Great stuff Owen! Teaching the kids something useful. Painting a car is a lesson in delayed gratification. A great example for the "I want it now!" generation. Its all about the prep work and you get out what you put in!
Hello, I just got a 61 thunderbird. I was wondering how you were able to switch and get a new interior? I’ve looked all over and can’t even find a website that sells anything close
Congratulations on your '61 TBird. It's a great car, a tank really, very solid. And it's a true classic, so good job on that. 61 through 63 are all basically the same, just small changes that didn't cost Ford much to make. Your hood is unique to '61, with the ridge lines. I had a lot of rust on this '63's hood and I looked everywhere for a '61 hood, couldn't find one, had to repair the 63 hood. I like '61 better. I also like your interior better. Woodgrain interior is unique to '63, and even then, only '63 Landau TBirds. So if you've got a '63 Landau, it's woodgrain, but most '63s have the cool aluminum interior like yours, which i like better. Since almost all Bullet Birds have your interior and practically none, have mine, you can't buy woodgrain stuff anywhere. You can buy all that aluminum interior trim for your car, brand new, from Larry's Thunderbird, or Pat Wilson's Thunderbird, or the Bird Nest, but it will cost you a fortune, over $700 for sure for every piece of it. It's aluminum though, so yours should clean up nicely, just use what you've got. As for the interior chrome, that's a different story. If it's a desert car, your interior chrome pieces might be fine, but that's rare, most all TBird interior chrome is badly corroded and pitted. Mine was terrible, and you can't buy it new. Your options are to get yours replated, which will will be very expensive, or find what you need used on ebay, from a desert car, (or just find the best you can). The stainless trim in your interior should be fine though, so that's something. I'm guessing your door panels are shot. Ford didn't make those door panels to last 60 years, unless it's 60 years inside a nice garage. You can buy brand new reproduction door panels, but again, big money, about $700 for the pair, because they are fancy, and tons of people aren't shopping for them the way people shop for 60s Mustang door panels. I've owned a bunch of old cars, and my favorite cars have simple flat door panels, that way any upholsterer can make them, and with the right backing board, you can even make your own. Not so easy on a 60s TBird door panel. They make a dash pad for your car, guess how much? $700.....it's a great hobby, but if you spare no expense, it all adds up really quickly. You can buy an upholstery kit for your car to do the front and rear seats for about $800 and up, depending on quality, and the seat covers will look just like factory, or you could take your seats to an upholsterer and have them done custom, where he just turns a big roll of vinyl material into beautiful new seats for you. I've got a guy in SC that does buckets for $300 each, and the rear bench for $400, which is cheaper than buying the vinyl kit yourself from a TBird parts house, and then paying an upholstery guy to do the work. That's what I did, I took the '63's torn up seats to Rick's Upholstery, in Sumter, SC and asked him to reupholster them all, in black, and make them look as factory as possible. He even salvaged the four little TBird seat emblems and sewed them onto his custom job, not only do they look great, but the vinyl he uses is softer than what the factory seats feel like, they came out great, he took care of the foam and everything, I just handed him the seats and nothing else and he ran with it. My daughter's Bullet Bird was a factory red car with factory red interior, now I'm not against a red interior with the aluminum interior trim that you have, but red with woodgrain doesn't look good to me. Woodgrain on a black interior I like, so black seats, and some black paint for the plastic interior parts that were all red. I like that rattle can, "vinyl and fabric" paint they sell at the parts store, I used it on all the red plastic and the red dash pad, and after two years, it's still holding up nicely. The '63's dash pad is cracked, but I painted it black and called it good enough. The original red door panels were toast though, completely shot, so I shopped ebay for a decent used pair. Found a pair for '63, used, and in good enough shape for me, $200, which is way cheaper than buying new. I just had to remove the aluminum trim, and install my woodgrain trim into them....and they were already black, so that worked out. Carpets were easy, I bought a carpet kit, a bit