Cody-66townlandau & His '66 Tbird

[YellowRose]

Here is what new member, Cody - 66townlandau had to say about his find of his 1966 Tbird!

"Paid 500 dollars for it, original paint, black vinyl interior in PERFECT SHAPE. Power drivers seat, power windows (including windows but that wasn't an extra cost with the town landaus due to the lack of rear windows). 70k original miles. The original fender skirts were in the trunk! It was sitting for 15 years so it need some minor work. But the guy had no clue what he had. If I didn't buy it that day he was selling the passenger door for 400."

Here is what he got for his $500! They are out there, folks! Sometimes, ya just have to be lucky!

[66townlandau]

Hey, thanks for the warm welcome. here is a short story behind how I came to get my car. That I wrote for a newsletter a while back.


Hey, my name is Cody Burch, I met John about a year and a half ago when I had some questions about my 1st Thunderbird ( a 1964 hardtop Registry Number-33342). He was very helpful so we stayed in touch. After about six months I finally got it up and road ready, sadly enough however I only put about 10 miles on it and the transmission went out. I looked for a replacement transmission as the quotes i was getting from shop to get the ol' cruise-o-matic rebuilt was about 1,500 which was way to much for me as I was 17 with no job still in high school. With no luck I sold it in hopes that I would find another T-bird fast.
About a week after I sold my 64' I found an ad of Craigslist that read "1966 thunderbird -500", I then gave the guy a call asking for pictures of the car. He said he didn't know how to use computers very much and was not able to give me any. the car was located about two hours away, so I wanted to know what kind of shape it was in and what options it had. He said that he had the car for about 15 years he bought it from one of his neighbors family when his neighbor died and he did not know much about it.
That night when my dad got home I talked to him and what he thought, he said it sounded pretty good and that we would go out there that weekend. I can still remember waking up the morning before we left all excited. when we got to the house we knocked on the door and a guy who introduced him self as Eric told us the car was around the back, so into the back we went. I saw the car, Not only was it a 1966 Thunderbird, it was the TOWN LANDAU! My heart skipped a beat and I was trying my hardest not just to take off running to look at it. the car had the olrignal Wimbledon White paint, the body looked pretty clean other then the rear which had bondo flaking off, the owner told me at one time the car was hit and had been repaired. I opened the door looking at the data plate hoping to either find a low number or "Q" code in the VIN, I found neither. But looking inside the car the interior was the nice black vinyl it looked like the only tear in whole inside of the car was a small tare in the drivers seat, I then started to look for every option I could think of. I first noticed the power drivers seat, then I noticed the power windows. I asked Eric if by any chance if the car had fender skirts, he said that they were in the trunk but his son lost the keys to the car about five years ago and there was no way to open the trunk without breaking the lock.
I did one more walk around the car and for some reason the whole time I was there I didn't notice that the vinyl roof was long gone and in its place was a rusty piece of metal that you could call a roof. Eric said that he had taken the vinyl top off about 10 years ago in hopes of restoring it and never got around to it. I asked what my dad thought of the car and what he thought about me buying it, without a pause he told me to buy it. I offered 400 dollars which was 100 dollars below his asking price but he informed me that he had a call from a guy the day before had who was going to just take the passenger door for 400 dollars if we didn't want the car. without any hesitance I handed over the five one-hundred bills, and we put the car on the trailer and left to head back home.
After we got into town we decided to stop at a local gas station that had a pressure washer to clean off the 15 years of junk that was on it. We were not there for five minutes when a guy pulled up asking if he could buy the car I JUST bought for three thousand dollars. I explained that I had just bought the car from a guy and wasn't willing to sell it, he understood and we talked about my car for about 15 minutes until I was done pressure washing it.

[Guest]

Hey Cody,
Looks like you got a good one to start on! Man I miss my '65
Richard D. Hord

[Anders]

Nice story

[Dakota Boy]

500 bucks?!?!?

deal of the century right there.

[66townlandau]

Thanks for the kind welcomes.


Yeah I thought it was one **** of a deal as well.

[scumdog]

Lucky guy, nice car for $500!!

As mentioned on the other thread, I got my '66 Town Landau from Salem, Oregon back in '05 - only about 50 odd miles from where you are!

It cost me way more than $500 but it was in pretty good order.

Keep us all posted on how you go fixing up the 'bird.

[Dakota Boy]

The part where you try to chisel the seller down to $400 makes me chuckle....

With skills like that, maybe you should be on that TV show "Pawn Stars".

[66townlandau]

The part where you try to chisel the seller down to $400 makes me chuckle....

With skills like that, maybe you should be on that TV show "Pawn Stars".

Hey, I figured I might as well try to get it as cheap as I could. he didn't know what he add whats 100 dollars? besides that it was quite a bit in gas. oh well I still happily gave him 500.

[66townlandau]

Lucky guy, nice car for $500!!

As mentioned on the other thread, I got my '66 Town Landau from Salem, Oregon back in '05 - only about 50 odd miles from where you are!

It cost me way more than $500 but it was in pretty good order.

Keep us all posted on how you go fixing up the 'bird.

Hey, yeah it is pretty much road ready, needs a fuel sending unit with the low fuel light and then its done!!!!!