That '58 Tbird h-bomb Was Looking At

[YellowRose]

Sorry guys, in trying to edit one of my posts, I accidentally deleted the entire thread! I am trying to see how to recover it. If I can, I will repost it.

protourbird, in Florida, said if that Tbird is not to far from him, he might be able to go check it out for you.

I am going back to see if I can recover that thread.

[h-bomb]

Looking for any advice, pointers, suggestions on this car.



I'm trying to find someone local to look it over for me as I'm 500 miles away, so I'm relying heavily on the pictures the seller sent me. My main concern is the rot showing in what appears to be the inner rockers. The rest of the undercarriage has been repaired or replaced.



I put all of the pictures from the seller here: http://s158.photobucket.com/albums/t...c/Thunderbird/

He's asking $5500 for the car.

[YellowRose]

That '58 Tbird h-bomb Was Looking At

Sorry guys, I cannot find anyway on the system to restore a deleted thread. Harris, I think you saw the comments the guys had made so far. Maybe we can start this again. Can you re-post the pix here and this time I will leave things alone!

Sorry for the inconvenience. I think you said you were not new to classic car restoration, which is good. This car, from the looks of it, will need quite a lot of work done to it, but for that price of $5,500, I thought I saw, might be worth the time, effort and money put into it.

[h-bomb]

Thanks...I think we got everything pretty much back. You had mentioned the door handles looking like replacements of a different type? They look OK to me, although I can't say I've ever looked at any others!

[YellowRose]

That '58 Tbird h-bomb Was Looking At

I should have been more explicit in my wording. The interior door panels has a non-OEM arm rest on it and non-OEM interior door panels. The original ones came across the door panel and swooped up at the back end as it approached the end of the door. The pictures I recall seeing had small rectangular arm rests installed. The original arm rests look like this. The '58 and '59 both had the same style of arm rests.

Another thing I was saying that it has a trailer hitch on it, like my YellowRose does. You do not see to many Tbirds with that. It could be an original Ford Tbird trailer hitch. If it is, it should be stamped 1958 1959 1960 Thunderbird, as I recall..

[h-bomb]

Ahhh...I see what you mean now.



Thanks for pointing that out!

[Guest]

Hey Harris,
The upper body looks good. I would have someone take a refrigerator magnet over the body and make sure she is not full of bondo. Also see if she can be put on a lift and check to make sure the steel under that rotted sheet metal is not gone or in bad shape. Check the rear splash shields behind the front wheels. These old Birds are bad about get rust in behind that shield and rotting the frame!
Richard D. Hord

[Yellowbird]

'58 T-bird

Hi Harris,
I also noticed that the front license plate bracket is missing and that the grille appears to have extra holes drilled in it in 4 places. I would want to check the rust issues very carefully. Check the bottom of the doors for rust since the drain plug would sometimes get plugged. You will want to check for rust also where the hood and front cowl come together.

Good luck!

Leonard

Ahhh...I see what you mean now.



Thanks for pointing that out!

[Guest]

I'd sell mine for 5000. It dosn't look as nice as that one but it has no rust problems like that one. I had a 60 in 67 and the tin worm did a job on the inner and outer rockers- floors and trunk.

[simplyconnected]

Welcome, h-bomb. Sorry Ray had so much trouble with your pictures. (I never saw that happen before.) You have come to the right place if you are looking for Thunderbird advice. The membership here has tons of experience with these cars and they are eager to help.

I looked at your seller's pictures. Granted, it's a '58, and he's only asking $5k, but I am very bothered by the rust I see AND the rust I don't see.

Nice carpet, but pull it back, let's see what's underneath. Everyone loves to show the trunk. The trunk is protected by a fuel tank, so it should look good. A can or two of spray undercoating can hide many sins, but it couldn't mask the tire-well rot. He has a new fuel tank (which is good) but he forgot to clean off the undercoating overspray. Seats need to be reupholstered, and the windlace is gone... P/S, I can't tell if it has P/B, no air, I can't tell anything about the engine or trans... someone lifted the car by the #1 crossmember and crushed it (somewhat). I believe your lower "A" arms are mounted to that crossmember, so check out the bushings (not shown) and get a front-end alignment to see if it can fall within spec's.

