Hey Alistair, If I can find a '62 to make templates, I'll do your kick panels for the cost of the vinyl around 10-12.00 - and if you can email me an outline of your speakers, I can cut the holes out.
I've posted a link to my album on another thread and can take better pics since I put them in a ring binder instead of the stacked deal they came in.
What's your panels color now...or would you like?

Intake manifolds

Hey Alistair,
Found dual plane four barrel intake on Ebay, hope you have deep pocket!
Item #380031001209
Richard D. Hord

I went looking for a picture and it took sometime, but seems your kick panels might be shaped hard plastic?

Thanks Richard!

yep, US$465 is getting up there , would owe me close to NZD$1000 by the time it gets here!

Thanks again for the lead, but a bit rich for me

Cheers

Alistair

Hi ya Coral

That's very generous offer, thank you very much

Yep, mine are hard plastic, green. Unfortunately it's a little more involved. Because there's not a lot of space behind the kick panel for the speaker cone and magnet I plan on reshaping the kick panel and extending a mount for the speaker in towards the footwell using MDF and body filler, and then using that as a mould for fibreglass kick panels. I'll then trim them in green vinyl.

I have a mate who wants a pair with speaker mounts too, so we'll do a couple of pairs in fibreglass.

But thanks again for your offer, that's real nice of you

Cheers

Alistair

61 to 62 parts wanted please

Hi Cathie, One of the things I did today was to make a trip to Blast The Past, the local "Final Resting Place For Aged And Unwanted Tbirds And Other Cars". They have two Tbirds there, and one is a '62, which I have posted about before. The other is a '65 it turns out. I went there today to get the VIN # off the '65 and to see about getting the two kick panels out of the '62 for you.. I found out that the one on the drivers side is missing. The one on the passenger side was still there. As was said below, it looks to be molded plastic that bulges out some. I was not able to get to it, because there is a tree right next to the door that prevented me from getting into the car and getting to that panel. Besides, the front seat has the back seat and a bunch of other stuff in it. I could have moved that though. But since the kick panel was not flat and covered with material like our Squarebirds, I gave up on it.

Keeping in mind what John Rotella told me about recovering any Owners Operating booklet or other historical records that might be in the glove compartment, I tried to get it open, but could not. It was like 101 and I was hot as all get out, so I quit trying and gave up on that.

I did get pix of the '65 and also the VIN and Data Plate information for John's tbirdregistry.com and will send that to him. He just sent me the registration number for the '62. It is 33524. Unfortunately, I was only able to get the drivers door open about six inches on the '65, because there is an old rusting truck right up against it, but good enough to get a camera down at the bottom of the door and get some pix of the Data Plate. BTW, the Data Plate on a '64-'66 is on the bottom of the drivers door end, where the lock is. NOT where it is for the Squarebirds. It's VIN # is 5Y87Z100488. It is a 2Dr HT Laundau, Color=N-Diamond Blue, Trim=22-Blue Vinyl, Date 04H-4 Aug (my birthdate!), DSO=65-Okla City, Axle=1-3.00 Tran=4-3spd Dual Range Auto. The 390 engine was gone, as was the whole front end. I think the tranny also. I could not get to the glove compartment because the passengar door was locked and I could not get to the lock to open it.

When you are out looking at Tbirds in places like that, see if you can get into the glove compartment and retrieve the Owners Operating Manual and any important historical records that might be there. Make sure you have the owners permission to take that paperwork.

Very thoughtful Ray...thats ok it didn't turn out...another time when you need not fear cooking in the heat!

I'm curious now, how many of the birds have molded plastic kick panels?

I've broached the subject with my uncle, and he says if we can make the molds for whatever we are wanting, he will be happy to re-create the items in fiberglass...it will be a little bit yet before we can get this part rolling as his shop is not set up yet in TX, still moving stuff from WI there to their new place in TX.

Hi Ray

Thanks very much for thinking of me, it's tricky to find that sort of thing down here in NZ where Tbirds were never sold new.

Cheers

Alistair

they weren't sold there new? whats up with that?

The same goes for Australia. We had the Fairlanes, Chevy, & Chrysler Family Cars. But we never had the T.Birds, Corvettes, or any other Sports Cars unless Private people imported them.

Chris....From the Land of OZ.

Can you tell me WHY NOT

Mainly because New Zealand and Australia are right-hand drive countries, and in Australia you couldn't register left-hand drive cars for road use, while in NZ you can only leave them left-hand drive if they're 25 years old or older.

We had American cars from the early days through to the mid 1960s, but as Chris said it was limited to mainstream family vehicles. This was because the cars were either shipped here built up, or sent knocked-down and assembled locally. For this to be economically viable (bear in mind that today, our total new car market is ony 90,000 cars per annum) only mainstream American cars were worth developing and building in right-hand drive.

Ford New Zealand's last volume model from the US was the compact Fairlane, 1962 to 1965. These were sent down in packs from the US and built right-hand drive here.

After that, Ford's big cars were Australian designed and sourced Falcons.

We got Mustang in very limited numbers (probably around a dozen) that were changed to right-hand drive (RHD) in melbourne, Australia, in the early 2000s. We never got Mustang prior to that, apart from private imports or dealers doing their own thing outside official Ford channels

We also had last generation Explorer that was built in RHD in the US for export, but that stopped two years ago as the current model isn't built RHD

Ford NZ also had a dabble in F150 trucks, which were shipped from the US in LHD, then converted to right hand drive in New Zealand. This was in the early 2000, and was a failure.

GM tried the same thing with Suburban and it flopped.

Today the only US models we get are Chrysler, they have been built especially for RHD export. This includes most Jeep models, 300C sedan and wagon, Voyager, PT Cruiser (no prowler, too low volume) Caliber etc

Almost all our cars are Japanese now, with the exeception of Chrysler, Falcon and Holden Commodore, and a few European and Korean offerings.

There are some brand new Camaros (2), new Challengers and new Mustangs, but these are either converted locally to right-hand drive, or stay left-hand drive. However, to be legal for use on our roads in left-hand drive, the importer must have used it overseas (US) for 90 days (And be able to prove it) and (i believe) and can't sell it for five years.

So, this is a very long answer to your question; in essence, we never got them because we're a right-hand drive only country, and we wouldn't sell enough Tbirds to make it viable for right-hand drive production

Cheers

Alistair

o...i c....
thanx Alistair,

what bugger!

It may have had a lot to do with the Tooling & the Cost factor. At the time we had the very popular Ozzie Car ,the HOLDEN which is still very popular to this day. The 1960 Holden at the time was $2,214 compared to the T.Bird $3,755 base price in the States. If it was sold here it would have been in excess of $6,000. There were 174,747 '60 Holdens made. We also had a lot of British Cars here, the sporty ones being the M.G. & the Jaguars. In the early '60s we also had the introduction of the Ford Falcon & the Chrysler Valiant which were similarly priced to the Holden.
The HOLDEN, FALCON,& the VALIANT dominated the car industry until the Jap Car Invasion in the late seventees.

Chris....From the Land of OZ.