Charcoal gray accents and embroidery will tie into the exterior paint scheme. Steve and Molly will be redoing the upholstery in leather with the factory style white inserts. The car was purchased in 1961 for the current owner’s mom to use as a daily driver, thus earning the name “Mom’s T-Bird.” (Image/Driven Restorations) At some point the seats were recovered and the inserts were changed from white to black. No sweat, right? The Colonial White 1959 Thunderbird as it arrived at Driven Restorations. Mom’s T-Bird is loaded on a trailer for a trip to Vegas in late October. Leaves driveline installation, paint, interior, and final assembly to do before Showed up in mid-July to help with some welding, body panel fitment andĪlignment, and final bodywork to get the Thunderbird ready for paint. Other interior upgrades include updated gauges, Vintage Air A/C, and a factory-appearing radio with Bluetooth.Īs you’re reading this, Steve and Molly haveįinished up the major sheetmetal work. Charcoal accents and embroidery will tie the interior to the paint scheme. The upholstery will be upgraded to leather in the factory black with white inserts pattern. Once the bodywork is finished, the Thunderbird will be painted pearl white with a charcoal gray top. You can see how bad it was in the photos below. In addition to the usual dents and dings, rust had eaten through the rockers, the lower rear quarter panels, and trunk extensions on both sides of the car. Steve and Molly are both handy with a welder, which was a good thing as the Thunderbird needed a lot of rust repair and metal work. of torque gets routed to a Ford 9-inch axle with a Moser Engineering third member fitted with 3.25 gears and an Auburn Gear limited slip differential. The engine’s 460 horsepower and 420 ft.-lbs. It comes with the ECU and wiring harness, Boss 302 alternator kit, starter, bellhousing, billet flywheel, and clutch kit for a (relatively) easy install. The Module mates a production Gen 3 5.0L engine to a 680R six-speed automatic. Speaking of power, Mom’s T-Bird gets a Ford Performance GEN 3 Coyote 5.0L Power Module. Suspension to work properly and can handle more power than the original 352 FE The benefits-a much stiffer car that allows the “We had to make all the structures on the bottom of the car to make it safe and strong.” “There has been a whole lot of adapting and troubleshooting,” Molly Gursky said. Adapting the ’59 to the new chassis meant cutting out the floor, transmission tunnel, and subframe assemblies and then building a new underbody structure. The 1958-60 ‘Squarebirds’ have a unibody design with the sheetmetal structure acting as body and chassis. That meant some serious metal surgery was required to mate the car to the chassis. The decision was made to go with a Scott’s Hotrods and Customs full-frame chassis that has custom-built front and rear coilover suspension and Wilwood disc brakes. Steve and Molly’s idea was to keep the T-Bird stock-appearing on the outside with a modern chassis and drivetrain underneath. They wanted to make it safe and comfortable for cross country travel while not having to stop every 50 miles for fuel.” “They asked us what it would take to bring it back to her former glory and add a little more ‘oomph’ under the hood. “When the family got in touch we were thrilled to hear the story behind this car,” Molly Gursky said. The car was mostly summer driven and stored for the majority of its life, so it was complete when it arrived at Driven Restorations in late 2018. The Thunderbird fulfilled its duties faithfully for three decades until mechanical issues forced the family to park it the early 1990s. The Colonial White car was purchased in 1961 for the current owner’s mom to use as a daily driver, thus earning the name “Mom’s T-Bird.” They’ve built everything from muscle cars to classic trucks, many of which have sentimental value to their owners. Steve and Molly opened Randoph, WI-based Driven Restorations in 2009. Steve and Molly Gursky of Driven Restorations are hard at work getting a 1959 Ford Thunderbird finished in time to make the show. The 2019 SEMA Show in Las Vegas, NV is less than four months away, something the folks building display vehicles for the show know all too well.
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