Other than the Landau package, my car was a no-option car. Compared to modern cars, the windshield feels very close to the driver. The interior is well done, comfortable buckets, nice console and better-than-average materials.
The ride is comfortable, firmer than a typical luxury car, but on the softer side of things. I don't do this much because I don't want to turn the tires into smoke. Acceleration off the line is brutal, and will easily light-up the rear tires all the way through first gear and into second. I put in some polyurethane swaybar links and bushings, which did not help much.īut in a straight line, or gentle corners, it's excellent, tracks in a straight line, super smooth, quiet and inspires confidence for high speed travel. The front and rear suspension are the same as the Ford Galaxies of the era, so aftermarket performance or police-car spec swaybars are available. The front swaybar is very small, allowing lots of lean. Sharp turns make the car lean and understeer badly, even with modern tires. Surprisingly they work well after all these years. I installed gas-pressure front shocks, which work great. The previous owner did not grease anything, so the original ball joints were worn, and got replaced. All other brake parts, including the rear drums and shoes are factory original from 1968 and work fine. I installed new front brake calipers, rotors and pads. It's a complex thing, with two double-Cardan joints, and a fully rubber-insulated shaft, to reduce noise and vibration. I installed a mild shift kit to firm things up works well. The transmission is the original C6, tuned for pretty soft shifts. Fuel economy is poor by modern standards, but not bad compared to other larger cars of the era. It demands the highest octane unleaded available, along with a lead supplement for the exhaust valves, or else it pings.
#1968 thunderbird 429 free#
I installed a set of rare 429 Cobra-Jet exhaust manifolds, along with a free flowing dual exhaust. It has a big bore, short stroke with decent heads, hence the power and rev-happy characteristics. A rebuild, along with new points, plugs, wires, condenser had the engine working perfectly.Īnd what an engine! The 429 V8 is astonishing, super-powerful, builds revs very, very fast for a big V8, and it hurls this 3800 lb car down the highway astonishingly fast. A bit of trimming, 2 hose clamps and a short section of exhaust pipe allowed me to reshape the hose for a good fit.ġ7 years of storage had rusted the gas tank, which I had professionally cleaned and coated. I could not find an original lower rad hose to fit, so I bought one from a late '70s Ford truck with a 460 and adapted it. Changed the heater core too, due to a slight leak, from age. The radiator was leaking so I replaced it with a good used one from a Ford Torino of that era.
The car still had the factory original belts and hoses, which I replaced. I replaced the center section with a 9" rear from a '67 Thunderbird. The retaining pin on the spider-gear shaft had sheared, allowing the shaft to slide around, creating random clicking noises. This car has a super-strong 9 3/8" rear end, with factory 2.80 gears. A local welding shop ingeniously designed, fabricated and installed 2 new frame sections using box-section steel. The floor and sheet metal of my car was pristine, but some of the frame rusted away to nothing.
I installed a generic coil and it ran fine.įords of this era were notorious for frame rust due to improperly processed "recycled" steel used in the manufacture. Maybe their mechanic could not diagnose the problem so it was parked. Turns out the ignition coil was failing, creating random stalling. The original owner drove the car for 4 years until 1972, then parked it in their garage until they passed away in 1989. I drove it for a bit in the late 90's, but stopped simply because I wanted to keep it in low mileage original condition. This is a super low mileage, well preserved car. I bought this car 25 years ago and have only put on 3000 miles.
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