of a puzzle, but easy enough to install yourself once you lay it out and figure out where each piece goes. Headliner was easy, I bought a new headliner and gave it to my upholsterer to install. '61 to '63 TBird headliners are easier than a lot of late 60s cars, I normally pay $300 or $400 just for labor on a GTO or Road Runner headliner, but Rick did the TBird headliner for just $250. If upholstery shops in your area are way more expensive, shop around, call upholsterers in neighboring counties. Let them bid and compete for you business. Well I guess that covers most of what I did, I think it looks pretty nice, for what I paid, not a show car, just a decent driver. The only other thing was the interior chrome, mine was garbage, Georgia car.....not the desert. So I found all the chrome stuff on ebay, none of it was nice enough to cost big money, but all of it was at least 80% better than what I had, so that's what's in the car now. Hope this helps, good luck your car, it's a true classic, and I hope it brings as much joy to your life as all my old cars have brought to mine. It's a great hobby. I bought a '65 Mustang when I was 15 years old, and it hooked me for life. Everyone needs a hobby, and there's lot's of great hobbies out there, but how many people get to take their hobby all around town with them, without anyone thinking it's weird? I get to talk to people every day about my hobby, because people just walk up and tell me stories about the cars they owned. One old timer saw my daughter's '63 TBird at the gas station, he walked up and told me that his fishing buddy (can't remember the name) had one just like it, a red '63 TBird, he bought it brand new, love it, always wanted to drive it, so they'd drive that car out to the lake, them and their two buddies. I don't remember any of their names, but he told me, and he was having a good time telling me about them. This guy was pretty old, and I wanted to ask him if his three fishing buddies were all dead now, but I didn't. I just let him talk. The main thing he wanted to tell me was that it was out at the lake on November 22nd, on that 1963 Thunderbird's AM radio, where they first heard that JFK had been shot. True story, and he probably hasn't told it in decades..........then he saw my daughter's '63 TBird at the gas station.
@@owenrobertson Thank you so much sir, I truly do appreciate it a ton. I love all the information you gave me to help me on my journey and the awesome and crazy story about you and the old man. I am 15 years old and live in Southern California. I definitely want to carry on this legacy of true American greatness and prove all those people who told me I could never do it wrong. It definitely is a great hobby and I do not mind getting dirty. I have family and friends who tell me I am a old soul or the last of a dying breed and I just smile and laugh. That may be true but just like that famous saying and what Bob Marley once said, “You got to know your history to see where you’re coming from” or “if you don’t know your history, you’ll be doomed to repeat it.” I really believe in this and I’ll stand by that any day. What you have given me today is a true blessing and I really appreciate it, thank you.
@@joshsquash3937, well said. I'm from CA too, Madera (just north of Fresno). I joined the Air Force, lived all over, then ended up in SC. I was 15 in 1985, driving a 1965 Mustang, and I had people back then telling me that American cars don't last. For the past year my main daily driver has been a 1955 Pontiac. For the past 36 years, I've only driven cars built between 1955 and 1975. I've never owned a car newer than my '75 Bronco, they're just simple old cars that are easy to work on, and it's nice to be able to work on my own cars. Saves me a bunch of money. People stopped trying to tell me that American cars don't last. Turns out they last just fine. They do break though, like any old machine, but they can always be fixed. I've bought a couple old cars that didn't run, and just sat for years out in the weather. So I buy it cheap and find out it's something simple like the firing order was 180 degrees out, that was the case with the '63 TBird. That thing had a rebuilt engine, .040" over 390, it would have been running just fine until that one day that someone set up the timing order to fire off of the #1 piston's exhaust stroke. Then I guess they just gave up on it, because "old cars don't last", so that's why it won't start. And it sat. All they needed to do was take every spark plug wire on the distributor cap and move it to the opposite side of the cap. 180 out, get it? Then it would have fired right up. You want your spark plug