1960 hardtop custom build

[Guest]

Hello fellow forum members and thunderbird addicts! My name is Dan and reside in north eastern Pennsylvania. I was recently in the search for project car to work on over the next few years and found this thunderbird located 2 miles from my home on craigslist.

a little history on the car. The car was purchased in California and spent its whole life there up until 5 years ago. The previous owner shipped it to his home in Pennsylvania where it sat in his garage for the remainder of its time. Here are a few photos of the car from that time period.




After first viewing the car the owner was asking $2000 which a bit high for the car. Upon inspection of the car it needed the following but not limited to.
New interior
New driver side and pass side floor pans
New paint
Some rust repair. Not bad at all.
Full overhaul etc

Car does run and drive new gas tank,carb and other parts were installed by previous owner.

Here are the pics after the car was pulled from the garage after 5 years.

Negotiated the car down to $1500 and away it came home to my house.

I have been working on the car after the past month and have learned a lot about the car from all of the great members here. I am only beginning the journey and boy has it been great. I am going to go a different route with the car. I am going to modernize it a bit including newer radio, new bucket seats etc. I would not say restomod style, but something that his safer and not going to kill my pocket. I know a lot of guys love the original restorations, but that is what's great about this "hobby", you can put your own personal touches on a vehicle and express yourself.
I have recently done the following repairs

New brake line from front to rear
Pulled dash and rewired as necessary
New floor pans
Stripped rust from trunk and reprinted
Repaired center console, dash pad
Repaired all power window motors

The car currently runs and moves under its own power which is great,but a lot of work is still needed. Just wanted to show the car and update everyone during this great journey.

[pcjr]

Looks like you got yourself a good deal. Have fun with it.

[Dakota Boy]

looks like you got one with the all-black leather interior option. My favorite...

[Dan Leavens]

Dan looks like your well on your way and identified what you want to do. Great winter project

[Guest]

Just got myself some por15 to apply to some rusty areas. Also picked up some seam sealer along with 50mil sound deadening for the interior 50sqft.

[jopizz]

That '59 accessory fender mirror is a rare piece.

John

[Guest]

Thanks john. What makes it so rare?

[jopizz]

The only one I've ever seen on a squarebird is in the '60 owners manual. I've seen them on a few '59 Skyliners. They weren't installed very often either by the factory or by dealers.

John

[Guest]

Update!

First, I would like to thank YellowRose for re-sizing my images while I was away on a business trip. Your are one **** of a guy!

I went ahead and pulled the Intake manifold and the heads to go ahead and start to replace all the gaskets. Once the heads were pulled I noticed that 4-8 pistons must of had a head gasket leak pouring antifreeze onto the pistons. Other than that everything else looked pretty clean. I really had a hard time getting the exhaust manifold off due to those olds bolts. I broke 6 bolts and the rest came out fine. I am going to send the heads over to a machine shop to re-tap the threads.

I also found out that my motor is a 390 from 1962. The block number is a C2AE block with a 3.75 measured piston Stroke. I am pretty stoked that this motor was put in its spot over the original 352 it came with!

I decided against pulling the motor at this time due to the fact that the transmission works fine and the rear main seal appears to be in good shape. This is a budget build so I really do not have the funds to be pulling the motor out and sending the motor out to have a complete overhaul. I will be doing some refreshing of the engine bay and the gaskets, but thats about it. The motor ran fine before the heads were removed with no smoking of any sort.

In the future if the engine starts to die out I will then pull it and send it out.

My question for you guys is... Was it the head gasket that caused the antifreeze to pour into the cylinders and If i were to send out the heads to the shop should anything else be done to them that would not break my wallet?

[jopizz]

My question for you guys is... Was it the head gasket that caused the antifreeze to pour into the cylinders and If i were to send out the heads to the shop should anything else be done to them that would not break my wallet?

The anti-freeze you see is from removing the head. It's not from a head gasket leak. You can relax.

John

[Anders]

Just uploaded by Hollywood Hot Rods Looks totally awesome DeLuxe!

[simplyconnected]

...My question for you guys is... Was it the head gasket that caused the antifreeze to pour into the cylinders and If i were to send out the heads to the shop should anything else be done to them that would not break my wallet?..

This picture looks odd. Someone squished a 16x9 picture into 4x3, giving you oblong cylinders.

