, in the center console, sometimes in the glove box.

The rear bumper look pretty strait

Shoot - that oughta' buff right out..........

Hope you get to post pics of the work. I'd say that's a rescue mission rather than a restoration. Nice to know another one will be saved.

If I can do anything State-side that will help just give me a shout.

Eric
registry 5347

Thanks for your encouragement guys and your kind offer Eric. It is going to be hard work alright but when there's passion, it comes together. The car is in my dads shed, about 2 hours from me. So I go up on weekends and do a little bit with him. My father is 73 this year and I think the task ahead is a little overwhelming for him. He has loved Tbirds all his life. Hopefully this will bring great enjoyment. Both building it and then cruising the wheels off it.
First step is to finish tearing it down to a bare shell. So many of the parts are in boxes and I'm just hoping its all there. Really, untill its being bolted back together, we cant be sure we have every thing. But the previous owner assured me it was all there. Next time I'll grab the vin and get it on the registry. maybe someone knows of it. Stu

Congrats, I'm sure everyone is looking forward to seeing this progress,
thanks for sharing.
Before you write off the engine, have you checked it yourself? pull the plugs and squirt some oil in the cylinders and later on try to turn it.
Hey.... you never know.

Hi guys, next install.
So cleared out the back garage and parked up the new girl. Started removing the remaining interior, outer stainless trim and bumpers. We were able to remove the entire loom, labeling each section or plug, and taking plenty of detail pics.
All bolts and small brackets are going into zip-loc sandwich bags and being labeled. Although time consuming at first, this process saves a lot of time when bolting parts back together. Every thing will either go through our small media blast unit, wire wheel or handed to a mate for power coating. Its great to have mates in different industries that can really help, and save some coin in the process.
All the bumpers pieces will be sent to a guy who straightens, and welds any damage that needs attention. These bars are pretty good, but I recon there's a lot of work for the plating. Also sending the inner side roof rails and front windscreen trims. I'm not looking forward to the chrome plating bill, but great chrome is so important on an old classic.
I'm thinking we'll replace all the side glass and windscreen. The rear glass looks pretty good with only a few minor scratches. Couple of pics of dis-assembly before heading to the beaters

WOW!!!

You guys ARE getting busy!!

Thanks for sharing these pics. Smart on bagging, labeling, & taking lots of pics too.

-Jon in TX.

Lots of great progress!

I always wondered why you had to go to the grocer to get the nice zip-loc parts bags - you mean those things are actually made to put sandwiches in ??

We did the same thing with the baggies and parts on the '57 MGA we restored recently and the other 2 MG's we are restoring now. Works out great. Funny how folks from different parts of the world use the same process.

I have a non-A/C heater plenum (no heater core) left over from when I was putting A/C on my car - bought an extra one thinking I might need to modify it for the A/C install but never used it. If you need it just let me know - but I think you said the car was mostly complete.

x2 on sharing the pics - that's great.
Eric
registry 5347

You might want to check the glass before you replace them to see if it's got the original Ford logo and proper date code. Kinda neat to have if they are the originals.