to fire on the compression stroke, and not the exhaust stroke, and if you understand that, and if you understand 720 degrees of crankshaft rotation, then you're off to a good start. Enjoy the hobby, once me and all my friends die, there will be a ton of supply (old cars), and no demand (people your age don't want them). It's inevitable that eventually you'll have a lot of widows trying to sell their husbands' hemi Mopars, and Midyear Corvettes, and Mach 1 Mustangs, and there won't be a whole lot of bidders fighting over them. The supply isn't going anywhere, all of these prized possessions stashed away in garages all over the country, they're safe enough, they aren't being crushed these days and they aren't being wrapped around telephone poles. And let's be honest, hemi Mopars and midyear Corvettes and Mach 1 Mustangs aren't even rare, they made tens of thousands of each of those in the 1960s, and a real good percentage have been snatched up by collectors, thus surviving all these years. The only reason they are so expensive, way too expensive, so expensive that it hurts the hobby, is because guys like me get all crazy and fight each other over them. You just wait. And start making a list of cars you'd like to own, because once all the old guys like me are gone, those cars are all yours. I'm just assuming your peers won't be fighting you for them. I'm guessing they'll be driving something electric, while you're living out that Rush song in real life.........Red Barchetta. I'll admit it, I'm jealous, I love that song. On a side note, it's also good to have more than one old car, so that when one breaks, you can step to a spare, and not be late for work that day. If I was making a list of cars to buy, once they all plummet in value, this would be at the top of that list: www.rkmotors.com/vehicles/557/1968-dodge-coronet-r-t
@@owenrobertson Yes sir, I agree. That is one sweet ride. Personally I’m going to be saying FU to our governor because I’m going to still be driving gas powered cars. It’ll be a cold day in hell if I ever get an electric. I think this is a good hobby for me and it’s something I’ve always dreamed. I too actually want to be in the Air Force. I would like to be a pilot one day
Great stuff Owen! Teaching the kids something useful. Painting a car is a lesson in delayed gratification. A great example for the "I want it now!" generation. Its all about the prep work and you get out what you put in!
She's a really good artist, and knows paint, but this is her first time painting something this big. She did a good job. I'm proud of her!
Hello, I just got a 61 thunderbird. I was wondering how you were able to switch and get a new interior? I’ve looked all over and can’t even find a website that sells anything close
Congratulations on your '61 TBird. It's a great car, a tank really, very solid. And it's a true classic, so good job on that. 61 through 63 are all basically the same, just small changes that didn't cost Ford much to make. Your hood is unique to '61, with the ridge lines. I had a lot of rust on this '63's hood and I looked everywhere for a '61 hood, couldn't find one, had to repair the 63 hood. I like '61 better. I also like your interior better. Woodgrain interior is unique to '63, and even then, only '63 Landau TBirds. So if you've got a '63 Landau, it's woodgrain, but most '63s have the cool aluminum interior like yours, which i like better. Since almost all Bullet Birds have your interior and practically none, have mine, you can't buy woodgrain stuff anywhere. You can buy all that aluminum interior trim for your car, brand new, from Larry's Thunderbird, or Pat Wilson's Thunderbird, or the Bird Nest, but it will cost you a fortune, over $700 for sure for every piece of it. It's aluminum though, so yours should clean up nicely, just use what you've got. As for the interior chrome, that's a different story. If it's a desert car, your interior chrome pieces might be fine, but that's rare, most all TBird interior chrome is badly corroded and pitted. Mine was terrible, and you can't buy it new. Your options are to get yours replated, which will will be very expensive, or find what you need used on ebay, from a desert car, (or just find the best you can). The stainless trim in your interior should be fine though, so that's something. I'm guessing your door panels are shot. Ford didn't make those door panels to last 60 years, unless it's 60 years inside a nice garage. You can buy brand new reproduction door panels, but again, big money, about $700 for the pair, because they are fancy, and tons of people aren't shopping for them the way people shop for 60s Mustang door panels. I've owned