1963 Ford Thunderbird – Final Assembly

Upholstery, Engine, Transmission, Finish

The front seat had been reupholstered at some point and the bird logo’s weren’t reinstalled on the seats. They make reproductions and I was able to get some measurements to align them back where they should be on the covers.

I was careful to unfold and fold the build sheet, replacing it back in the exact spring and location it came from.

I didn’t replace the door panels, dash pad, or console lid. They will all need attention in the near future as they are showing their age.

I installed a pre-fab Dynamat kit that came off ebay, and what a joke. I am sure it works, but they could have provided slightly larger pieces, maybe cut to the shape of where they go. The floor insulation went in next, followed by the trunk liner and the side boards. I will have to go back and get take some pictures as I didn’t find any of the completed trunk on file. I found a reproduction jack instruction sticker, the jack was blasted, painted, and mounted in the quarter panel holder. The spare went in and has a cover that matches the trunk liner.

The block had a nice consistent compression between cylinder and ran decent on the drive home. The only issue that I noticed was that the transmission was slipping a bit from time to time. I checked the level and it was full.

Cleaned up, re-sealed, new timing set, water pump, head gaskets, blasted and painted parts, and it’s starting to look a lot better.

That looks more like what you would expect to see under the hood.

Ask and you shall receive. As luck would have it, I stumbled across a guy that built a performance engine for his Galaxie and had a C6 build to handle the power. He had this low mileage, rebuilt, transmission that came with paperwork of being less than a year old. I got a great deal on it, and it was the perfect Cuise-O-Matic for this car. New transmission filter, oil, and a new exhaust while I am under here.

There is a completely new stock brake system, new shocks, and the gas tank was flushed.

The original carburetor was rebuilt, I picked up a factory decal kit, and washer bag. Radiator cap and battery aren’t correct, but work. The car runs and drives great, and is a real nice riding car that goes straight down the road with ease.