1956 THUNDERBIRD MANUAL

Improved lower fan shroud and smaller water pump pulley exchange A true classic that features the following:Īir conditioning w/ cooling package comprised of: Stunning in Black over Red with glistening Chrome. A great driving car with Power Steering, Power Brakes, A/C and Automatic Transmission. Frame off restoration was completed in September of 2017 and a mere 299 Miles have been traveled since. & Brakes, Pristineįully Restored and absolutely gorgeous T-Bird. “A friend in high school had ’57 Thunderbird, and that was cool, but I always like the ’56 better.” There is definitely something alluring about the Thunderbirds, especially these early years, and when it looks as good as Dan’s does and it has the motivation of a supercharged Y-block, it’s hard not to love it.1956 Ford Thunderbird, Frame Off Resto, Auto, A/C, PWR Steer. “These have always been my favorite car,” Dan said. Why the Ford Thunderbird? Dan has always liked these cars. “Not this one.” For sound quality, the exhaust is piped through glass-packs to the back, but if you take the cap off the side-pipes it goes straight out. “Some of these cars would sort of bath tub down the road,” Dan explained. Dan also added front disc brakes, rack and pinion power steering, and 1-inch sway bars front and rear. The power is then put to the wheels through a positraction rearend.

1956 THUNDERBIRD MANUAL

It's a much more attractive look under the hood.įuel is supplied to the engine by way of a 600cfm Edelbrock carburetor, and all the power is then pushed through a 3-speed manual transmission with overdrive. The factory superchargers were piped all the way around the back of the motor and back to the front for air intake, Dan just modified the air intake system to suck air directly from the hood scoop. “But this 1956 Paxton supercharger is the same that they would have used from the factory the next year.” So even though the car wasn’t originally supercharged, this is a cool addition because it’s correct to the build and to the year, someone back in 1956 could have feasibly added this to their own car the same way Dan added it to his. “They didn’t supercharge these from the factory until 1957,” Dan said. The powerplant Dan used is a 312 cubic-inch Y-block Ford police interceptor motor-and it’s supercharged. More than just a show-car, Dan’s T-Bird is also built to fly. “I still needed something for my flames to come out of!” Dan said. You’ll also notice that the side vents have been removed and were replaced with an inset bodyline to keep the accent look.

The rest of the paint and bodywork was done by Dan in his own garage. We can’t stress just how cool of a feature that is, and until you’ve seen that in person it’s hard to really appreciate the affect that it has on the car. The airbrush work was done by Mike Lavallee at Killer Paint, and it’s a really nice custom touch added to the build. If you're looking at the car from the side, it looks like the handles, locks, and accents are really there, but looking at the car straight down from the front or back makes it look like a completely shaved build.

Unlike most shaved cars, this one is done in a way that’s almost stealth-While they have all been shaved, Dan had them airbrushed back on. Something you may not notice right away is that the car does not actually have any emblems, trim, or door handles on the exterior.

The headlights are off of an Indian motorcycle and the taillights are off of a Honda 1800 cruiser motorcycle.Ī few of the custom touches you may notice right away are the aluminum front and rear bumperettes, the frenched front driving lights and taillights, and the unusual headlights on the car. The emblems on the bumperettes are actually the rear speaker emblems off of a mid-‘60s Thunderbird.

1956 thunderbird