a bunch of old cars, and my favorite cars have simple flat door panels, that way any upholsterer can make them, and with the right backing board, you can even make your own. Not so easy on a 60s TBird door panel. They make a dash pad for your car, guess how much? $700.....it's a great hobby, but if you spare no expense, it all adds up really quickly. You can buy an upholstery kit for your car to do the front and rear seats for about $800 and up, depending on quality, and the seat covers will look just like factory, or you could take your seats to an upholsterer and have them done custom, where he just turns a big roll of vinyl material into beautiful new seats for you. I've got a guy in SC that does buckets for $300 each, and the rear bench for $400, which is cheaper than buying the vinyl kit yourself from a TBird parts house, and then paying an upholstery guy to do the work. That's what I did, I took the '63's torn up seats to Rick's Upholstery, in Sumter, SC and asked him to reupholster them all, in black, and make them look as factory as possible. He even salvaged the four little TBird seat emblems and sewed them onto his custom job, not only do they look great, but the vinyl he uses is softer than what the factory seats feel like, they came out great, he took care of the foam and everything, I just handed him the seats and nothing else and he ran with it. My daughter's Bullet Bird was a factory red car with factory red interior, now I'm not against a red interior with the aluminum interior trim that you have, but red with woodgrain doesn't look good to me. Woodgrain on a black interior I like, so black seats, and some black paint for the plastic interior parts that were all red. I like that rattle can, "vinyl and fabric" paint they sell at the parts store, I used it on all the red plastic and the red dash pad, and after two years, it's still holding up nicely. The '63's dash pad is cracked, but I painted it black and called it good enough. The original red door panels were toast though, completely shot, so I shopped ebay for a decent used pair. Found a pair for '63, used, and in good enough shape for me, $200, which is way cheaper than buying new. I just had to remove the aluminum trim, and install my woodgrain trim into them....and they were already black, so that worked out. Carpets were easy, I bought a carpet kit, a bit of a puzzle, but easy enough to install yourself once you lay it out and figure out where each piece goes. Headliner was easy, I bought a new headliner and gave it to my upholsterer to install. '61 to '63 TBird headliners are easier than a lot of late 60s cars, I normally pay $300 or $400 just for labor on a GTO or Road Runner headliner, but Rick did the TBird headliner for just $250. If upholstery shops in your area are way more expensive, shop around, call upholsterers in neighboring counties. Let them bid and compete for you business. Well I guess that covers most of what I did, I think it looks pretty nice, for what I paid, not a show car, just a decent driver. The only other thing was the interior chrome, mine was garbage, Georgia car.....not the desert. So I found all the chrome stuff on ebay, none of it was nice enough to cost big money, but all of it was at least 80% better than what I had, so that's what's in the car now. Hope this helps, good luck your car, it's a true classic, and I hope it brings as much joy to your life as all my old cars have brought to mine. It's a great hobby. I bought a '65 Mustang when I was 15 years old, and it hooked me for life. Everyone needs a hobby, and there's lot's of great hobbies out there, but how many people get to take their hobby all around town with them, without anyone thinking it's weird? I get to talk to people every day about my hobby, because people just walk up and tell me stories about the cars they owned. One old timer saw my daughter's '63 TBird at the gas station, he walked up and told me that his fishing buddy (can't remember the name) had one just like it, a red '63 TBird, he bought it brand new, love it, always wanted to drive it, so they'd drive that car out to the lake, them and their two buddies. I don't remember any of their names, but he told me, and he was having a good time telling me about them. This guy was pretty old, and I wanted to ask him if his three fishing buddies were all dead now, but I didn't. I just let him talk. The main thing he wanted to tell me was that it was out at the lake on November 22nd, on that 1963 Thunderbird's AM radio, where they first heard that JFK had been shot. True story, and he probably hasn't told it in decades..........then he saw my daughter's '63 TBird at the gas station.