The car is partially restored and looks great from the outside. If you can weld (it needs six months of welding) you might find this a fair value. If you can't weld, to pay someone to do it will cost you a fortune. It may need floor pans, rocker structure, and sub-frame replacements. With a good interior, engine, transmission, and body metal restored, this car might bring $20K. If you straighten & metal finish the bumpers and have all the chrome replated, and everything working, it might bring $30k or more. The sign of a great restoration is, it doesn't look restored. Just my two cents.

...protourbird, in Florida, said if that Tbird is not to far from him, he might be able to go check it out for you...

That's a great suggestion. Please don't depend on the seller to tell the whole truth. A few pictures can be deceptive, too. Someone needs to really look at this car, take 50 more pictures, and then ask if it is worth the asking price.

Here is another important question: Do you have a real passion for this model? If not, don't buy it.

Restoration costs are very high. The deeper you get into your project, the more you will find needs restoration (it always happens). Unless you are a restorer and understand all that needs to be done, never buy as an investment.

I gave this advice to a member last week but it pertains to ALL restoration projects. He bought a Thunderbird, took it apart, and realized he will require more money to restore than the final restoration will bring in the market. I guess he decided to sell all the parts.

Two good reasons to buy are:
* You absolutely love the car and are willing to spend more money just to enjoy having the car.
* You really enjoy a good project that may take ten years.

Usually restorers have close friends who; regularly paint (and have a booth), upholster (and should have an industrial sewing machine like a Juki), chrome plate and polish stainless, rebuild automatic transmissions, are 'in' with a good engine machine shop, can fabricate- weld and finish sheet metal. These friends help reduce costs dramatically. Many times we swap work because nobody does it all. The rest of any project is to find correct parts, de-rust and clean parts for re-assembly.

The final outcome is so rewarding, you won't ever want to sell because a part of you is the car. - Dave Dare

[YellowRose]

That '58 Tbird h-bomb Was Looking At

The Tbird Registry was up for me this evening and I checked out that VIN # for it. It is not in the registry. So previous owners did not register it probably because they did not know about the registry. Here is the link to it.

http://www.tbirdregistry.com/

[protourbird]

Harris,
I took a quick look at the 58 T-Bird in Palmetto today and attached are photos and an inspection report. I didn’t drive the car. The young lady that works there didn’t offer and frankly I was leery about driving it. You can definitely find nicer ones for not much more money. I sold a 60 in July for $7500 that was a better car. Opening the hood is a three person job. I also couldn’t get underneath it but if you really want this car I’ll see if they’ll put it on a lift . This is a project for someone that has a lot of money and time. I would imagine that $2500 to $3000 would take it. Supposedly it belongs to a lady whose husband passed and she just wants to get rid of it. I would gut it and tear it completely apart and start over as the work that has been done is substandard at best. These are just my recommendations and you will have to make your own decisions. If it’s OK with you I will post this on the forum site so others won’t be tempted. My phone is below if you have any questions.













Good OK Trash . . . . .
Interior Trash

Dash
Pad OK Rust around the edges

Seats Trash

Headliner Very Dirty

Interior Chrome Trash

Paint Cheap & Fast Re Paint

Ext Chrome Trash but Salvageable

Rust Yes

Engine Unable to hear it run They gave me two ignition keys and neither worked

Trans Unknown see above

Brakes Unknown

Exh Looked Fairly New

Under Car ?? No Lift

Tires Weather Checked

Wheels ?? New Hubcaps

Controls Suspect

Electric Unknown

Grind Marks and rust repair on hood above battery. Common problem from overcharged battery
Paint bubbles on recent re paint. Chrome and windows show tape lines & overspray

Carpet reasonable new but wet. Windows, if they work, won't close properly

Chassis springs worn. Car sits very low.

Blue respray over white paint.

No trunk lock. Open with screw driver I guess

My Recommendation: Run! This is a $1500 car and will take a lot of money to fix even to a decent driver. On a 1 to 4 scale this is a 1-

[h-bomb]

Jim, I can't thank you enough for doing that for me!

I sent them an insult offer of $1500.

I'll keep looking!


Thanks again, and thanks to everyone here for your help!

H.

[simplyconnected]

Good job, Jim. I agree with all you've said; this poor car needs a whole lot of work. After seeing the real bad paint job and the torn seat covers, that's enough... no need to look underneath or hear the engine and trans. Chrome is badly pitted, stainless looks terrible, glass laminate is yellow and bubbled...

They didn't metal finish before painting, and all that overspray... what a waste.

Great pictures, Jim. Sure does save other members from another goose chase. Thanks from all of us. - Dave