Squarebird Or 64-66 Bird

[jackbird60]

Good Deal???

THE ELECTRICALS THAT DON'T WORK ARE: temp gauge, gas gauge, speedometer, blower fan, and
the horn. INTERIOR LOOKS EXCELLENT. EXTERIOR LOOKS VERY GOOD. NICE PAINT & COLOR COMBO. REBUILT ENGINE WITH ELDEBROCK INTAKE MANIFOLD AND MSD IGNITION, ETC. 4.10 REAR WITH POSI. HE WANTED MUCH MORE BUT WE AGREED UPON $7,400.00 NO A/C, BUT I DON'T CARE ABOUT THAT. ENGINE BAY LOOKS AMAZINGLY GOOD, AND CARS SOUNDS GOOD. MOST PICTURES ARE RECENT ESPECIALLY VIDEO, IT FROM 2 DAYS AGO. DOES IT LOOK LIKE A GOOD DEAL BASED UPON THE BELOW ITEMS AND ABOVE ELECTRICAL PROBLEMS??

PICTURES PER BELOW:

http://s55.photobucket.com/albums/g147/sixtyspecial/thunderbird/

VIDEO BELOW:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Apxui-TVGa4

[ParTaxer]

Think about what 7400.00 buys you in the used car market. Engine sounds great- buy it. I paid 6700.00 for a '60 but it has rust issues and needs paint.

[Guest]

Hey Jack,
Nice, very nice! I'm sure the electrical problems could not be that hard to trace (with little time) If you have to drive her make sure you take fire extingisher, not a bad ideal anyway with these old cars. If she is as nice as she looks
$7500.00 is not a bad price! Keep us informed!!!
Richard D. Hord

[jackbird60]

Hey Thanks Everyone! I Wanted To Fly Out To See It This Week But The Owners Is Going On Vacation. So It Will Have To Wait Until After New Years Day. As Mentioned I Owned A 60 Bird And Was Sorry I Sold It.

I Look At These Two Kinds Of Birds Squarebirds & Flarebirds At The Last Of The Classic 2 Seaters, Birds With (in My Opinion) The Best Body Design. No Offense To My 61-63 Tbird Brothers. I Jknow The Flairbirds Have Much More Weight, And Not That I Want To Race Them, But I Wanted A Little Punch Off The Line. With The Rebuilt Eng, New Manifold And 4.10, It Should Do It, Plus I Love The Color.

A Fire Extingisher Is A Must On Old Cars. I Checked With The Owner About Exhaust Leaks Etc, And He Says There Is None.

Let Me Know If There Is Other Stuff To Look For When I Test Drive This Car. I Am About 95% Sure I'll Buy It.

Jack

[YellowRose]

Squarebird Or 64-66 Bird

The reason the temp and gas gauges do not work might be as simple as the Constant Voltage Regulator (CVR) unit being shot. I am assuming, like our Squarebirds, that the Flairbirds have a CVR unit in them to step down the 12V to those two 6V gauges. If that CVR unit went bad, then it might have damaged those gauges. If it did, Bird Nest can rebuild them for you. It might be a simple matter of replacing the CVR unit with a new one. I would imagine you will have to take out the instrument panel to get to it. On the Squarebirds, it is behind the two gauges and can be accessed pretty readily. I hope it will be the same for the Flairbirds. If you have to take out the instrument panel, that will be a good time to check out what is wrong with the speedometer also.

[YellowRose]

Squarebird Or 64-66 Bird

The reason the temp and gas gauges do not work might be as simple as the Constant Voltage Regulator (CVR) unit being shot. I am assuming, like our Squarebirds, that the Flairbirds have a CVR unit in them to step down the 12V to those two 6V gauges. If that CVR unit went bad, then it might have damaged those gauges. If it did, Bird Nest can rebuild them for you. It might be a simple matter of replacing the CVR unit with a new one. It could also be a faulty ground problem. Make sure you have good grounds to the gauges. Also on the fuel gauge mechanism in the gas tank. Do a search on the Forum on constant voltage regulator There are a number of threads there that might be of help to you. Including the link to the Technical Resource Library with instructions on how to adjust the gauges (applies to Squarebirds, but might be the same for Flairbirds also). I would imagine you will have to take out the instrument panel to get to it. On the Squarebirds, it is behind the two gauges and can be accessed pretty readily. I hope it will be the same for the Flairbirds. If you have to take out the instrument panel, that will be a good time to check out what is wrong with the speedometer also.

