57 T-Bird Purchase

[Guest jerseyjoe]

I have an opportunity to buy my dream car, a 57 T-BIRD at a good price($25k). The body is in great shape, the undercarriage looks ok. The seats had a couple of small tears on one side but no big deal. It has 2 tops and the orig steering wheel and a 2nd smaller steering wheel. The seat does not go back far enough so I'd need to get the tracks moved back just a few inches. Otherwise it looks jreally good. The engine looks like the original and could uses a little cleaning up but no rust.

 

The problem is, I am not a good mechanic. When I went to see it it was already running but sounded good (the blub-blub of the engine sounded right). It was a cold day and when the owner took me for a ride it ran rough and had a little problem getting out of gear for a short while. Eventually, after about a mile or so, it began to run more smoothly and shifted ok the rest of the way. We hit 60-65 mph and , although it was a lot noisier (windy) than my Audi I figured it was because we had the soft top on and it we were going a a good clip. The owner seemed to feel that it usually takes a while to warm up becasue it sat unused for a long time. The odometer reads 64k miles which I assume is probably 164k. The car started right up several times after I got there and tried it but I am worried about it running rough in the beginning since I'm not a good mechanic and can't easilyy fix any major problem. What does anyone think?  Am I asking for trouble or does it sound normal for a 57?

 

 

Edited December 27, 2017 by jerseyjoe (see edit history)

[Matt Harwood]

I have a love/hate relationship with 2-seat Thunderbirds (I currently have a moratorium on 2-seat T-Birds in my shop, although I just sold one that I liked very much). They are lovely cars to look at, but you have to remember that Ford management basically said to the engineers, "See that 1953 Corvette? Go build us one of those. You have 16 months and no money." The result is about what you think would result from that kind of a plan. It is a beautiful body atop a 1940s chassis. It is crude and rude to drive, the seating position is awful for anyone over about 5'8" and even with power steering, it's a handful despite being a small car. The hardware underneath is tough, which is good news, and parts are plentiful from the catalogs.

 

The stuttering you describe is probably not a major issue--old cars use carburetors and carburetors use chokes, and when they're cold, they can be cranky. The colder it is outside, the longer it takes for the carburetor to warm up properly. Add in today's gas and the lack of carburetor tuning knowledge at most mechanic shops, and you get cars like that which run "pretty well" but not like they should and the cold only exacerbates it. The mechanical hardware in a '57 Thunderbird is robust and proven and the combination was sorted out decades ago. They finally did away with the dreadful teapot Holley carburetor and installed a proper Holley 4-barrel, which will be a lot easier to service and tune. It will absolutely be louder than your Audi and 65 MPH will sound very busy indeed without overdrive. Ignore the odometer reading, it could be anything and is indicative of nothing--was it rebuilt and set to 0 at some point, from another car, disconnected for years and years, rolled back in the 1960s, or any other thing. No way to know. Ignore the mileage and go on condition. Leaks are normal, and if it has power steering, expect that particular system to leak A LOT. A few drops are not bad, but puddles are. The Ford-O-Matic transmissions are tough, but I believe they start in 2nd gear, which is why it might have felt lethargic. I don't remember if the 2-seater 'Birds have a selector position that forces them to start in 1st like the later cars, but you can manually pull it back into 1st and it'll run more like the 245 horsepower car that it is. Shifts should be pretty firm and snappy, not sluggish. If anything, they should be too firm compared to today's transmissions. Taking a while to get with the program is probably also a temperature thing, but early Ford-O-Matic transmissions don't have a check valve in the torque converter, so it can take some driving before everything is properly filled with fluid again if it has been sitting a long while. This lack of a check valve is also why most T-Birds have transmissions that leak like crazy--the converter leaks down and over-fills the pan, with fluid overflowing out the rear seal or pan gasket. Not normal, but not abnormal, either.

 

You won't be able to move the seat back any farther than it is because the top needs to fold behind the seat. This is why tall people shouldn't buy 2-seat Thunderbirds. With the top down, it's a bit better behind the wheel, but they aren't for long-legged people. If you move the seat, the top will not stow properly or the seat just won't go back as far as you want--it'll hit the top. There are smaller-diameter wheels that will give you some extra space, but on a manual steering car, you'll miss that big wheel in parking lots.

 

Look at the body mounts under the car, on a lift if possible. I had a '56 Thunderbird that was beautiful on the outside but totally rotted underneath. The body mounts and box-section of rocker panel really go bad in a demonic way. Check it out:

 

 

Make sure you really get under there and look carefully, because this kind of damage is not readily visible by just sticking your head underneath. The guy from whom I got this car owned it for 20 years and never had any idea it was this badly rusted underneath. Nobody ever looked.

 

Even though you're not a mechanic, these are not complicated cars and you can learn to keep it healthy. You can join a club that will provide a great deal of support, and there are surely guys in your area who specialize in old cars who can service it if you don't feel confident. Get it sorted out properly and it will stay that way for many years, but it's worthwhile to seek out a guy who knows this stuff and let him work on it. Pay him what he asks and you'll have a friend you can rely on. Don't treat him like the dealership mechanic trying to rip you off on an hourly. He's your ally, not just an employee.

 

There's nothing on a Thunderbird that will be expensive or scary to fix (except rust). Trust your gut instincts about the car and its seller. Anything that goes wrong mechanically you can handle. Good luck!

[alsancle]

You should post some pictures.   There are lots and lots and lots of 55-57 T-birds to choose from.  If you really have to buy one, get the best one you can afford. 

 

Matt is correct that mechanical issues are last on the list of worries. 

 

You say it would not come out of gear,  manual transmission?  That is a plus in my book, just not worth buying a bad car.

[paul2748]

The first thing I would do is see if there is a local TBird club.  Join it.  Get the benefit of their experience with early Birds.  Ask one of the more knowledgeable members to accompany you for a through inspection (bottom especially) to check out the condition of the car.  Frame and body conditions are the most expensive to fix.  Mechanical issues less so.

 

It has been my experience with older cars that they can run rougher when cold ( MY 56 does) .  

 

Joe - do you live in New Jersey?  There is a great club in north Jersey, the New Jersey Open Road Thunderbird Club (NJORTC).  Lots of real TBird guys (I am one of them)

Edited December 28, 2017 by paul2748 (see edit history)