55-57 INFO

[earlybirdlover]

I am interested in learning as much as possible about the early birds prior to buying one. My question is - Would the "CTCI Restoration Details and Specs." be the best source to learn about them? I've looked a several books that cover all the years but the info is limited. I want to be able to tell what is original and what to look for regarding to completeness. Any help would be truely appreciated.

 

[Ts & As]

E.B.L.

Anything that has to do with CTCI will give you a well researched answer to any question that you may have about early birds. Also, collect as many Parts House catalogs as you can (CASCO as well as many others are on-line) to learn even more along with the cost of a restoration project. To be honest - I learned most everything about these critters from those catalogs and good friends in forums like this.

Tom R
CTCI# 33126
57 Dusk Rose

 

[Brian]

Ditto on that!

The knowledge gained from this forum and CTCI has been huge!

For instance, you see a picture of a bird for sale, and it is being sold as 100% original, and you see a black painted engine compartment on a red car, and immediately you have lots of questions to ask!

 

[Brian]

Speaking of CTCI, is the new set of Restoration Manual inserts ready to mail yet, has anyone heard (save me the phone call!).

 

[sc1956]

A couple of suggestions:
1. Pick your intent now. Serious modification, Driver, Reasonable restoration, or authentic. The starting point you choose has HUGE price considerations based on this. There are obviously gray areas between the types.

2. Find someone who has done it, and spend some time with them. It's worth a $50 phone call, or even maybe a $150 plane ticket if you can find the right guy, who has done what you want to do with yours, to "show you around" his car.

3. I'd start with Bird Brains, since they're in your area.

4. Once you get the car, before doing darned near any work, ask on this forum, and/or the Yblock site (engine items), and/or Classicbirds on Yahoo. I've spent a lot more in "figuring it out" than I'd spend on a second one now that I've found these resources.

Hope that helps.

Stephen.

 

[earlybirdlover]

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I think I have a good idea where to start. I'm sure when I get close to buying a car, I'll be bugging the heck out of all of you with questions (hopefully not too many dumb ones). Thanks again, Jim

 

[earlybirdlover]

I took a road trip today. Destination-Bird Brains in Aurora Or. Thanks for the suggestion. I spent the morning looking at some great T-Birds and talking to "Wes". He was very helpful and was more than willing to spend all day talking cars. This company gets a big thumbs up. I'm sure they will get a large sum of money from me in the future either from purchasing a car or just a bunch of parts.

 

[Russ]

I'm new to the forum and I'm glad I found this site. I'm also interested in learning more about the early T-birds. There's a local 55 for sale and I'd like to know more about verifying VINs and other important numbers. I'll check out CTCI.

Thanks
Russ

 

[Ts & As]

Russ

Welcome to the Forum - you will find a lot of help here on the Little Birds.

Check out http://www.ctci.org

Click on: Cars/Parts
Thunderbird Suppliers
Casco
TBird Facts
Decode Your Dataplate

There you will find all there is to know about the codes on the plate.

If you have any questions after that - just ask - we can figure it out.

Good luck and welcome

Tom R.
57 Dusk Rose