The "Junior" Ford Thunderbirds

[Guest]

Hey there Lee (roadkillontheweb). I took a look at your profile and sounds like you have a mold for the squarebird jr. You mentioned 1/4 and 1/3 scale, Which do you have? If you already posted that somewhere I have to say sorry that I didnt see it. I was just following the Jr bird thing then all the sudden there you are with these great pix of a new tbird body. How much do you sell them for?

Oh and by the way, Welcome to the forum!

[roadkillontheweb]

Hey there Lee (roadkillontheweb). I took a look at your profile and sounds like you have a mold for the squarebird jr. You mentioned 1/4 and 1/3 scale, Which do you have? If you already posted that somewhere I have to say sorry that I didnt see it. I was just following the Jr bird thing then all the sudden there you are with these great pix of a new tbird body. How much do you sell them for?

Oh and by the way, Welcome to the forum!

I have the larger 1/3rd scale mold and the black body is made from that mold. The 1/4 scale birds are easy to spot because the bumpers are molded in and the seat back is fiberglass.

All the products I make are on the resources page along with the prices http://www.jrcentral.com/resources.html The only thing I have not added yet are the 58 taillights and the 58 Grille insert.

I joined the forum some time back but have not posted for a while. I just saw all of the traffic to my site from here and came back to see what was going on?

Edit: Nope the 1/4 scale blue bird belongs to someone else in the Detroit area. I Have the original factory molds for the 1/3rd scale plus I make other restoration parts.

[YellowRose]

The "Junior" Ford Thunderbirds

Hello, Lee! This is wild! I did not know that you were a member of Squarebirds until I saw your posts! You joined back before I did, and I never saw any of your posts. I also did not know that Alexander had put anything on the Forum about the "Junior" cars, and your efforts to keep them alive. Until I started checking into the picture of the two girls in a yellow "Junior" Tbird at an amusement park. That picture started this whole thing for me! First I tried to find out who was making those cars back then. I know now. Then I remembered reading about these cars in Chapter 13 of Tom Maruska's dissertation on finding and restoring the Italien! He mentioned that Don Chambers had a bunch of them at Mustang Country in California where he found the Italien.

That started me off on that tangent and ended up with me finding out about the company that used to make them in CT. And led me to Ailene Chambers and to your website! That was me, for one, poking around it, trying to learn more about these fascinating little cars. And here you are, a member of a couple of years right here! It is a small world.

Thanks for telling us more about the "Junior" cars. That is much appreciated. I am glad there are some still with us, but boy, they do get to be expensive these days as you can see by the asking prices on those that Ailine has for sale. They are an important part of Thunderbird history though and I hope they survive. There cant be to many of them left, but at least you have the ability to make new molds and have some of the supplies. I am going to take a look at the links you provided. Thanks!

A belated welcome to Squarebirds, and we hope to see more of you! Here is a link to the Laff In The Dark website that talks about the Thunderbird Jr. cars. Enjoy! I see that Lee already posted it! lol..

http://www.laffinthedark.com/articles/pretzelride/pretzelride8.htm

[Penelope]

Lee, can you recall what the freight was to Australia, my grandson is small at the moment but I would love to get him one....

[roadkillontheweb]

I actually got a chance to visit with Don Chambers a few years back. he was very nice and showed my wife and I around his collection. I have one of the Desoto Firemites that he had in his collection that I bought from Ailene after Don passed. I also had the chance to talk to George Ford that owned the Powercar company before he passed. And have talked to a number of people that used to work there.

I am trying to get reproduction frames made now since that seems to be the hardest part to make for these. I hope to get something by the fall so I can offer bodies with frames in kit form.

They definatly turn a lot of heads since they are so highly detailed and with the working lights and horn.

[roadkillontheweb]

Lee, can you recall what the freight was to Australia, my grandson is small at the moment but I would love to get him one....

I have not shipped one directly to Australia.

The guy I shipped to in OZ contacted his local car clubs and asked around to find someone that was shipping some cars over from the states. he asked them if they would let him stick the little car in the container with the big cars and paid the guys packing the container to pick it up at the local greyhound bus depot. The cost to ship the body and bumpers is under $100 to either coastline here in the states you just need to pick it up at the local bus depot they will not bring it to you. This is the cheapest form of shipping I have found. There are currently two Mustang Juniors in OZ that I know of but no Thunderbirds yet.

PS: I own a 1956 Australian built Desoto UTE that i imported from OZ a few years ago.

[bird 60]

Desoto

With the Aussie Desoto Ute it's obviously Right Hand Drive. Are there any regulations regarding right hand Cars there.?
Just curious 'cause we have certain rules & regulations here with Left Hand Drive Cars.

