Features Ford Thunderbolts Photos Wanted

Somewhere recently I read a magazine article that said that after the 65 season the Ronda Tbolt was sold to some rich kid that hung around the pits. Was that Neil Nagata? He had an ad in Drag News in Oct. 66 asking $3500 complete with new drivetrain. Did he sell it to Glidden at that time or were there interim owners?

Len

 

Who said this car was ever "BlackJack"?

 

My dad purchased the King Ford Sales Thunderbolt from Jim Price in 1984. Price bought the car from King Ford. The Thunderbolt was wearing most of its original paint before its restoration.

 

who owns this car, and is it an original 427 car?

 

Guy's this is a great thread and Thanks. I have some pic's of Nate Cohen's Tbolt (Nazy Crate) in some Albums I will try to Find from early 70's at Spring Nats in Columbus. And Also some of Gliddens car somewhere.

 

The Fairlane "Wicked John refers to is mine, It was originally a 6 cylinder automatic, blue in and out. BUTthe hood is an original 427 Fairlane hood that i purchased in late 1967 from a fellow down South-in Georgia as I recall. I've also got the T-Bolt clone and 64 A/FX Comet clones that have been pictured on this forum and the 64 Comet forum, S Pierce

 

ok, very good looking car

 

http://www.dragracecentral.com/DRCPhoto.asp?ID=28035

now this one is....lol

 

Last night at the Barrett-Jackson Scottsdale car auction, the former Mickey Thompson Thunderbolt sold for $220,000. This is the car that Jesse Tyree raced in A/FX at the 1964 Winternationals.

The narrators on the show got into a discussion concerning the fact that Mickey Thompson had adapted Chrysler Hemi heads to the engine. They also mentioned that MT adapted Hemi heads to a Pontiac engine. This is all true. The heads MT adapted were the early style heads of the type used on the 392 Hemi. It just happens that the 392 Hemi, the FE, and the Pontiac blocks all have the same bore spacing. They also use the same ten bolt pattern for the head bolts.

Yes MT did extensive machine work turning the 427 FE into a true Hemi, but the heads were basically a bolt-on deal.
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Shoot low, Roy...they're riding Shetlands!

Kentuckian: I have met the man who owns M/T's lightweight Galaxie and spent some time with him doing a story for Car Craft Magazine. Part of what you say is true, but, as usual, there's much more. Mickey Thompson had previously cast some hemi heads or Pontiacs - one set of which were on a Pontiac-powered dragster that beat Garlits in the 1962 Nationals. LAter, when Pontiac got out of racing, Thompson jumped ship to Ford and got a lightweight Galaxie. Thompson then cast four (and only four) pairs (eight heads total) of hemi heads for a FE Ford. These heads required three-piece pushrods in order to make them functional. As you can imagine, these heads did not work very well - suffered from valvetrain separation problems. However, the first engine was actually used in his Galaxie and then yanked and installed in his #8 car when it arrived. They built a second engine as a backup and went racing. In addition, Thompson cast a couple (can't remember the number) of cross-ram manifolds for these heads. This package is now on Scott Dapron's '63 1/2 lightweight Galaxie. That car spent some time in the NHRA museum with the hemi engine installed. He says it is one of the original engines that was used in the Thunderbolt and ended up in a boat. Scott bought the boat and had Fritz Voight rebuild the engine. Scott bought the Galaxie in 1968 for pennies as it was just a cast-off old race car.
So that, as they say, is the rest of the story...

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One of the few T-Bolts that I've seen with the front bumper in the stock mounted position ... always been curious as to how many, if any came through like this ... or was it something that was changed by a few racers. 7-7-64 Nat. Dragster picture.
Joel

 

See posts 1831, 1832, and 1835 for information about the mounting of the aluminum front bumper on the Thunderbolts. Discussion of how the bumper was mounted higher is in those posts.

 

The Courtesy Ford car was from the group of the first 50 cars and therefore was delivered with a fiberglass front bumper. I assume when the aluminum front bumper kit was installed they elected to place it in the stock location or they did not receive the modified front bumper brackets and used production brackets.

Regards,
Dennis

 

Dennis, maybe I've overlooked this & forgive if I did. Is there any pictures of the modified front bumper brackets?

