my bird is home (pics)

[57ford/60thunderbird]

ok my new little bird is home i treated her to a quickie interrior cleaning and a nice wash here is a link to 50 pics of her (i love taking pics) some are as youll tell pre cleaning and mid wash and after i hope you enjoy and feel free to leave comments and or sugestions http://www.kodakgallery.com/ShareLan...localeid=en_US

i hope the link works

[YellowRose]

my bird is home (pics)

Hi Keith!

Yup, the link works! I looked through all the pix. She will look great on the road and standing still once you get all the restoration work completed! Glad to see you save another Tbird! Good luck with her!

[Coral]

Talk about a shutter bug, LOL
That was a great slide show!
Thanks for sharing...!

How many rubber-neckers did you notice on the ride home?

[Dan Leavens]

Keith thanks for the pics and now the project begins The best part is that from the beginning to the end, you will put your heart and soul into the restoration. Along the way as I mentioned before you have some of the most knowledegable birders around on this site, to help you through it

[57ford/60thunderbird]

cathie, the guy i bought it from delivered it but as we were unloading and washing it on my driveway i saw plenty of guakers

at the moment my plans is to just get it roadworthy and im gonna spraybomb it in semi-gloss black and drive it and enjoy it and collect parts

and i need all the help i can get lol

[57ford/60thunderbird]

just alittle update i forgot to tell you all that yesterday when i pulled the back seat out it i found the broadcast sheet it was amazed at the good shape it was in just messing 2 small areas

and i decided to pull the plugs on the 352 and see if i could get it to turn over so i pulled the battery out of my 69 mustang and hook into the bird and squirted alittle wd40 in the cylinders(just to be safe) and she spun over soo easy i was thrilled so i said ok lets put the plugs back in and dump some gas in the carb .... well, i got her to murmur alittle bit but shes not quite in the talking mood yet i gotta get a fuel pump soon very soon from the little bit i heard from her shes got a beautiful voice for a vehicle thats been off the road soo long

to give you and idea how long shes been sidelined her rear tires are actually KMART brand 78's now how long has it been since kmart actually sold tires ? (and her rear tires are in practically new shape have atleast 3/4 of the tread left on them)

the guy i got her from said her brakes were shot well i pulled all 4 drums off of her today and all the shoes look very good and no visable leaks inside the drums the only thing wrong i noticed were none of the brakes were properly adjusted none of them had any drag at all on the drums......GEE WALLY..... i wonder why she wouldnt stop

oh and i finnally wrote down my data plate info (it would be nice if some fine person on here would decode it for me
serial number 0471y18**** , body 63A hardtop ..... colorXH trim 54 date17H trans4 axle 3

ok thats my update for today its beddy bye time for bonzo

[YellowRose]

my bird is home (pics)

Hi Keith,

I had your post completely answered when my internet connection went down, and I lost everything as I was posting. It did not get saved, so here I go again.

First of all, congratulations on finding your ROT sheet! You are very lucky that you found it and it is in pretty good shape. Make several copies of it and put it in plastic or in a document protector for safe keeping. Just out of curiosity, what date does it have up next to that ROT # and what date is in the SCHED Date box? I see from what your data plate says, that your Tbird was scheduled for completion on 17 August, 1959. The H is August 1959. W would have been August, 1960.

It sounds like your 352 wants to start running again! Wait until you get that fuel pump on, new plugs, timing, etc. When you do get her going, you are going to hear her roar! Then when she settles in, she will purrrrrr. Until you punch her again and then that kitty turns into a lion again!

As for those tires, that is very interesting! They go back quite a few years. You will want to put some new ones on her though. After all those years, those tires are probably in pretty bad shape. I would not trust them.

As for the brakes, it makes a big difference if they are adjusted correctly. A number of the guys here will tell you that those brakes are fine as long as they are put on correctly, and adjusted correctly. The problem often is that some people do not know how to do that. Mine are working great now... After I took them to a brake shop and they went through them and fixed all the things that were set up wrong or bad on them..

Now for the Data Plate. First of all, you must have written down some information incorrectly. That 04 should be a 0Y. The Data Plate breakdown is on the Technical Resources Library Forum above this. Here is the link to it.

http://www.tbird.org/DataPlate/vdata.htm

The 0 stands for the year of the car. In this case a 1960. The Y (NOT 4) tells you what Assembly Plant it was built in. Y = Wixom. There were NO Tbirds built at other plants that I know of. 71 tells you it is a 2-Dr Hardtop. The Y after that tells you it left the plant with a 352 engine in it. The last six numbers is the serial number that was assigned to the car at the time it was scheduled for production. The last serial number for the 1960 Tbird was 192843. That does NOT mean that was the last car off the line. It was the last number assigned to be built. They often did not build them in order.

Now for the rest of the data on the plate. The Body 63A tells you again, that it was a 2-Dr Hardtop. The Color XH must be an error. Read the Color Code again, because there is NO XH listed as a color for a 1960 Tbird. The only Color Code with an X in it is XM... X = Royal Burgundy Metallic (Bottom Color) and M = Corinthian White (the Top Color). Trim 54 tells us it left the plant with a vinyl Dark Beige Bolster and vinyl Light Beige inserts. The Date Code we already explained. The Trans 4 tells you a Cruise-O-Matic 3 Speed tranny was installed at the factory. And finally, the Axle 3 tells you it had a 3.10:1 axle when it left the plant.

There you go, and now it is way past my beddy bye time! That danged failure of my ISP's internet connection messed me up. Let me know if this helps. G'Night!

