CUSTOM 1963 FORD THUNDERBIRD DRIVERS
CUSTOM 1963 FORD THUNDERBIRD PORTABLE
CUSTOM 1963 FORD THUNDERBIRD BLUETOOTH
CUSTOM 1963 FORD THUNDERBIRD WINDOWS

CUSTOM 1963 FORD THUNDERBIRD BLUETOOTH

Switching to a 1963 AM/FM stereo and retrofitting a Bluetooth band through an FM transmitter is possible.

The first issue that needed to be addressed was the head unit.

CUSTOM 1963 FORD THUNDERBIRD WINDOWS

Worse, the speaker was barely audible at highway speeds with the windows down, a necessity in August in my non-AC car. Two phones, a charging pack, and all the associated cables made an absolute mess of tangled nonsense up front.

Turns out, the 12 volt accessory socket, known as a cigar lighter in 1962, stopped working.

CUSTOM 1963 FORD THUNDERBIRD PORTABLE

I used a portable Bluetooth speaker for my drive, which brought about another problem -charging all these devices. I am sure that in the 1960s, there were plenty of AM radio stations to choose from, but today, the options are severely limited. One thing that was quickly apparent was the lack of audio technology. And drive it I did, setting off on an odyssey of about 900 miles over the course of four days. A few days before my 40th birthday, the car came together and I got to get out and drive it around. A tremendous amount of time was spent simply disassembling chrome parts, cleaning and polishing, and putting things back together. The car needed a ton of work to get road worthy, and it took a little over two years of working on weekends and when paychecks would allow to rebuild brakes, steering, suspension, carburetor, generator, and refurbish the cooling system. As best I can tell, it was parked in 1968, attempted to get back on the road in 1989, and then nothing. When the opportunity to acquire an unrestored 1962 Thunderbird that showed just 83,000 miles on its six-digit odometer came up, I jumped in. All that chrome and those crazy rear lights really made an impact on me, and I never really let go of that infatuation. I remember going to the weekly car meetup and seeing a red 1961 Thunderbird with a matching red vinyl interior when I was probably about 12. I have had an obsession with the Bullet Bird since childhood. Massive chrome bumpers and stainless steel trim that runs from the front to the rear do not have the bland factory appearance many people associate with original cars, and the odd lines certainly do not look like early 1960s designs most people are familiar seeing. The irony of the Bullet Bird is that when car show attendees see one of these now-uncommon cars, they generally believe the vehicle to be some sort of custom. Driveable, low-mileage, unrestored cars can be had for less than $10,000, and for restorers looking to resuscitate the carcass of a Bullet Bird, cars can be had for less than $1,000. While prices of second- and fourth-generation Thunderbirds have shot up in recent years, the Bullet Bird has languished in the “not worth restoring” category. The Bullet Birds have never made that leap.

Many classic cars start out under-appreciated or even undesirable, only to become rare and desirable, if for no reason other than their quirky history. In 1964, Ford returned to a squared-off styling with the fourth-generation Thunderbird.

CUSTOM 1963 FORD THUNDERBIRD DRIVERS

Sales were decent, but did not meet the record-setting figures of the previous generation, known as the “Square Birds.” Features like the swing-away steering wheel and the all-new 390 cubic inch V8 engine simply did not bridge the gap between how drivers wanted a car to look and what the new Thunderbird looked like. The decidedly munitions-shaped car earned the nickname “Bullet Bird.” The oversized, round, chrome taillights stand out, looking like nothing less than jet turbine engines and are a true thing of beauty at night. The new design was unlike anything on the road at the time, which certainly lived up to the company advertising slogan -”Unmistakably New, Unmistakably Thunderbird.” The car featured a long, low profile with a distinctly pointed front end that tapered away to tiny fins in the rear. Packed with photos and insight!įord unveiled the third-generation Thunderbird in the summer of 1960. In this article: We'll walk through a custom installation of a Sony XAV-AX7000 in a 1962 Ford Thunderbird dash.

Custom 1963 ford thunderbird