The Ford Thunderbird, also known as the T-Bird, hit the scene in 1955 and instantly became a classic. The sporty two-seater was never meant to be classified as a sports car, but rather a new type of upscale luxury vehicle.
Another row of seats was added in 1958 which increased its sales four times over the first-generation T-Bird. Offered in both hardtop and convertible body styles, the Ford Thunderbird was a big success for Ford for many years.
Like the Ford Mustang, we specialize in repairing and restoring Thunderbirds her at Wilson Auto Repair. We are experts in bringing these beauties back to their original glory and beyond.
There is a Thunderbird here at the shop that we have been restoring and customizing. We want to share some of the work we have been doing during this restoration.
One of our first challenges was to rebuild, repair and restore the transmission, drivetrain and undercarriage. It is a tedious and detailed job to say the least.
Many of the parts had to be cleaned, sandblasted and then painted in our paint booth.
We also hand scraped the underside. We removed the old undercoat and then applied new undercoat.
We are also installing AC in the Thunderbird. This is going to take some customizing since the car was not originally equipped.
Here is a shot of the original dash and console.
We kept the original heater controls and adapted them to work with new AC system
You can see it took quite a bit of custom work to get the A/C to look like it was originally equipped in the T-Bird.
That’s about as far as we have gotten with this restoration but be sure to check back to see the continuing progress and final outcome!