New Tbird Owner Here!

[Adam78]

Hello everyone! So, i'm sure some of you will think I am mad, but I just aquired a 1964 Thunderbird to use as my daily driver! The story is, I had a 2006 Jaguar XJR which was plauged with electrical and computer issued. I couldnt do any work on the car without dropping $1,000 on software from Jaguar. After I sold her, I vowed not to let my next car be run by computers. Which lead me to this! She was purchased by the original owner in 1964, he loved the car and babied it most of its life. It has 77,000 miles on it. When the owner passed away, it was put into the garage to wait.

Fifteen years later, the wife's car broke down, and she decided to use the Thunderbird in the garage as a trade in on a new Jaguar. The car still has an oil sticker in the window with a "change oil by 79,000 miles OR by 6/01/2000" So you can tell it was sitting. The dealer then put on new rubber, new exhaust, tune up, oil change ect. And I am now the happy owner $8,500 later.

She needs a little work obviously, the rear windows and rear dome lights dont work, vacuum locks. Actually a lot of vacuum lines need replacing. The AC had a new compressor put in before storage, and turns on, but is not cold. I assume it leaked out through 15 years of storage. This isn't my first wild idea for a daily, my first car I got with my own money was a rust bucket 1978 Camaro! So, am I crazy?

[franklin]

I love it man! Congrats!!!!!!!!!! Almost a year ago I posted a similar question to see the response. My 66 is pretty reliable and I have replaced the starter and fan clutch. Its a semi daily, but wont see any snow or road salt in the winter.
Mileage sucks,,LOL
Do you mind working on it when needed?
I drive less than 4000 miles per year currently, and havent really experienced any big problems.
I do need to check all the brake and fuel lines more thoroughly and generally really crawl all over it to try to make sure its safe and reliable.

[YellowRose]

New Tbird Owner Here!

Hi Adam, congratulations on saving another one from the scrap heap! To troubleshoot your problem areas you are going to need a Shop Manual for your '64 Tbird. If you do not have one, you can order one from any of the Tbird parts houses found in the Advertisements Forums. The electrical diagrams for your Tbird can be found in the Technical Resource Library (TRL), under Wiring Diagrams. The link to it is always part of my signature element and that of John Pizzi~ jopizz. You can go to it, hit Ctrl F (for Find), type in Wiring Diagrams and it should take you right to them. Scroll down until you come to the '64 diagrams. You can print them out, tape them together and work from them. Your AC problem is probably because the freon leaked out. You will probably want to have it checked for leaks. It is probably using R12, but you can find that still, though it might not be cheap. It would be good to know if the previous owner had it converted to the more modern R-134 or whatever version they used.. An AC technician should be able to look at your AC setup and see what it is set up for...

[Adam78]

So some thoughts after owning her for over a week!

I have had the T-Bird for about a week now and a lot of driving is really smoothing things out. When I first got it, the brakes pulled to the left and were very hard, that has stopped and they are not great. I could not figure out why the AC was not working despite it looking like it should. Well, turns out that the prior owner noticed that the switch in the dash broke, and installed his own, unlabeled switch on the side of the dash. I saw it there, and when I turned it on, it just made the car harder to start. I thought it dealt with the electronic choke originally. The AC now works ICE cold and instantly.

I have gotten an online shop book as well as a paper one. One for home use one for the road haha. I have also changed the thermostat and several vacuum lines that were getting a little old. I also tuned the carb so it is now getting better than the 4MPG that I was getting at first. I now have to battle with the belts and expansion tank to see the flywheel to set the time. I dont mind turning a wrench, it is nothing new to me. But those header bolts look 51 years old to me, So I may have a shop with a torch put on some new headers since it has a slight exhaust gasket leak. So far, this is a pretty sweet ride.

[simplyconnected]

Adam, my hat goes off to you for your tenacity. Buying a car this old and you being so young puts you kinda in the 'twilight zone'.

By that what I mean is this, modern mechanics are lost if a car has no onboard diagnostics (codes or readers). It will be hard for you to find a good mechanic who knows 'old school' troubleshooting. Your car has no computer but it really doesn't need one.

I am old enough to remember when your car was made so my advantage comes in growing up with the quirks of these old classics. You are 24 so you probably don't remember 'pre-computer' cars. This car is a great learning experience to hone your troubleshooting skills. Use all your senses, paying close attention to things you can hear, smell, feel,.. as well as things you cannot hear, smell, etc. For example, if your car cranks but won't start and you smell gas, at least you know it's getting gas, so check for spark. If you smelled no gas, that would be the first place to look.

We are here to answer any questions that become unclear in the Shop Manuals. There are lots of them. To add frustration, your car was built to run gasoline that we no longer have and oil that has been reformulated many times (so we don't have that either). If you use this car as a daily driver, upgrade to radial tires, front disk brakes and anything that will help 'compete' with modern cars on today's roads.

Post often and let's see some pictures. Our site is very friendly and we have mechanics and enthusiasts from around the world who are excited to see your car come back to glory. - Dave

[Dan Leavens]

Adam: Dave has mentioned some very good points and our site is always here to help. There are some very knowledgeable birders on our worldwide site so ask away. Great to see your into your classic and enjoy the cruisin

[HighwayThunder]

When can we see some pictures?

Adam,

Congrats.

I'm envious. You really got a great deal, the kind classic car hunters dream of!

Cheers,

[dgs]

... This isn't my first wild idea for a daily, my first car I got with my own money was a rust bucket 1978 Camaro! So, am I crazy?

Well, my first car was a rust bucket 1976 Camaro, lime green 6 cyl. automatic, but that was in 1986. A gallon of bondo and a year later I "upgraded" to a 1980 Chevy Monza, 4 cyl. 4 speed.

Congrats on the purchase, hope she serves you well.