1960 Squarebird Restoration Project

[dczerwonski]

Hello guys!
I'm new here and recently I got myself a 1960 Thunderbird. I've started the restoration a month ago as my weekend project and I'm going to share my progress here.

So, I bought the car locally in Poland - already imported by someone who abandoned the restoration before even starting. Later I googled the VIN and found this us ad of the car: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/_o1pIQtg_es

The good side is that the car is complete, pretty much all of the parts are there, it's driving reasonably well, engine running ok, so is the tranny, the chrome parts are in good condition. There is just one downside (well, actually two as I found out later) - the rust - there is a lot of it.

• Inner rockers are heavily rusted - the right one doesn't exist at all - it's just not there. I was amazed that it's still driving straight and the body is not warping
• The front subframe is in very bad shape around torque boxes, so are the torque boxes - basically the whole torque box areas will require most of the work
• Rear subframe side trunk support members are non-existent - there are just big holes in the member left
• Rear inner wheel arches are bad
• And front ones are rusted on the top where they connect with front fenders
• The body sheets in the bottom 50% of the car are trash - in addition they were "repaired" using rivets, tons of putty, licence plates (!!) and even an old road sign... Even one of the seatbelts was mounted to this "licence plate repair"
• And, of course, some minor rust areas

Suprisingly, the top 50% of the body is in very good to excellent condition - it even looks like the paint on the roof is original.

Also after cleaning the body it turned out that the car had some minor front left corner crash - the bumper mounts are damaged, and the left member in front area is a bit warped.

So far, I've stripped the car to bare metal, measured it (it's perfectly straight ), reinforced it with temporary inner frame so it doesn't collapse when replacing the structural parts and started cutting out body panels. After that it'll be sand/soda/laser blasted (not decided yet) and I'll start the body repair.


Oh, and finally - this is my first car project, never done anything that big. And I've never even hold a grinder or welder in my hand before. So... wish me luck

Purchasing photos:



Closer inspection after purchase:

[dczerwonski]

Closer inspection after purchase, part 2:


Stripping:

[bird 60]

Welcome Dawid. Looks like you have a project and a half there. Make sure to log everything with lots of pix. My '60 T.Bird was totally stripped but did not have rust problems. You do have one good thing on your side and that is your age for energy. What kind of budget are we looking at before all done? Did you check on prices before starting the project? Are you going to do a full restoration? We're here if you require guidance and wishing you the very best.

Chris......From OZ.

[YellowRose]

Dawid, I second what Chris said regarding what needs to be done with your Tbird. When we posted the Welcome to you when you joined, you should have received a link regarding what to do if you are a new Tbird owner. That should have some good information for you regarding buying parts, Tbird Parts dealers, etc.. Keep in mind that Carl Heller ~ partsetal to us on the Forum, has a ton of Squarebirds parts from his parts cars, used and NOS, and sells them all over the world. He is an excellent source for Squarebirds parts. Also, many members overseas have contacts with people on our East Coast and West Coast who move Cars and parts to our overseas members.

https://www.squarebirds.org/vbulletin/forum/general-discussion/new-members-welcoming/things-to-do-when-you-buy-a-tbird

Here is the America to Europe Tbird-parts-shipping contacts listing. European members use these contacts to ship cars/parts in bulk in a Conex container to cut costs.

https://www.squarebirds.org/vbulletin/forum/advertisements/advertisements-aa/20360-america-to-europe-tbird-parts-shipping#post156356

We are here to help you as best we can and want to see the progress you make as you go through this restoration. Get all the free parts catalogs you can from the Tbird parts houses in the listing. They do not all carry the same parts at the same prices.. With the catalogs you can price compare and check availability. Keep in mind that Tbird Hqs and the Bird Nest manufacture 80% of all 1958-1966 Tbirds available today.

[dczerwonski]

YellowRose - Thanks for all the info, I'll check it out.

bird 60 - This is all flexible. I've checked the parts prices - it's all reasonable. The only problem is that it's all in the States, so importing it to Europe (shipping + taxes) basically triples the prices. I'm not aiming at concours-level 100% original, but almost full restoration is my goal. I'll see how it goes with learning how to weld and start from there. If I manage to do it myself - perfect, and if I have to pay someone to do that- less perfect. I want to keep it under purchase price + $15k, but we'll see

[Eric S]

Welcome from France
You're on the right spot for help.
You're facing some busy week-ends.
Did you considered getting a donor car from maybe Karl here so you can get a good condition frame. That'd save you a lot of welding hours...

[dczerwonski]

Eric S - I thought about it, but it doesn't sound reasonable financially. The one I have doesn't look that bad and if I get another 60 yrs old body there will be rust to repair too, for sure. At this moment, when I have it all stripped, it would be even cheaper to hire someone to fix the frame than import another one from US.