Chris....From the Land of OZ.

[roadkillontheweb]

With the Aussie Desoto Ute it's obviously Right Hand Drive. Are there any regulations regarding right hand Cars there.?
Just curious 'cause we have certain rules & regulations here with Left Hand Drive Cars.

Chris....From the Land of OZ.

No regs but lots of strange looks!
The best part is the hand signals (No turn signals, roos didn't pay attention to them anyway) for turn out the wrong side. People barely know hand signals and when I have my young daughter with she does them out the left side and people just think she is waving.

Here are the two UTEs I brought over. I sold the Plymouth but have kept the Desoto.

[Guest]

I am trying to get reproduction frames made now since that seems to be the hardest part to make for these. I hope to get something by the fall so I can offer bodies with frames in kit form.

I was going to ask if you had or knew were a person could find a blueprint for the frame? Is there an illustration out there on the web somewhere??

[Anders]

I have the larger 1/3rd scale mold and the black body is made from that mold.

All the products I make are on the resources page along with the prices http://www.jrcentral.com/resources.html The only thing I have not added yet are the 58 taillights and the 58 Grille insert.
I Have the original factory molds for the 1/3rd scale plus I make other restoration parts.

This is GREAT news!
I have just bookmarked that site, and will perhaps order a ´58 when the timing is right. Emmy is only 1 year now, and the next one is in the pipeline, so to say, so I guess I have a reason that even Susanne will accept I will be the best granpa around !

Is this where you have your factory?

[YellowRose]

The "Junior" Ford Thunderbirds

Here is more information on the "Junior" promotional cars. Lee, I am going to send you a PM regarding these... Click on this link and follow through to the next pages. Click on each clickable link to see more promotional cars. There are others made in Minnesota, Chicago, and other places by other companies than Powercar..

http://www.dspedalcarrestorations.com/promotional_cars.htm

[roadkillontheweb]

I was going to ask if you had or knew were a person could find a blueprint for the frame? Is there an illustration out there on the web somewhere??

I have lots of pictures of frames on my Misc images pages and the mustang and Mercury pages but no real blueprints. Most people use the pictures as a guide and just flip the body over and build the frame to fit inside. The most important thing is to keep the steering high up to have leg clearnace

[roadkillontheweb]

This is GREAT news!
I have just bookmarked that site, and will perhaps order a ´58 when the timing is right. Emmy is only 1 year now, and the next one is in the pipeline, so to say, so I guess I have a reason that even Susanne will accept I will be the best granpa around !

Is this where you have your factory?

If you watch the videos I have on youtube you will see a young guy driving a 67 Mustang. That is my nephew, and he is 6'4" tall and used to drive mine all the time. Since I am 6'6" and over 300lbs I do not fit but most average size adults do. Why wait for her to drive when you can drive it yourself and put her in the passenger seat?

That's where I make them but it is far from a factory. I have the three car garage in the back but whem it comes to juniors it will fit more like 24. I make lots of the plastic parts while sitting on my couch watching TV. I have not spilled any uncured plastic on the new carpet yet.

I have a regular job that pays the bills and the junior cars are more of a part time nights addiction that I will not retire on but it makes enough to keep making more molds to make more parts. If you move to the west 1/2 a block you will see the city park that doubles as my test track. They are a heck of a lot of fun and you will do a lot of talking if you take one to a car show because so few people have ever seen one. They get really suprised when they find out that they are vintage original promotional products that were authorized by Ford to produce and that the dealers used them. Turn on the headlights, honk the horn step on the brakes and the brake lights light up. Then when you stick it in reverse they can not believe it. I have a couple of junior owners that like to pre-register the junior as a regular car for local and national shows. They just register it as a 58 Thunderbird convertible (example) and then unload it a block or so away from the show and drive it in from there. One guy put it best when he says you will feel like a star the first time you drive it in a crowd because everyone will be staring at you.

[roadkillontheweb]

Again I had some more traffic from the site so I figured I should stop in and give an update on what I have been up to.

I now offer the following new reproduction Thunderbird JR parts since my last visit

55-57 original style vacuum formed grille inserts
61-63 front bumper guard
64-65 front bumper guard
61-63 rear bumpers
64 and 65 front bumpers

I am also currently working on the 66 rear bumper and tail light lens. The lens was busted and badly warped so I had to make a wood form from scratch. Visit my new forums to see the project take shape. http://www.jrcentral.com/phpBB3/index.php

And for you Mustang fans that are also Thunderbird fans I have also added the 67-68 Mustang jr body and bumpers and the 71-73 Mustang Junior body and bumpers to the list of available restoration parts.

[Guest]

Bodies for sale?

Are bodies available for the 1958 T-Bird for sale?