1963 Ford Thunderbird

Automatic

3Y83ZXXXXXX

Gasoline

(New addition to this description) ... I got a request for a "walk around" video of the car and am happy to email it to anyone interested. It includes me walking around the car and pointing out some of its attributes. This 63 T-bird is in fantastic mechanical condition. We just had lots of work done to it by a great mechanic, and have been driving it frequently. Its a blast to drive, the people that see it go Ape. This car is in primer. It has 107,000 miles and is an Arizona car. The only thing it needs mechanically is a new power brake booster and the left rear brake light doesnt work. So when you are going down the road with your lights on, you still have two lit up lights and working turn signals, but when you brake only one of the tail lights gets brighter. I believe the problem is a switch in the column. All other lights work perfect. The engine compartment is pretty clean and original. Three of the 4 windows work good, the one that doesnt work is a back window, I cant remember if its right or left. I havent tried to work on it and it may just be gummed up from sitting so long. The 4 way power drivers seat still works great. The brakes are still adequate, but take more muscle than a modern car. We just had over $1000.00 worth of brake work done, including: new wheel cylinders, shoes, hardware kits, 3 rubber brake lines, new master cylinder, and I even had a new brake booster installed, but it was a lemon and never worked and I had lost the receipt , so lost out on that deal. Once you install a new booster it should have excellent braking. My 5'3" wife loves to drive it just the way it is, but I believe brakes could be a safety issue if you got into a hairy situation. It has the original 390/4Bbl with original automatic. The car is rust free other than a couple of pinholes in the pass side" cowel " area between the hood and windshield, where they're notorious for getting rust from the foam that was factory installed there, a bad design flaw. When we got the car about 15 years ago it had had 1 additional paint job and some inferior bodywork on the passenger quarter, but was otherwise in incredibly straight, solid condition. I cant see any evidence that the car has ever been wrecked, I was told the quarter panel damage was done pulling into a parking space wrong. The owners had been storing it it in their garage. (I might ad that almost the entire time weve owned it it has been stored inside as well) In 1997 I had the body worked over and they only had to repair one area with rust which was the before mentioned 'hood to windshield cowl" area on the DRIVERS side. The repair they made still looks great. At that time the pass side cowl area looked good and only recently developed the pin holes. They also did the minor bodywork touch ups, all it needed were a couple of door dings, they also reworked the (inferior) pass side quarter area and primed the car with quality primer. This car is in primer. I wetted down the primer so you could see just how nice the body is. The quarter panel they worked on looks better than before, but in my opinion it could still use some more work. Other than the pass quarter area they said they found no other evidence of body work or filler. While this car is extremely solid, it does have some minor rust in the passenger floorboard, a small hole, but I plan to weld a patch in before sale.(I find that disclosing any flaws a car has, despite how minor, is a good policy.) The bumpers both look great , they are some of the nicest Ive seen,and all of the chrome including the gorgeous "waterfall" grille is extremely nice. It is an old car and of course the chrome can't be perfect. All of the chrome (and emblems) are on this car, not a piece is missing, and all of the people who see the car remark on how beautiful all the chrome still is. Without doubt, I have not seen a nicer grille on a 63. No dents, missing pieces or pitting. Its really quite exceptional. The interior is complete although its been baked by the Arizona sun and all of the "soft" stuff needs to be replaced, and many of the various metal components need to either be buffed out or rechromed depending on you level of acceptance. The interior is complete and is missing no parts. The trim around the console is messed up from someone trying to remove it and so I am including the same (nicer) trim which I had planned to put on it . The seats, dash, and door panels are faded and cracked and need to be replaced. You will also need a headliner and carpet. The door panels are still usable and dont look too bad, but have some small cracks and slight warping. All of the hardware in and on the doors is usable and functions fine. The rear side panels seem to still be good, but appear to be faded. They are still in place and probably dont need to me monkeyed with other than a coat of vinyl paint in your color.(?) Although the interior isnt great we have been driving it as is and arent really bothered by it, the car is still a ton of fun to drive. The interior metal stuff like the light switches and dash stuff and the pwr seat switches on the console all range form pretty good to moderately pitted. What some people dont know is that even on quite severely pitted chromed stuff,you can carefully (with fine steel wool) ,sand and then buff them out to look pretty decent, even on chrome that has devloped the raised white pits. We buffed out a couple of the worst pieces and had really amazing results. Of course all these items can be rechromed too. The console operates good and looks good for its age but is faded as is the whole interior. Much of the remaining interior items are usable but need cleaning and could look better with some "finessing".. I have had amazing results with vinyl "dye" spray paint on some other cars, its easy to apply and the result looks great and it comes in a ton of colors. Of course, by doing all new interior, you get to completely choose your color scheme. Glass is nice, but windshield has some wiper burn. Options include AC, (the ac doesnt work. The compressor turns freely, and it may be operable with a simple recharge), Pwr steering which works great, Power brakes, Pwr windows, Pwr driver seat that works great, tilt-a-way steering wheel column, (extremely cool, we love it) . All 4 Original hubcaps, as well as the fender skirts are in very nice condition. Older but still usable and good looking tires. I am also throwing in the ORIGINAL Ford Service manual with the 63 supplement, as well as some good T-bird parts catalogues I have accumulated. I have been occasionally updating this ad so you may want to keep checking this description. Let me know if you need more pix.