@@owenrobertson Thank you so much sir, I truly do appreciate it a ton. I love all the information you gave me to help me on my journey and the awesome and crazy story about you and the old man. I am 15 years old and live in Southern California. I definitely want to carry on this legacy of true American greatness and prove all those people who told me I could never do it wrong. It definitely is a great hobby and I do not mind getting dirty. I have family and friends who tell me I am a old soul or the last of a dying breed and I just smile and laugh. That may be true but just like that famous saying and what Bob Marley once said, “You got to know your history to see where you’re coming from” or “if you don’t know your history, you’ll be doomed to repeat it.” I really believe in this and I’ll stand by that any day. What you have given me today is a true blessing and I really appreciate it, thank you.
@@joshsquash3937, well said. I'm from CA too, Madera (just north of Fresno). I joined the Air Force, lived all over, then ended up in SC. I was 15 in 1985, driving a 1965 Mustang, and I had people back then telling me that American cars don't last. For the past year my main daily driver has been a 1955 Pontiac. For the past 36 years, I've only driven cars built between 1955 and 1975. I've never owned a car newer than my '75 Bronco, they're just simple old cars that are easy to work on, and it's nice to be able to work on my own cars. Saves me a bunch of money. People stopped trying to tell me that American cars don't last. Turns out they last just fine. They do break though, like any old machine, but they can always be fixed. I've bought a couple old cars that didn't run, and just sat for years out in the weather. So I buy it cheap and find out it's something simple like the firing order was 180 degrees out, that was the case with the '63 TBird. That thing had a rebuilt engine, .040" over 390, it would have been running just fine until that one day that someone set up the timing order to fire off of the #1 piston's exhaust stroke. Then I guess they just gave up on it, because "old cars don't last", so that's why it won't start. And it sat. All they needed to do was take every spark plug wire on the distributor cap and move it to the opposite side of the cap. 180 out, get it? Then it would have fired right up. You want your spark plug to fire on the compression stroke, and not the exhaust stroke, and if you understand that, and if you understand 720 degrees of crankshaft rotation, then you're off to a good start. Enjoy the hobby, once me and all my friends die, there will be a ton of supply (old cars), and no demand (people your age don't want them). It's inevitable that eventually you'll have a lot of widows trying to sell their husbands' hemi Mopars, and Midyear Corvettes, and Mach 1 Mustangs, and there won't be a whole lot of bidders fighting over them. The supply isn't going anywhere, all of these prized possessions stashed away in garages all over the country, they're safe enough, they aren't being crushed these days and they aren't being wrapped around telephone poles. And let's be honest, hemi Mopars and midyear Corvettes and Mach 1 Mustangs aren't even rare, they made tens of thousands of each of those in the 1960s, and a real good percentage have been snatched up by collectors, thus surviving all these years. The only reason they are so expensive, way too expensive, so expensive that it hurts the hobby, is because guys like me get all crazy and fight each other over them. You just wait. And start making a list of cars you'd like to own, because once all the old guys like me are gone, those cars are all yours. I'm just assuming your peers won't be fighting you for them. I'm guessing they'll be driving something electric, while you're living out that Rush song in real life.........Red Barchetta. I'll admit it, I'm jealous, I love that song. On a side note, it's also good to have more than one old car, so that when one breaks, you can step to a spare, and not be late for work that day. If I was making a list of cars to buy, once they all plummet in value, this would be at the top of that list:
www.rkmotors.com/vehicles/557/1968-dodge-coronet-r-t
@@owenrobertson Yes sir, I agree. That is one sweet ride. Personally I’m going to be saying FU to our governor because I’m going to still be driving gas powered cars. It’ll be a cold day in hell if I ever get an electric. I think this is a good hobby for me and it’s something I’ve always dreamed. I too actually want to be in the Air Force. I would like to be a pilot one day
@@joshsquash3937. Awesome! Good for you!