Projects New Daily Driver - Squarebird

Good idea Russ!

 

SQUAREBIRD, I haven't that in a while. Nice.

 

Nice car!

I miss driving an old car daily.

Do you get snow where you are?

Devin

 

Does it have A/C and if so, does it work? I tried zooming in on the writing beside where it says "Special" on the dash but couldn't see it very well.

 

We might get snow one or two days in the year. It’s a pretty good climate for driving an old car daily.

 

Yes and yes. It won’t freeze you out, but it does cool decent.

 

Well, we are halfway through about a 100 mile drive today to go race go carts and the modified left exhaust manifold came apart. Lol. I figure I have a few of these things to find before it is a good reliable driver. I stopped by Steve Cook’s shop in OKC on the way and wired up the exhaust. Still sounds like crap, but at least I can get it back home.

 

Here's your fix... LOL

http://www.fordpowertrain.com/352Shory1.JPG

 

Nice! But, they won’t bolt up to this motor.

 

I dig them there square birds !

Image by edcodesign posted Mar 7, 2020 at 7:24 AM

 

I like it Jeff.

 

I like it. If it's going to be a real daily driver, I don't think I'd repaint it. Once you tear it down for paint and start digging into all the "might-as-well" stuff you'll end up with another unfinished project. It still looks good enough in a picture to leave it alone.

 

Yea, I know you are right. I plan to just get the mechanical stuff in good order as far as just some little stuff. Then, I might want to recover the seats. Paint is last on the list and would be a quickie likely... Although...I sure do like this... The fact that I used to be a custom painter tends me toward something like this... But, it will be quite a while at least until after I can get my boys projects done.

 

I hear you loud and clear on that. My '57 Chevy is the same way, when I was putting it together I kept telling myself this needs to be a car that can get left in the grocery store parking lot without any worries, just leave the old crap paint on it (not nearly as nice as what's still on your T-bird) and one browse through pics of custom '57's really pulls at my heartstrings to give it some wild paint job.

The T-bird certainly would look amazing with a wild panel job done to it, no doubt, and I also have no doubt you could pull it off. But that's not it's purpose.

 

Congrats, Hard to get any kooler than a square bird. What a kool Blessing you have received. Very deserving and she found a good home. I can not wait to see it.

 

I am so jealous! I am sitting at home making sure the grandkids are on their computer doing school work for some teacher that is getting paid to not have too. Grrr !!! What a great view over that hood !

 

When I was little, my dad had a '59 Tbird that had a highly modified engine in it. I can remember his other hot rod buddies all talking about how fast it was. These Tbirds are pretty heavy so they won't come out of the hole very well but on the top end they can flat out fly. As I understand it my dad's would bury the speedometer and then some.

My dad's car was a light metallic blue with chrome reverse wheels. It looked really nice.

 

Your lucky. You will find more choices and a cheaper price.(I’m guessing 302)
...and you won’t have to deal with the broken exhaust bolts that plague the 352.

 

I don't understand some people, what do they think?
I have a cool car that looks pretty nice so I'll go find the ugliest wheels that will bolt on and I'll take those.[/ATTACH]

 

PURRFECT

 

Big time jealous here, I love those cars!

 

Had to get a pic with the sun going down. I spent this evening taking the exhaust manifold off and hope to either find one that will work better or get it fixed tomorrow. Also found a screw in one of the tires. I’m ready to drive this thing to work, so need to get these little things knocked off the list.

Amazing how many have stories with these old birds. Thanks for all the comments and sharing stories. Hoping to make some memories soon with this one.

 

Snag the wheels off the 56 and see how that changes things. It needs a rest anyway.

 

If you ever open trailor that car be careful. The aerodynamics of that car make it lift up when being open trailered. I read an article about the dangers of open trailering 58-60 Thunderbirds in one of my antique car magazines from the seventies. They showed a bunch of pictures of 58-60 birds smashed up because they actually flew off the flat bed or open trailer....

 

Wow...that is definitely interesting. I suppose I would have never even considered something like that although I hope to not need to put it on a trailer either. That does help me justify being redundant with a couple straps on each end though when I do put cars on a stretcher.

 

Yea, I have considered just that. I also have the original painted wheels with some radial wide whitewalls off my 56 that I thought about throwing on it to see how it looks as well. The only problem with those is that the tires are older than I would want to run daily. It would at least let me see how it looks with taller tires.

 

That just means you need an enclosed trailer now....

 

Great cars..both of em...

 

Awesome acquisition, these are my favorite years for the Thunderbird. I had acquired a nice set of astro supremes with new tires a few years ago and didn't have a car to put them on. So I messaged every person selling a 58-64 Thunderbird on FB marketplace under $12K and offered half of what they were asking. Everyone told me to fuck myself except for one dude with a clean 64 with factory air that I wound up picking up for $5000. I would have much preferred a 58-60, but that car was a super nice driver that I actually did wind up driving to work a bit and pretty much everywhere else. My biggest beef with the Tbirds are their shitty slave cylinder power steering setup that always leaks, but that aside, are amazing drivers and really usable cars for lots of miles.

Out of morbid curiosity, how many miles a year do you average on your daily? You have O/D in that with the new drivetrain?

Awesome car man, I love it