My 1979 Ford Thunderbird

These two pictures are the before and after in the paint booth.  They were taken about 3 months apart.  The color is a 98 Chrysler Candy apple red.  It is commonly found on LHS etc.  Body modifications include;
shaving the door handles, door locks, trunk lock, antenna, all body trim, and hood ornament.  The opera window was also removed.  A 69 Cowl induction hood was grafted to the original hood.  The wheel wells were opened by a 1/2 inch in the rear.  The bumpers are narrowed and brought to the body.  They are not on as of 4-7-99.  All trim left on the car was blacked out.

The frame has been back halfed.  3x3 box steel was used to create the new rear frame rails.  Everything has been diassembled, sand blased, and painted either body color or light machine gray.  The rear end has 7 1/2" taken out of each side.  The standard ladder bar/coilover setup is used.  Dual 3" exhuast runs from front to back with Flowmaster 2 chambers capping off the exhuast.

The motor started life as an 83 truck motor.  The motor has been bored .030 over, the crank has been offset ground, and a set of 6.8 rods round out hte rotating assembly.  Compression is just under 11.0:1.  The final displacement is 514.  The heads are basicly heavily ported stocks. The valvetrain consists of a Luanti cam with roller rockers. 

The intake is a tunnel ram lower intake with a custom sheetmetal upper.  This motor is controlled by an 89 Mustang computer with a Chris Johnson chip.  Est. horsepower is in the 500 hp area.  Hopefully this summer I will be able to get this monster on a dyno. 

The interior is out of a 95 Ford Thunderbird.  The dash, door panels, center console, steering column, front seats, and wiring were taken from a wrecked T-Bird.  The dash had to be narrowed by 2".  The door panels had to be modified extensivly.  The doors were fiberglassed into the door, then removed and recovered.  All of the electronics were retained except for the airbags.  The car is now complete with P/W, P/L, P/trunk release, A/C, climate control, cruise, and auto headlights.