But I'll have it blasted in week or two, so that may change

[dczerwonski]

Some small update, the project moved on a bit. I got the car up on the rotisserie and started cleaning it (it turned out that soda blasting around is for some reason way too expensive, so I've decided to clean it myself). It's now around 50% cleaned, as of today I can see bare metal pretty much everywhere and the good news is that there are no more bad suprises

Meanwhile I started fabricating some patch panels and new panels on my own. I only have to order inner rockers somewhere as I don't have that long bending machine and don't want to weld 2 pieces. There is also some progress on the front subframe repair. It takes much more time that I assumed, but everything is going in the right direction

Also, we don't have inch steel sheets here - so I have to use metric one. I read that inner rockers are made from 1/16'' / 0.0625'' / 1.5875mm and here we have 1mm, 1.5mm, 2mm., etc, so i decided to make rockers from 2mm (0.079) and other panels from 1.5mm (0.059'') - they'll probably last forever.



Last thing, I found original sale ad. Full ad below, I especially like that part: "It has has some obvious signs of ohio rust and wear but not too bad" - that's most likely the reason why the guy who imported it didn't decide to restore it.

Running driving 1960 Ford Thunderbird Squarebird. This vehicle was purchased new in Canton Ohio in 1960, sold to the gentleman I purchased it from in 1973. This is an original Ohio survivor that was driven regularly untill about 2015. It has has some obvious signs of ohio rust and wear but not too bad was undercoated a few times and that has helped to slow the rot. The underside isnt great, but its not horrible. There is rust and rot there. The previous owner cut much of the rust out and replaced it with NOS metal from a thunderbird website. The car is very cool and gets lots of attention.

We originally were going to do a complete restomod on this car, but honestly it runs and drives too good with the numbers matching Ford 352 V8 Special 300HP engine and numbers matching original Cruise-O-Matic 3 speed automatic transmission. Power steering works, factory air blower works fine, transmissions shifts with not a single issue, even the radio and speaker work. I was blown away by the ability to turn the key and drive it all day with no issues.

We have tons of trim and extra parts as shown in the photos, along with fiberglass fender skirts and much more. Like almost a garage full of parts will be included as pictured. There is a functional fuel cell in the trunk. The paint is about 60% original and the rest is done with spray paint (looks good from 10 feet) This is no show car but has a lot more life to live, and for this price range, you'd be nuts to think you'll find a running driving fully equipped numbers matching squarebird that you can take to your local cars and cruise or just enjoy in the summer. The odometer reads 19,000, I assume that is excess or discrepancy.

It has a clean clear, original title, just turned a few months ago. The Vin is 0Y71Y167794, which translates to a 1960 Thunderbird, produced at the Wixom Assembly Plant, Wixom, Michigan. The body style - Thunderbird Hardtop, And engine Code "Y" which is the Thunderbird 352 Special V-8 Engine (300 Horsepower), equipped with a 4-Barrel Holley Carburetor/Dual Exhaust System.

We have too many projects, and not enough time, so we're throwing this up for sale AS IS, and if it sells, so be it. Otherwise stay tuned for a completely restored 1960 Squarebird here at www.kazkorp.net !

[YellowRose]

Dawid, thank you for posting your pix and progress being made on your Tbird! Keep in mind that Ford back then did not play the "numbers matching" game some other car manufacturers do as stated in that ad. You are making good progress it seems to me and are to be commended for what you have accomplished so far. We have a lot of respect for those of you who are overseas from us who have to put up with big increases in costs just to get parts to you. Hopefully the info I gave you regarding contacting someone on our East Coast will help you defray that cost.

[Hammurd]

I’d suggest that you get the car shot blasted as I’d be surprised if there was not more rust damage.

[dczerwonski]

Hammurd - that was the an in the beginning, but it's just too expensive here. I have access to laser cleaner, so I combine that with manual cleaning and the results are good.

So, I've made some good progress.
- patched up front subframe
- new inner rocker panels are welded in
- floor is fixed
- front right area is patched
- bottom part of inner rockers is ready for welding, but I want to have the rockers open to put some anti-rust protection, so I'll weld them in the end
- rear subframe is patched (there were holes at the trunk floor supports are)
- rear torque boxes elements are fabricated, just waiting for welding
- rear inner wheelhouses are patched
- left trunk floor repaired, right side left todo

It's starting to look like a car, nice

Some photos:

[pkingco]

Excellent work! Great to see all your progress photos. Thanks for sharing.

[dczerwonski]

The work is going on
- I've almost finished the "frame" metal work, there are only small stuff left that is hard to reach on rotiserie around it's mounts
- It's primed with epoxy (Epoxy Primer), sealed (STP Flex) and painted; whole underbody and wheelarches are additionaly protected with spray sealant (STP Flow) and polyurethane enamel (Polycoat Protect). I've used NOVOL for Classic Car products, which are quite popular here and seems to be good quality - https://novol.com/nfcc/en/produkty.php
- The roof needed little patching up with body filler in the rear area and is now fully grinded ready for paint
- I've cleaned up the engine, painted it, replaced all the gaskets, looking so fresh now
- And started working on the front suspension - dismantled it and started cleaning and painting. One question here - I've found one control arm ball joint to be riveted - does that mean it was original 60 yo?

I hope to restore the suspension quite fast, I already have all the parts - new bushings, joints, shocks, etc., so there is big chance for the bird to be standing on own wheels ready for outer bodywork later this month

Some photos:

[jopizz]

Dawid,

You do incredible work. When I first saw pictures of your car I thought it was a goner but you brought it back to life.

John

[bird 60]

Keep up the good work Dawid looks great so far.

Chris..... From OZ.