body shape

[troyser]

hi guys im about to buy a 61 t bird off a mate its in need of a full resto the question i have is the rear windscreen area looks different to any other hard top i have seen. the side rear body pillar between the rear quarter window and the rear windcreen is about 5 inches thinner and where the bottom of the windscreen meets the body there is a stainless moulding about 4 inches wide and then the body is another 5 inches 5 roughly before it meets the bootlid i will try and post a pic of the moulding any help would be great. this is the carr waiting for the mouldind pic to come thru cheers troy
managed to get pic of rear windscreen up but u have to click on the link so has anyone seen this design before

http://s64.photobucket.com/albums/h199/yeprat1/?action=view&current=14022011016.jpg

 

[rhinoman]

Hey cobber, could not spot the image in your link, very interesting though. Keep trying.Was the roof cut and t-top installed maybe?

Graeme

 

[troyser]

hi yeh we did some measuring today and the whole rear end measures differently, bootlid is nearly 10 mm shorter, the gap between the door to the taillights is longer i think i have it the right way around. my mate that owns it said maybe possible that it could be a prototype perhaps yes not sure when the roof was done one of the infill panels is missing and the job need some attention a bit rough .not sure what i will do there maybe keep it maybe refill the roof back in what are you guys thoughts on the roof. cheers troy

 

[rhinoman]

Cannot tell by the image posted and your photobucket has no more images. Can you post more images for review?

Graeme

 

[troyser]

i will put more images up 2morrow . cheers troy

 

[tbird5866]

It looks to me like the top has been modified. In your picture, it looks like part of the top is black and part red. Is there a seam or some trim piece between the black and red? The four inch stainless piece does not look original Ford.

 

[troyser]

here are some better pics u can see in these what i mean about the window area looking different .i noticed today the rear pillar on all thunderbirds ive seen are flat this car as u can see with the reflection is flat so far then slopes inwards towards the rear window and as i said before is thinner also


car pics :: 17022011024.jpg picture by yeprat1 - Photobucket

 

[rhinoman]

Very interesting, looks like the filler panel area is now taken up with the chrome section which in turn appears to be from a Galaxie (at first glance). Also the parcel tray area is less than half what it usually is so a lot of metal work went into that car.

Appears to be either an uncompleted project or something special, how does the underside in trunk area look welding wise? That amount of work will show up the quality of the workmanship or lack thereof and you can then deduce it's source.

Graeme

 

[troyser]

hi checked out the rear window area and it all looks to e from the factory checked vin numbers and it was made in wixom .MI and is definitly a hardtop.to me it looks likea convertible rear area with that extra panel . any more thoughts from u guys. cheers troy

 

[troyser]

guys in this pic my space behind the rear seats looks the same as this convertible only mine obviously is a coupe, notice the wide area between seats and bootlid
car pics :: thunderbirdconvertiblerear.jpg picture by yeprat1 - Photobucket
heers troy

 

[troyser]

guys any ideas on where i could ask for more info on my car im very keen to find out why my car looks different . cheers troy

 

[rhinoman]

Hi Troy,

still no joy, did you suss out the quality of the conversion on the underside, rough as guts or pretty neat. In my earlier post I was alluding to the fact that the car could have been worked on by a back yarder who gave up on the dream, in which case you won't find out much about it.

For example, the car in first link is a real custom, but other than the images here there is not much around about them.

Custom 1963 Ford Thunderbird Convertible

Ford Thunderbird Hot Rod Featured Vehicles Articles, Pictures, & Video for the Real Auto Enthusiast at Automotive.com

You just need to get lucky to find out more, in the meantime, get it finished off! ;-)

Graeme

 

[troyser]

hi yeh besides the cut outs in the roof the rest of the body looks standard no alterations i had a reply on another site stating that it was a mid year body change which is possible ,its just weird that if this is the case the 62 didnt actually go with this shape change because when we compared it to my mates 62 even the length of the rear is different also are convertibles bootlids different lenghts to the coupe. cheers troy

 

[rhinoman]

Hi Troy,

have not measured the convertible deck lids but remember they pivot from the bumper bar area and have an extra flip panel to cover the area behind the seat. So yours could be a bitzer - no way would the mid year body change affect the area you are looking at.

Graeme

 

[troyser]

hi guys well rhino man i think we might have a custom job done here i know i said it looked original, but leaning towards someones idea of cool instead. basically besides the look is a bit different all i am loosing is the parcel shelf so now the big decision do i put the original roof back on or not, im leaning towards yes but theres no hurry so we will see took some pics ill try and post them. in the first pic i grinded the body to see if there was any welding and found bog or bondo i think u americans call it so dead give away and the second pic is inside the pillar looks a bit rough now i have to try and work out what roof it has on it

 

[dragonfyire]

it almost looks like someone made a hard top out of a convertable the proportions look really off to me. nice to see im not alone in thinking those aluminum slots belong on this car ;-)check this pic out of a 61 hard top rear pic yours definatly has alot of spare room
http://www.genealogyintime.com/Gene...s_2/classic_car_wallpaper_series2_page08.html

 

[troyser]

well guys i actually solved the mystery only yesterday while searching for cars to buy someone has changed the roof with a 1971 ford fairlane roof
(aus model)it is the exact same roof i couldnt believe it anyway it is up for sale as because of the conversion u actually hit your head on the rear glass so it is no good to me