Do you want an honest answer? I would NOT send those heads out. It's apparent to me that something is warped, causing a head gasket leak. These are 1962 cast iron heads with broken bolts. If you spend a bunch of money to shave them straight, put new hardened exhaust seats and new valves in, and possibly do a Viton valve seal job, you still end up with cast iron heads.

Look closely at your cylinder bores. If they are smooth, you need to put a crosshatch back in with 250 sand paper. You can do this by hand if you go in a 45 degree pattern both ways and bear down. This will stop oil from burning.

Next, I would measure the bores. Call Edelbrock and see if you have enough space to accommodate a pair of Edelbrock FE aluminum heads. They're already machined, already have stainless valves, bronze guides, Viton seals and helicoiled holes. They transfer heat four times faster than cast iron and they shed lots of weight. Simply buy across-the-counter and bolt them on.

Spending any money on your cast iron heads is putting good money after bad. Also, I didn't hear you say anything about the possibility that one of your heads is cracked.

That's my suggestion. - Dave

[jopizz]

I respectfully disagree with Dave regarding a head gasket leak. When you remove the head from the block the anti-freeze that's left in the head will spill out. Depending on the angle that the head was removed it can either spill on the ground or go into the cylinders. Most times when I remove heads from a running car the same thing happens. A head gasket leak would be evident by corrosion on the cylinder walls and on the top of the pistons which would wash away some of the carbon. I don't see that on yours. I do agree with Dave that aluminum heads are the way to go. I would bite the bullet regarding cost and invest in them rather than pay a machine shop to redo yours. If cost is an issue you can certainly drill the broken bolts out yourself and retap them, do a valve job if the seats are not too worn, replace the valve seals and the car will probably run just fine. You will need to use a lead additive to protect the valve seats. Without knowing your budget it's hard to give advice on which way to go.

John

[simplyconnected]

Dan, in this business of restoring cars, you need to use all your senses and take hundreds of pictures.

We only know information from only one engine picture. I see a liquid around the lifters that looks rather brownish-orange. I also see a yellowish residue around cylinders #7 & 8. I would like to see the under side of the head that came from this deck. I would also like to see the intake manifold gasket and the old head gasket.

We also need to know more about why you decided to tear it down. If your engine ran with antifreeze in the oil (witnessed by the orange-ish liquid) you need to clean it out or your bearings will be shot. Take this seriously.

Of course, coolant will spill when the heads and intake come apart, they are both full of antifreeze. But that brownish orange stuff raises big red flags to me. If your oil pan is full of it, you need to remove the other head and clean your whole engine. Take your oil pan off.

I hope this was caught in time. If it were me, I would pull the engine and put it on a stand. I would take a few bearing caps off and look. If any scoring is evident on the crankshaft bearings the engine cannot run until the crank is 'cleaned up' and new bearing inserts are installed.

I hate two things, doing a job over and buying unnecessary parts. Both eat money. Buy one 'Full Set' of quality name-brand gaskets (like FEL-PRO Part #FS8554PT) and do the job right the first time so you don't need to do it again.

You already know my opinion regarding the heads:

Click on the picture to get Amazon's price of $750/ea with free shipping. That's about the cheapest I've seen (unless you are a dealer). - Dave

[jopizz]

As Dave mentioned we have little info to go on regarding the overall condition of your motor. Some diagnosis should have been done before you tore it apart and it was still running. Was it putting out white or blue smoke, were there any sounds that could indicate bearing problems. Did you see any coolant in the oil or a milky appearance to the anti-freeze. Now that you've taken it apart and have decided not to do a complete rebuild you are rolling the dice that your block, bearings, crank and cam are in good enough condition just to do the heads and have a well performing motor. We've all been in the situation where money is tight and we are looking for the cheapest solution. My experience with motors of this age is that the pan is most likely filled with sludge and a failure of the oil pump is inevitable. Also not replacing the freeze plugs in the block is just asking for trouble. And just because the main seal and transmission seals aren't leaking now doesn't mean they won't a month after everything is put back together. Without doing a complete overhaul there are many things that can be replaced that don't cost very much money. At the very least I would pull the pan, clean it out, replace the oil pump and shaft, replace the timing gears and chain and replace the freeze plugs. These can be done without pulling the motor and should cost less than $150.

John