[simplyconnected]

The pictures look great, the video sounds and looks good. I don't know about the price, either way, because I'm not there to see and drive the car.

Check the front end alignment. I can't tell if those are bias ply tires. If they are, the shoulder wear would be typical.

He has Flowmaster exhaust; they sound like three-chamber. Just know that it's going to sound a bit louder when you rev the engine. Some folks want to hear their engine speak.

As a side note: I had three-chamber Flowmasters on my MUSTANG. They were throat-y and made my MUSTANG sound 'bad' to the bone. When I pulled the 5.0 out and stuffed in a 351W (4.30:1, AOD w/shift kit & stall, EFI, 400-hp), I couldn't hear myself think! The difference was in the cam. The radio/CD was useless, but the car was a 12-second beast, perfect for my Detroit expressway commutes. I eventually wore those Flowmasters out (the back ends had huge holes in them).



To me, your electrical issues are incidental. You may find one or two wires (or fuses) that are bad. Not all of those electrical devices go out at once. More often than not, when you find a problem, the rest kinda straighten themselves out. It happened that way on my '55. A fuseholder disintegrated from age. The owner couldn't find anyone in Missouri that worked on old Fords, so he left it broken. I put new fuseholders in, and everything started working again.- Dave

[scumdog]

HEY GUYS! JUST FOUND A NICE CRYSTAL BLUE ONE WITH WHITE INTERIOR. HAS SOME ELECTRICAL GREMLINS BUT INTERIOR/EXTERIOR LOOKS GREAT. ALSO HAS A REBUILT 390 WITH new edlebrock manifold and MSD IGNITION. HAS A 4.11 REAR WITH POSI.


hE WAS ASKING LOW 9'S BUT WITH THE ELECTRICALS I HAVE IT FOR $7,400 BUT NOT EXACTLY A DONE DEAL.

ANY THOUGHTS??? CONCERNS. TOO HIGH A PRICE??

THANKS - JACK

Price seem good IF the video pics are the truth about the whole car, it looks like it is really worth a look.

4:11 gears? - it'll get off its bum pretty **** quick but you'll hate the gas mileage!

I paid about a grand less for mine 5 years ago but it wasn't in quite as good condition as that one appears to be. (It was, however as 146,000 mile original, only had new carpet and a very average re-spray).

[bird 60]

If It's As Good As It Looks In The Pics & The Electrical Is The Only Problem I Would Jump To It.
The Interior Looks Superb, The Paint Looks Really Good, The Colour Combo Looks Great, The Engine Bay Looks Fantastic. From What I Gather You Would Have Very Little To Spend. Looking At It The Big Bucks Have Already Been Dished Out.
Some Of My Concerns Would Be.
(1) How Long Has The Present Owner Had The Bird?
(2) What's The Reason For Selling?
(3) How Long Has He Had The Electrical Problem?
(4) Why Hadn't He Fixed It?

Chris....from The Land Of Oz.

[jackbird60]

Good Questions Chris, And Thanks To Everyone For Their Help And Opinions.

He Had It For Just Over A Year. Bought It In Florida. He Has Several Cars.

I Don't Know This For Sure, But I Believe He Paid Good Money For It. He Spent $500 On Brakes Recently, And $600 Plus On A New Flex Plate Or Flywheel Just 1 Week Ago . According To His Son Some Of The Electricals Popped Up Recently, And He Is Tried Of Spending Money On It. (he Doesn't Wrench On It) But I Am Sure He Has A Mechanic That Does.

Why He Hasn't Fixed It I Am Unsure, Seems That He Is Not Happy With All The Problems That Popped Up Or There Is More Than Meets The Eye, But I Was Told It Runs Beautiful, Shifts Nicely, And Can Cruise At 70 All Day Long.

Anyway, That Why I Have To Touch & Feel This Car. Lot Of Close Up & Very Recent Pictures And The Video Was From A Few Days Ago, And The Car Sounded Awesome. I Know The Paint Job Is 5-6 Years Old And He Stated It's Very Good, But Not Perfect.

