64 Thunderbolt, are you there?

Very nice Charger. Great job to whomever built it.

Just helped my son install rear disk brakes on his '68 Charger.

Bolt... love the red. I thought the 66/67 was the best Fairlane design ever. Kinda like a mini Galaxie. I past up the chance several years ago to buy a 69 fastback Fairlane for 2 grand. It was in good condition with a 289/auto and ran. Can't believe I did that!

Glen... not disputing you, but knowing and owning the real deal, I would never, ever bastardized one. Didn't you know what you had? Those things have been worth mucho serious money for many, many years.....even without the eng/trans.

Wow! :E I'm speechless.

Ron

here is my baby I let go

Lanerd,

Bought the car without motor/trans/hood, never saw the 427 it had. Put a 289 in it. Was registered and street legal in CA.

Yep, it was the real deal.

I did a 427 tunnel-port conversion with a friend on a Fairlane. Wotta job. Came up with an HEH-B top loader but the car would blow a rear end with a nudge of the throttle.
Those were the days. In '71 Ford ended the Muscle Car program. A 289 Hi-Po shortblock assembled NEW 249 dollars. A PAIR of 289 Hi-Po heads 71 dollars. And i mean assembled with valves everything.

I tried to get a complete SOHC 427 crate engine. Good luck.

But in 1970 the landlord came into my house when I was in Montana and stole a conversion kit I purchased in 1962. 312 heads, pistons, camshaft, distributor, and paxton supercharger. All the trim, a total conversion kit. Returned, found the doors locked, the locked closet door pried open, and the parts gone. Good-ol-boy from Bamma, he was. One of the few people in the world who knew what was in the closet (only my immediate family knew as well). Funny thing, he ended up buying a newer car a couple of weeks after my return. Even stranger, the car developed fatal electrical problems shortly thereafter. Goodbye T-Bird.

In 2001 there was one in the Fairlane Club of America's show in Flagstaff.

Yeah, I got my hood, shaved tower kit, motor mounts and a few other things from Crites. Dearborn and Mac's offer a good supply of parts too. I saw (and heard) an original white with auto trans car in Carlisle Penn at the all ford nationals back in 95 or 96...

Ron

there are only 10 known surviving cars. Most were wrecked on the track and a real one is worth a lot of cash. Advertised hp on a side oiler with 2 4's was 425 but dyno'd over 500. Dearborn Steel Tubing did the conversion for Ford. Starting with a Fairlane 500 2dr post Hi-po 289. The first 10 were maroon and the remaining cars were all wembledon white. I have seen a surviving car. I also was real close to finishing a clone when a guy had more money than I could turn down.

Charles Crites @ Crites restorations in Ohio is the only place you can buy all the correct parts to build a clone. Great guy.

gandude wrote:
I was going to city college in auto shop when a fellow student driving a Toyota Corona cut off an instructor in a thunderbird. I couldn't stop fast enough and rear-ended the Thunderbird. Almost no damage to her car but it totaled mine. Only accident I was ever in.

It needed a new motor when I got it. I put a 289 in it with a toploader. The body was immaculate before the accident. Front end parts weren't the same as standard Fairlane so I junked it at a Richmond (Gertrude) wrecking yard. Sold misc parts off it and recouped what I paid. Back when I had it, these cars were considered ugly and nobody wanted them. Things have changed though, and now it's a collector item.

To think of the cars we had back then - friends had a 57 Bel-Air, a 66 Malibu, a 68 GTO, Cameros, Mustangs,. We bought them for just a few dollars and sold for the same. ...now look.

My current project is a 63 Valiant convertible.

I'm sorry, I'm a little confused.

You had an actual 64 Thunderbolt and you were driving it on the street and rear ended at Thunderbird and totaled it and then put a 289/top loader in it and then junked it?

Thunderbolts were built by Ford for drag racing ONLY with a 427/4-speed and were sold only to Ford dealers. I don't think you could actually register them for the street.

Actual hp on these monsters were probably over 500 but only advertised at 427. Those cars were stripped down to bare bones...no heater, no radio, little skimpy seats out of a van, fiberglass front fenders, bumpers, 9" rear end. Only 100 were ever made and are worth well over a million $$ today.

The only difference in the front end was that the shock towers were shaved down for the headers of the 427 to fit and stiffer front springs/shocks. Also the two inner headlights were removed and large 4" tubes ran from the opening to each of the huge 4v carbs.

Are you sure you had a real Thunderbolt and not a plain jane Fairlane or maybe a Hi-Po Fairlane?