 

Thanks ... That's what I thought but was wondering if there was another reason. I'd seen the earlier bumper posts but they didn't answer my question. If I'm not mistaken the Hi-Risers car had the front bumper in the stock position too. One restored car that I recall from years back was the car that I think Frank Spittle owned. I don't know what original car that was.
Joel

 

Joel,

Frank owned the Webster Tbolt now owned by Bill Turner. You're right-the bumper was installed 'low' with the stock fairlane bumper brackets. Randy Delisio seemed to do this on a number of Tbolt restorations including my former car the Collins Motor Sales Tbolt. I asked Randy about this last year and he was non commital in his answer. I got the sense that he didn't feel it was an important restoration/originality issue but I could be wrong. He's done 16 restos and there seems to be a mixture of both options. Nazy Crate was restored at the 'raised' height. Frankly, I think it relates to what parts he received with the car prior to the restoration process. I know my bumper brackets were of the 'stock' variety because I installed them. I've attached a 1983 pic of my former car right after the late 83 restoration completion.


Len

 

If you look at 'current' restored photos Randy installed 4 aluminum bumpers in the 'down' position. Collins Motor Sales, Tasca Ford, Webster, and Bill-Rick Thunderbolts. The remaining resto aluminum bumpers were all in the 'up' position or were fiberglass units.

Len

 

Thanks Len. Interesting information. I'm not that interested in restored cars, but the history of the cars as raced. Thanks for the input and the photo.
Joel

 

I assume a number of us at one time or another have purchased Bee On Video's cd's for 64 and 65 Drag News Scans. As we know the quality was horrible and unreadable in over 40 + percent of them. I've purchased and scanned at full size (11 x 17) the 1964 editions. I will supply excellent/totally readable jpeg scans for invdividual issues to anyone who asks at no charge. They are a great source for research purposes obviously. Another benefit of having jpeg's is that you can 'cut' and save individual car pics for your files.

Len

 

Any "examples" of T-Bolts not seen on here before?

 

This is the Joe Brown/Ken O'keef Ford T Bolt out of Louisville as it sits today. It's in line behind a couple of 427 Galaxies waiting for restoration. Finally! I get to contribute.

 

Many years ago there was an article in Hot Rod magazine about the family that owns that car (or it might have just been about one of their cars, I forget...) and there was a photo in the article that showed their garage with this car in the background. Does anybody else recall that article, or possibly the year it came out?

Looks like a pretty unmolested car from what little I can see in the photo.


Deron


Oh, and thanks for the contribution tommyd!

 

The article was titled "Family Tradition". He has also been in "This Guy's Garage" or something like that.

 

Does anyone know what issue of Hot Rod that "Family Tradition" article was in? Syl

 

There MUST have been some T-Bolts at "Fords at Carlisle". Didn't anyone take any pictures? Syl

 

Syl;go to FordFE.com,plenty of pictures. ROY.

 

Time to get this Thunderbolt thread moving again.

Rick Hearn is the driver/owner of the Second Thunderbolt that ran out of Colorado in 64.
Rick who was 16 , ( which now I wonder if he was the Youngest Thunderbolt driver, Butch Leal was 17) with the help of Marv Yougman( Salesman and driver of the Courtesy Ford 4 Speed Thunderbolt) and his mother bought and drove the automatic Thunderbolt in 1964 and 1965. The "Fairlane Dragster" was purchased through Courtesy Ford but had to be picked at DST. Rick and his Grandfather drove up to DST and Flat Towed the Bolt back to Colorado with there trusty 63 4 door Galaxie .

I've had the honor of meeting Rick Hearn who still lives here in Colorado. Hes sharing his Photos and memories from his Thunderbolt years. I Will be posting this info over the next couple weeks .

Here is a photo of Rick Hearn on the right.



Photo from Dennis K

 

From Rick Hearns Photo collection.

Mystery T-Bolt

This was taken at the Amarillo Dragstrip in 64. The Guy in the middle is Fast Eddie Shartman.

Any one recognize the other two or the T-Bolt.

 

At the age of 15 1/2 Rick started out racing a 1960 Starliner.After some early success He wanted to upgrade his Galaxie. With the help of his grandfather and Mother they traded up for a 1963 427 Galaxie. Rick raced this R Code Galaxie the rest of 1963. There wasnt too many Ford cars running in the Denver area at the time so most of The Ford guys stuck together at the tracks. Rick Raced every weekend all season catching the eye of Seasoned racer Marv Youngman who was racing the 63 Lightweight Galaxie sponsered by Courtesy Ford. Marv was a salesman at Courtesy Ford.
Marv was slated to get one of the new Thunderbolts , and after watching first hand Ricks Skill in Driving and Maintaining the 63 R Code, approached Rick with an offer to help get a New Thunderbolt Also.
The plan was to have one Stick car and One Auto car to cover both classes and also not to compete against each other.

Heres Rick Hearn and his 63 R code Galaxie

 

Mercuryjunky, very nice stuff! Made my day.

 

Great photo! It's from a time when winning a class trophy at your local dragstrip really meant something.