Uncle's 65 T-Bird

[KB8TFW]

My uncle bought a 1965 Thunderbird three years ago. It was pristine when he got it.... Unfortunately, my uncle is a person that likes to drive old cars daily. When he passed away, I bought the car sight unseen. After getting the car transported here, I was shocked to see the condition it was in. Argh! Looks like the top was down during some rain storms. I also noticed the odometer is broken so mileage is >100,000 mi likely. The body is okay and under the car looks well preserved. (Maybe due to the oil the engine is leaking.) I just got the top down but pushing the "up" button does not do anything. Getting the top up is kind of important in cold weather. I went through the troubleshooting and miraculously it started working. That was only once. I have manually raised the top by shortening the relays accessed after removing the back seat. The top goes down no problem but the up button never does anything. Not even a relay click. Any suggestions? I found this box, unrelated, in the trunk when the top was open. Any idea to what it could be? Box is at the top of the trunk in this picture.

Anthony

 

[boaterbob]

Never seen one of those. Could that be a reverb unit for the radio?? Just a guess.

 

[HeadacheGuy]

Though I suspect a switch issue as water can intrude in the rain if you are an idiot like me and leave the top down, check each relay connector. I have been bit twice by the rubber molded 4 prong connectors on the relays (and of course the problem was intermittent). When plugged in it is easy for one of the female ends to get pushed beside instead of into the male end thus losing contact at times. I would have to look at my diagram but if the lid closed limit switch has an open I believe it will kill you in one direction so look at it as well. Console panel comes out easy though and the top switch is easy to check. Don't have a clue on your box however. Im sure it has to be an aftermarket device back in the day. I have been toying with making a switch panel to overide the rear relays that would mount in the rear armrest for emergencies (sucks to open the lid manually but i too have done it twice). If i ever get it done I will post the pics if anyone is interested. If you find it is the main switch they are still available but with a little finese they can be taken apart and repaired most of the time. i haven't bought a switch or relay yet, I have fixed them all.

 

[Ken in MN]

My '65 convertible top also didn't work when I bought it a few years ago. I never did get the button to work correctly so I made a semi-automatic switch panel that I keep under the arm rest like HeadacheGuy mentioned. It has five DPDT switches on it: power on/off; lock unlock/lock; deck open/close; top up/down; panel up/down. It's kind of a pain to operate sometimes but it works reliably. You just have to pay attention to when to stop/start the function and be sure to do them in the correct order every time.

I might try to get the button working again this summer, but for the past five years the switch panel has kept me warm and dry.

 

[KB8TFW]

Problem found

I found the problem to be the upper pannel switch. I traced the wiring down for many hours. One of the many contact points internal to the switch becomes connected to ground. It works sometimes... and sometimes it does not. I am going to try and fix this myself. I hear people say it is really hard to re-assemble but would like to try it.