[57ford/60thunderbird]

yellow rose,
yeah i couldnt quite make up my mind if the color code was xh or xm and since the car is burgundy it must be xm

about the tires yeah im positively not going to drive it anywhere on them well, maybe up and down the driveway ... maybe

on my ROT sheet as you call it the date in the rot box is 256 and the schd date box is 17h so i guess that means mine got built on time
so is aug17 59 an early build date for a 60?

thanks for all your help im gonna need lots more before im finished

[tbird430]

1st off, thanks for saving another Squarebird & for posting the pics for us veiw too.

Are you a very good welder? It seems as if you will be replacing just about ALL the lower patch panels the vendors have to offer. Maybe one of them will give you a discount when you buy them all?

I was thinking your '60 Bird should be a later production model- It has the firewall mounted power brake booster.

Keep us posted if you have any questions.

-Jon

[YellowRose]

my bird is home (pics)

Hi Keith,

Yup, that must have been an XM since the car IS burgundy. Sometimes those Data Plates are hard to read.

As for the ROT (Rotation) Sheet, that was the form they used to put parts in and on the car as it went down the line. The number 256 tells you that your car was scheduled to be put in rotation on the line in the 256th position for that day of production. Next to that ROT # is a date. 256 is not the date. The date in the box next to the ROT # is a date that I am not certain as to what it means. It could have been the date the forms for the production run date in the SCHED Date box was to be run, were printed out. Or the date the forms were created for that SCHED Date run on 17 August. I dunno and I dont know if anyone knows for sure, either. Now here is an interesting thing about what your Data Plate says.. Look at this web page..

http://automotivemileposts.com/prod1960tbird.html

It says: INTRODUCTION DATE
October 8, 1959
Production Started September 8, 1959
Production Ended September 9, 1960**

**Thunderbirds were scheduled to be built through Tuesday, September 13th, 1960, but the assembly line was running ahead of schedule, and the last Thunderbirds actually came off the line on Friday, September 9, 1960. The data plates on cars built the last day would still show a date code of 13W due to the fact these plates are made ahead of time, and new plates normally weren't produced for minor changes.

So according to what that says, UNLESS YOUR DATA PLATE HAS BEEN REPLACED IN THE PAST, though your car was scheduled for production on the 17th of August, production did not start until September 8, 1959! If this is accurate, all 1960 Tbirds that might have had a Schedule Date of sometime in August were held until September 8th when the production run actually started. This might have been because they were delayed in starting the 1960 production run because they were still making 1959's. Look at this...

http://automotivemileposts.com/prod1959tbird.html

It says that production on the 1959 ended on August 22nd, 1959. Sooo, they could NOT run the new 1960 models through the line until sometime after that date. It probably took them a week or more to get the line set up for the 1960 run, and also Labor Day was involved too.. So although your Tbird was "Scheduled" to be built on the 17th of August, according to this, it wasn't and no other 1960 Tbird was either because they were still running 1959's through the line until the 22nd of August.. Apparently, "Schedules" were subject to great change... And look what that note says above about the end of the 1960 Tbird run on September 9, 1960! these plates are made ahead of time, and new plates normally weren't produced for minor changes. So the Data Plates were probably already created for a 17 August, 1959 run, and with the line still running 1959's through it, they just kept the Data Plates and the ROT sheets, probably, until they started running 1960's through the line and did not replace the plates...

[57ford/60thunderbird]

man, yellow rose your just full of...information i wish i could see those web pages but my computor says i cant because of content!!!!!!!!!!!

on my rot sheet there is no date beside the rot number the next box is the serial number box
i dont know if it matters but my rot has a printed date of june 59

oh and for others who may still be looking for thier rot sheets i found another one for my car under the passenger side front seat allthough it is in a lot worse shape then the one from the backseat

i didnt see one under the driver seat though it maybe above the motors for the adjusters

[YellowRose]

my bird is home (pics)

Hi Keith,

You should be able to view those web pages I cited. They are trusted web sites. Nothing wrong with them. And they give you a great deal of information regarding our Tbirds, from 1958 up.. Check your settings on your puter. Add that web site to your Trusted Sites section. There is certainly nothing wrong with the content of those web pages.They are some of the most used amongst us Tbirders.

That is interesting that there is no date in the Date box next to the ROT #.. The June 59 date is probably the form date when it was created. I imagine that is down at the bottom right side of the form.

It is not unusual to find more than one ROT sheet in a car. It may have a different serial number on it than the other one you found. Sometimes the linemen put more than one ROT sheet in a car and they often had a different serial number on them, for whatever reason. It could have belonged to the car in front of yours, and maybe he forgot to put it in that car.

Can you read the second sheet? If so, does it seem to relate to the first one? Same serial number on it as on the first one you found?

[scumdog]

Man, that's a project or what!!!


Too much work for me but good on you for saving a 'bird.

Keep us posted on the progress eh?

[GTE427]

oh and i finnally wrote down my data plate info (it would be nice if some fine person on here would decode it for me
serial number 0471y18**** , body 63A hardtop ..... colorXH trim 54 date17H trans4 axle 3

It looks like this car would have been produced in August 1960, not early 59. The serial number is in the 80,000 series.

[57ford/60thunderbird]

yellow rose yes both sheets are for my car and not only does my sheet not have a date beside the rot box the box next to it is the serial number box there is no space for a date and yes the june 59 date is in the lower right hand corner

scumdog yes, its a project but believe it or not this is the BEST bird ive found rust wise and for 800.00 plus extra parts for it i think it was worth it