The fourth generation of the Thunderbird introduced some significant styling changes for the car, as Ford pursued a more squared look for it compared to its predecessors. The fourth generation was in production from 1964 until 1966, and our feature car fits right in the middle of that production run. You will find the 1965 Thunderbird listed for sale here on Craigslist. The car is located in Camden, New York, and is being offered for sale with a salvage title.
There is no doubt that this Thunderbird cuts a sad figure as it stands now. The external rust problems are pretty obvious. Close examination of the photos also reveals that there is rust present inside both the front and rear wheel wells, which would indicate that the trunk floor and possibly the front floors have also succumbed to the dreaded tin worm.
The interior appears to be complete and in surprisingly good condition. It looks like every piece of trim is present, and it looks like the dash is also in pretty fair shape as well. If the destiny of this Ford is to become a parts car, then there are certainly some good parts available here. In spite of the dust and the decay, it even looks like the seats would be prime candidates for new covers with little effort.
If we harbored any illusions about the state of this Thunderbird, a look under the hood will give us further indication of what to expect if we decided to crawl under the car. There’s a liberal coating of corrosion here, and if we couple that with the external rust, things are probably not looking good. The engine is the 390ci V8, backed by Cruise-O-Matic 3-speed automatic transmission. This year was also the first year that Ford included front disc brakes as standard on the Thunderbird. Unfortunately, we don’t get any information on the condition of the drive-train, but the levels of corrosion don’t bode well for it.
I could be wrong on this one, and nothing would make me happier than if I was, but the indications are that this Thunderbird has reached the end of the road and that its destiny now lies as a parts car for other projects. Certainly, there are some good parts on it that could see service on other cars. I would like nothing more than for someone to climb underneath this Thunderbird, and to tell me that it’s rock solid and a viable restoration project. Sadly, I don’t think that it will happen.
I don’t think anyone is going down the road of restoring this, but there of plenty of guys out there restoring converts that would love to have it for parts. Sacrifice one for the benefit of many.
This is one of those cars that may be best to push it back into the barn and wait another 20 years to see if the market got any better for it.
Musta been a leaky barn….
You have to wonder what frame looks like, was it sunk into the dirt? Financialy, it probably wouldn’t make sense(cents), but it would make a challenging project.If it was a Porsche, it would be snapped up in no time.
During first grade my Mom would drop me off half asleep – me, not her – on her way to work, to wait for the bus at the house of a couple my folks knew who knows how. They lived next to the dirt track, by the way, which made me cool until the other kids found out I didn’t actually live there. Anyway, this nice lady would give me two of their son’s models and a bottle of Elmer’s glue to play with… a ’65 T-Bird just like this one, same color in fact, which I loved – still do, one of my favorite Birds… and a white ’58 Impala which… well, not so much until later when I saw American Graffiti for the first time. Funny the things that influence our vehicular tastes.
If it can be made to run I’d invest in a couple of gallons of POR to stabilize the rot, an afternoon with car wash and Armor All, new tires and brakes and just drive it. I grew up in Michigan and it seemed like half the cars looked like this. No big deal.
Many of the cars I owned had perfect bodywork only in my imagination.
That Tbird has no frame, it is a unibody style. With that amount of rust the car may be unsafe to drive or even raise on a frame lift.
The ad is from N.Y. state, east end of Lake Ontario!
That body is lucky if the swingarm pads are still attached to the boxes.
Don’t punch that 390 too hard, it’ll bend it to the right! lol!
‘They use more salt than we do!’
(N.E.Ohio)
I’d use Fer-Tan on the rust, and ANYTHING EXCEPT Armor All – Use Armor All once on a car, and it DESTROYS it if you stop. I used that CRAP on a 46,000 mile mint ’62 Fairlane(with the non-replaceable metallic maroon interior including padded dash) and ended up parking it on the family farm with a blown engine after I got out of the Army. I finally made it back 10 years later for my grandmothers funeral and found all the vinyl resembling shattered safety glass. Main ingredients are basically brake fluid and silicone – withdrawal symptoms of the brake fluid softener, solidifies the silicone that spontaneously shatters.
I agree on the Armor All comment. I just used that as a generic reference to a vinyl rejuvenator. I use F21 myself.
I had a couple of these cars, and they are fun and comfortable. But restoring this car would take so much time, money, and work, that it wouldn’t make sense. It would be cheaper to just buy one already done, and start driving it immediately.
This one looks like it is one speed bump away from folding up like an umbrella or an accordion. Don’t take the top down; it’s probably the only thing providing structural rigidity…
Great parts car
…darn few of those, too.
I bought a 66 convertible 12 years ago with bad quarters and disassembled engine area (radiator,brakes,interior power windows and rear trunk lift hydraulics that hid the top a mess) and put it back together. The owner had to rear section clips of quarters that I welded in as this metal is thick because this a tank in weight . It turned out easy to repair and a couple used parts sites made it a go.
This could be saved as I am seeing mainly rear area quarters with no issues with the door and dog house looks good as well as the convertible top probably protected the interior and hopefully the pans.
These 390 engine are hosses on starting up if you spray penetrating oils down the cylinders for a week or two.
This list should be on a classic T bird site to be saved!
The seller either pushed the car to the lawn or got it there somehow but didn’t bother to wash it. It isn’t very advantageous to the Seller to advertise dirty cars no matter what its condition. If someone has to have this, they are attractive cars and smooth to drive, for this specific car, $500.00 would be my price.
I think this looks worse than it may be,as far as the rust.
The seats/interior could clean up,and be leather treated,
atleast good enough to drive,and it sure is more complete
than a lot of them.If you cut the bottom of the quarters off,
starting 1 inch below the side body line,it will be much easier
to blend in.These T birds are really fantastic/beautiful cars,
but they are also gas Thirsty, hard to work on, time consuming
and expensive to restore.I sure hope some one will
at least make this a driver,and saves it,there are a lot of worse
cars out there for parts.
It must have been great in the snow !
I prefer the 1966 model with the full length tail light.
STILL…..there are soooo many coupes/hardtops sitting around that could be used as donors….waaaay to many of those to be ever restored….just saying….