Hot Rods Tbird's

Is there a build thread for this car?

 

Wow! Any install pictures? What a neat Tbird. Drive it daily?

 

need to put that gold contraption back in the garage out of sight.I understand each to his own but that is cruel and unusual eye punishment.I do not believe acid eyewash would remove the sight of it away

 

Nothing that a torch, sawsall and awelder cant fix.

 

Good gasser material on queerbay right now.

 

A fellow down the street has three restored not sure of the years, 5, 6 or 7..Another guy I know has a 57' very mild custom that he built in the late 60's..And one more guy I know started with a nice stock 57' and f'ucked it up so bad I wouldn't post a pic of it if I had one ....

 

Thompson CT vintage races, June 2015

 

Thanks for that Charlie, I have just started fiddling with the car again and it's still getting pretty warm. In the last month I have put a new thermostat in it (didn't have one originally), taken the radiator in to be opened up and cleaned out (original radiator) and put a new water pump on and still no difference. Is there an easy way to check the vacuum advance is still ok? Timing is fine too.

Thanks

 

Here's mine....

For the guys with overheating problems....they used a cast iron extension housing between the waterpump and timing cover...it's nearly an inch wide. Its only used on the T Birds to my knowledge. Im assuming they did this to space the pulley out? This spaces the water pump impeller further away from the back of the timing cover causing all kinds of cavitation and inefficiency in circulating coolant. Casco sells a waterpump with a stainless impeller riveted to the back of the original impeller...filling that void. Mine runs cool as a cucumber....even in Socal heat..

 

Here is a bad picture...but you'll get the idea..

 

T-Bird's are alive and well, flying F-16's out of Nellis...Oh shit, wrong T-Bird's, sorry.

 

I was lucky. Mine was so bad that the power "pulsed" as I drove the car. I would assume that a good shop would have a tool to pull a vacuum on the vacuum advance unit and see that is not leaking but I am guessing here.

Charlie Stephens

 

Assuming the radiator, hoses, shroud, timing, etc. are good, two easy fixes. Pull the water pump spacer, and space the pulley and fan out. Cheaper than the fancy water pump. The guys that have done it have not had a bearing problem from the added length. Then put a restricter in the bypass hose from the intake to the water pump. 3/16" hole or so is fine in a brass pipe plug.

Birds have a problem getting the heat out from under the hood, particularly in traffic. The "parade" solution is to pop the hood to let the hot air out.

Lots of discussion over at yblocksforever and the Ford barn. Opinions will vary, but those worked for me. 10.5 to one, headers, A/C, runs fine at 90 degrees.

 

I don't have a picture of the car , but Ernie Phillips, of Tyler Texas, has, or had a very nice Y-Block powered race car. last time I talked to him he was going to put it up for sale. maybe the Dallas guys know of him, and have a picture.

 

Competition Coupe Style from the Meltdown Drags.

 

I would bet vac advance is shot , very critical on Y block


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Here in Wi. When I do see a Tri5 Bird, they are restored classic cars, usually done Very Nice, do not remember a hot rod type, sure there is one, wonder if not many survived, unlike the early Corvettes, same thing w/ Tri5 Fords, do not see many, though, fellow Wisconsinite, Gene Schwister's 55 Ford was recently a center fold in Street Rodder magazine, Beautiful Car.

 

1958 Thunderbird car club at Les Bacon & Sons Ford in Hermosa Beach, CA. on Pacific Coast Hwy. I was on this property today Saturday October 15th. 58 years later the land is still owned by the Bacon family and now is a mini strip mall shopping center with a Trader Joe's food store and Starbucks. Those tall trees at the upper right corner are still there! All 3 of them.

 

A little subtle for most I'm guessing, but one of my all time favorite modified T-birds with some KILLER provenance...

 

How about some more info on the provenance? If you meant to say performance and the spell checker got to you how about more info on that? Is it still a Y block?

Charlie Stephens

 

Well, I meant provenance, but yes, theres some performance involved there too. Don and Sonny Francisco's '57 T-bird. It has a Mickey Thompson 389 Pontiac and B&M built hydro in it, was the subject of a couple Hot Rod tech articles in the early sixties.

 

Very cool!

 

Well Charlie it looks like I owe you a beer mate! I swapped the vacuum advance over from the 292 out of my wagon, and just like that the temperature behaves itself. Does creep up in traffic, but certainly doesnt get as hot as it did before hand. Might still look at doing the water pump trick with the fins or taking the spacer out.

 

The reason you don't see many "Gassser" baby birds is they weren't legal for the Gas Glasses. Although at a few tracks they were allowed to run, they belonged in MSP (Modified Sports Production). Also weight was somewhat irrelevant as the Gas Class rules put cars in a class by weight versus cubic inch, so if it was heavy it ran the next class down.
Any way, here's mine.
Now


And with Marilyn Monroe