Well, Anyway, I Sold A Car After Buying & Having Them For Only 3 Mos, Because I Didn't Like It As Much As I Thought. (personal Thing!)

[bird 60]

That was pretty well the way that I read it, that he had problem after problem & enough was enough. But on the brighter side of things this could possibly be the last of the problems for hopefully a long time. When I had my '61 T.B. I had problems galore with the Carby & at one point as far as I was concerned as soon as it was fixed it was going to be, see you later. I ended up getting a new carby & it was purring like a kitten with lots of power & go. Now back to the "66.
I would still see it in the Flesh before forking out any $.
My Motto is, if I don't end up with the one in particular there's always another one around the corner just as good if not better.
5 or 6 year old paint job & coming from Flo, as long as it wasn't too close to the Ocean, it should still look like a new paint job, especially if garaged & only used as weekend driver & on non wet days.
My '60 Squarebird was painted in '96 & the paint is like new still. Mind you it's always garaged, never seen rain unless an un-expected shower, & I don't take it out in over 95f weather unless it's something special, (I hate the Heat).
Check it out & see how you go. Best of luck.

Chris....From the Land of OZ.

[jackbird60]

Well Chris, I Just Saw A 59 Bird In Pttsburgh. Not Good At All. Misrepresented In Everyway. Makes The 66 Bird Look Like Heaven On Wheels. Of Course I'll Have To Wrap My Hands Around That Car. If It Runs/handles And Looks Like The Pictures, It's A Deal For Sure, And I Can Deal With The Gremlins.

Without A Temp Gauge, I Am Wondering How To Tell If This Car Has An Overheating Problem???

Funny, The Other Guy With The 59 Said The Pictures Don't Do His Car Justice. I Guess He Was Right. Next Time I'll Ask What Kind Of Justice That Is.

It Like That Huey Lewis And The News Song Says "cool Is The Rule, But Sometimes, Bad Is Bad"

Bye- Jack

[RustyNCa]

Well Chris, I Just Saw A 59 Bird In Pttsburgh. Not Good At All. Misrepresented In Everyway. Makes The 66 Bird Look Like Heaven On Wheels. Of Course I'll Have To Wrap My Hands Around That Car. If It Runs/handles And Looks Like The Pictures, It's A Deal For Sure, And I Can Deal With The Gremlins.

Without A Temp Gauge, I Am Wondering How To Tell If This Car Has An Overheating Problem???

You could grab one of those rad caps that have a temp gauge in them, I'm not sure how well they would work on the Tbird's the way the system is setup. I have one on my olds and the 65 special, mainly since I don't trust the factory gauge. It doesn't move much at all.

Or you could get one of those infrared temp guns, I have one of those also and they are nice to play around with.

[YellowRose]

Squarebird Or 64-66 Bird

Jack has found a really nice '66 Flairbird convertible a couple of hundred miles from him! He has checked it out and bought it! It has the standard 390 engine in it. Here are a few things that he had to say about it.

The good is:
*Solid car, no rust, doors doors don't hang open, and shut freely
* All gauges work, speedo works
* steering excellent, very tight
* Interior Good with exception of crack by door knob
* Paint good, body good, except metal patch, and dent.
* New brakes & lines, rebuilt master
* Top in great shape except for wrinkles.
* idle and drove well after hard start.
* heater works
* all lights work including sequential turning signal


The Bad:
* Was hard starting- Could be something simple to serious, but has not been driven much.(A gamble- rust in tank, bad compression, to just bad gas, or carb adjustment)
* Metal patch, dent in back
* Flap motor is shot
* Heater switch or Fan Motor needs replacing
* Windshield cracked- Replacement installed for $210 at Gerber's
* Power windows in back working very slowly

All in all it was hard to pass this up.The owner has agreed to trailer it to me. (Which makes me think there are possible fuel tank rust issues.

Here are a couple of pix that Jack sent me.

[jackbird60]

Thanks Ray For The Post And The Pictures.

Hey Everyone Very Excited On The Buy. Got This Car At A Real Good Price. We'll Get It Next Saturday, The 13th. I Been In The Hobby For Sometime, So I Know Things Won't Be Perfect, Especially For The Price.

Back To The Birds For Me!!! Style, Ride, And Power!

Jack