Victor ~ vmg Has a Question About His Mexican Assembled '57 Tbird

[YellowRose]

Victor asked me a question that I do not know the answer to. In 2017 he bought one of the Mexican assembled Babybirds. We know it was assembled at the La Villla plant in Mexico because it has the Mexican produced Data Plate on it. He has been wondering if the brake booster is correct for his Tbird. I hope someone who knows these Babybirds can confirm that. He is concerned because, he, like me, is well aware that Ford did not always ship them enough or all the parts they needed to put together a fully assembled Babybird in the kits they received from Ford. He and I both know that at times, that plant had to obtain parts from other sources or non-Tbird cars to complete the assembly of their Babybirds. Here are the only 2 pix of the engine bay he sent me.

[simplyconnected]

All this revolves around duty fees and government agreements because sending parts does not cost as much duty as a fully assembled car. Ford never made brake parts so they very well could have come from the OE manufacturer.

Baby Birds didn't have room on the firewall because the battery was there. Ford used a hydro-boost that looked similar to this:
image.png
Many classic car vendors rebuild these original parts (much like Squarebird power steering systems). - Dave

[YellowRose]

Thanks, Dave! That looks exactly on what I was seeing on other '57 Babybirds when I googled on '57 Babybird engine bay pix! Many of the pix had them in black or gray just like that. I will tell Victor to look at what you said. He is in the process to restoring the Tbird to OEM specs and that will answer his question.

[Charlie]

I've been a Classic Thunderbird Club International member since 1966. This is the first I've heard of Mexican assembled T-Birds. I'm not saying it didn't happen, I'm just wondering why the subject has never come up in any documents or discussions. Victor should join CTCI, a friendly and excellent source of little 'Bird information. The club produced an illustrated "how to" manual on authentically restoring a little "Bird.

[YellowRose]

Charlie, if you would like to know a lot more regarding the Ford initiated program of assembling 1955-1957 Little Birds in the Mexico City plant then go to the Thunderbird Production History sub-Forum on here. Once there, you will find the detailed information that I posted some years ago regarding the history of Little Bird assembly in the Mexican plant. A lot of people have no clue that Ford was sending out components of the 1955-1957 Tbirds to that plant back then. Those who have been around Tbirds for much of their lives do. Since you are a long time CTCI member, you would probably like to know that initially much of the information regarding this subject came from the CTCI, and also the VTCI. What you probably do NOT know is that Brian Carron, the CTCI President happens to also be a member of the San Antonio South Texas Tbird Club of which I am also the President of... again. In fact, we are very good friends, and Brian and Marilyn are both ex-Presidents of STTC. Not only that, Brian is also the VTCI Regional Director for this part of the US. Here is what you may want to read to get up to snuff regarding 1955-1957 Little Bird production in Mexico. '55-'57 Mexican Tbird Production History. You will find that as a Sticky towards the top of the Thunderbird Production History Sub-Forum.

Here is the link to our very active STTC Club website. You might enjoy reading through that. You will also see that I also am the Webmaster and the Technical Editor for the Club.

https://southtexasthunderbirdclub.com/