Technical New Frame in an Old Squarebird. Unibody,,,, PFFFFFFFFFFTtttt

Making it look easy, and I know it wasnt. Nice work Tinman !

 

Wow. Great job. Thats one job I would not have tackled.

 

Yikes! hope that the owner did not pay top dollar for this Bird. he was lucky that you tackled this, and did it right. so, where Sun roof leaks no rust? of course, once all your work is done and paint/sealer applied few will know what you did. hope that all of the pictures that you have posted will stay with car s0, owner can show others.

 

Having seen all manner of '58-'60 restorations over the years as editor of Vintage Thunderbird Club International's "Thunderbird Scoop" magazine and crawling under these beasts at T-bird conventions since the 1980s, I am impressed at how this was handled. And a 430 sunroof to boot! There is a strong likelihood I may have this in my '60 database but not sure, so PM me if you can provide any info on the car (VIN, data plate codes, etc.). Being very familiar with the problems associated with their unibody construction and rot-out on them: this one was as bad if not worse than some that I've documented. A lot of restorers simply opt for a 2x4 steel tube through the rockers, especially in convertibles, when they've been eaten up by the tin worms. Not so crazy about the angle iron guards, but understand the rationale for them (and it's acutally not a bad idea). People restoring their Squarebirds should look at this thread to educate themselves on places where it rotted out in the substructure and one way to restore them.

Alan H. Tast, AIA, LEED AP
Technical Director/Past President, Vintage Thunderbird Club Int'l.
www.vintagethunderbirdclub.net
Author, "Thunderbird 1955-1966" & "Thunderbird 50 Years"

 

Very talented job, congrats. Nice to see someone has the patience and skill to save so rotten squarebird which is known for cancer . I have built and owned one 1960 with J-code 430 cid, it's a nice design and can be built into many styles in my opinion.

 

Great job.. I hope you got paid well...

 

great save on an aweful looking repair job , bravo

 

Jay, that's a right pretty repair job. Should last a while. Very nice job.

 

Nice work!

 

Wow, Thanks!

I know a lot more about these cars now than I ever wanted to know and I am fairly sure I don't want to do another one.

 

At least you must have ran into someone willing top spend the money to have it fixed. Most just want it "patched up a little". Hopefully you got paid enough to make it worth your labor. I had a guy that had one of these in about the same condition, he thought I should be able to make everything right for about $500! Not in this life. Gene

 

From one rust eater to another great job

 

damm nice work jay!

 

Beautiful repair work in the most difficult place. It's a good thing it was a hardtop, a convertible would have collapsed in the middle.

 

Wow! Nice job and save !

 

love the car! great job.

 

Sweet. Crazy welding and fabricating skills. I'm jealous.

 

Very nice work, Jay! Makes me wonder how many of these cars are driving around out there with similar (safety) issues.

Malcolm

 

That was a huge undertaking. A tremendous amount of thought and work. Fantastic job. Bill

 

Really beautiful work saving a rare Bird!

 

You sir are a top notch craftsman in this "patch it up good enough" world we live in. My hats off to a guy like you with the skills and talent to see a job like this through, wish there were more like you out there!!

 

Nice work!! I had 36000 original mile 66 el camino that was the same way. It looked just fine until I hit a pot hole one day. The frame was completely rusted away abd had been boxed in with 16 Guage sheet and covered with bondo and under coating. Whoever did it was an artist. I had no clue it was tgere. Till tge pass fender came up 3 inches when tge frame broke in half. Rest of the car was mint....

 

Meh, he's a hack.

 

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Great work, thanks for sharing pics and also for sharing how many hours it took, I was curious. Looks great.

 

Awesome save. Keep up the good work. Nobody must have ever given that 430 the nuts. You would have thought the torque alone would have ripped it right out of the engine compartment.

 

Snuck by and grabbed some more pix of it from the inside that shows how the factory unibody was welded to the new box frame.

looking across from passenger side at the drivers side rear corner,



Passenger rear corner viewed from front,



Passenger side toe board,



Drivers side floor, hammerformed beads,



In the photos you can almost see how everything went together. The area in between the welds is the inside of the new box frame. I extended the floor out to it and rolled it up to meet with the bottom corner of the box. The factory unibody was cut back to the good metal and hammered onto the box and all of it was welded in solid.

Above that weld there is a row of spot welds that tied everything together so I could cut and weld the rest of it after the rather scary road trip. I was thinking bad things would happen if for some reason that framerail decided to fall out while driving down the road and was taking no chances.

 

masterful work.

kudos to you for your bravery, your skills and for saving another one that seemed to be doomed.

 

Great save.