where to start

[59thunder]

Greetings from Australia ,Well little over a year ago i purchased a 59 tbird hardtop, in need of a total rebuild. Now a year later i have learned a great deal about these wonderful cars. The next couple of years i will need a little advice and hopefully as i have read on your great web site i have found the correct place.

[Alexander]

RE: where to start

Welcome. We have a knowledgable goup of people here who can answer nearly any question you may have.

There are a lot of resources on our mian site also.

Alexander
1959 Hardtop
1960 Golde Top

[JBird]

RE: where to start

>Greetings from Australia ,Well little over a year ago i
>purchased a 59 tbird hardtop, in need of a total rebuild.
>Now a year later i have learned a great deal about these
>wonderful cars. The next couple of years i will need a
>little advice and hopefully as i have read on your great web
>site i have found the correct place.
>
>


I have a 59 Hardtop and a 430 in it. I'm in the same boat mate. I always need help and this is a great place to get it.

[JohnG]

RE: where to start

hi Tony
welcome to the website and good luck with your car!

Question: are you dismantling the car and rebuilding everything as you go or are you working on a segment at a time and driving it in the meantime (sometimes called a "rolling restoration")?

If you car is running now, you can gather some useful information about the engine such as compression and oil/gas comsumption before taking it apart.

How are parts to acquire down your way? We (in US) have pretty good luck getting mechanical stuff from auto part stores as the TBird motors were used in many other Ford products. Almost any part I have asked for in an auto parts store has gotten the response "I can get that for you within 24 hours").

Body work...that's a whole different adventure. Hope you dont have much rust!!

Instruments: challenging, frustrating, but cheap in the end.

Chrome work: expensive and very slow.

Interior: expensive.

Paint: paint is paint so not particular to the car.

I put some of my own adventures and mis-adentures on the site at
[http://squarebirds.org/users/johng/OCC.htm].

best of luck!

John
'58 Hardtop

[59thunder]

RE: where to start

Well the car came as a total car not running, but 99% complete only missing the carb and the air cleaner lid. Engine was siezed due to no 4 piston having rusted into the bore.(i would think from water passing down the inlet manifold) The body of the car had been white washed at some stage as the original color is Turquoise with a white roof.The car came from California but appart from the highway patrol sticker on the windscreen thats really all i know about it.

So engine was seized, inside aged and fallen apart, outside chrome was all there but bent,rusty and green with age and the body was a little dented.
The progress thus far is engine bored 40th, 10th mains and conrods, inlet manifold changed to a 2105 performer edelbrock better fuel consumption (fuel here is 1.35 a litre) head work this week to change valves and guides and inserts to suit unleaded fuel.Then Carb change to 670 avenger holley and dizy change to 8595 msd.

The body is totaly stripped sandblasted undercoated and being knocked backinto shape hopefully finished this month.There was only a few spots of rust and a horrible repair to the lhs front guard and cowl.

Parts supply here in Australia is either too exspensive or non Existent. Which makes about all of the parts have to come from the USA,Which is not really a problem but the freight is a huge cost factor,Any suggestions on freight would be appreciated!(maybe i need to distrube thunderbird parts here in oz)

How do i access information on my cars identity, i have the build sheet and i also have a spec sheet, but how do i get some history on the car?

Cheers

[KULTULZ]

RE: where to start

>Parts supply here in Australia is either too exspensive or non >Existent. Which makes about all of the parts have to come from the >USA,Which is not really a problem but the freight is a huge cost >factor,Any suggestions on freight would be appreciated!(maybe i >need to distrube thunderbird parts here in oz)

The ADMIN at the MEL ENGINE FORUM resides in Berlin and says USPS (Untited States Postal Service) GROUND is the cheapest way to get items shipped to Europe. Maybe this will help.

[JohnG]

RE: where to start

You get an A++ for ambition!!! If you can hang in there, you should have a marvelous car!

How bad is the price of chrome work down your way?? One can quickly put thousands in up here if you take into account all the pot metal trim and interior.

History: if you have the VIN, you can go to a website called the TBird Registry run by a very conscientious and dedicated fellow named John Rotella. With a bit of luck, someone registered the car there along the way. If not then you can register it yourself but that is of little help with its history.

The site is at [www.tbirdregistry.com] and one of the options once there is a collection of Search engines. It will also tell you how to interpret the VIN and the data plate information as well. There are other sites which tell you how to decode the information put on parts such as the motor, manifold, bell housing and so on.