The bike was acquired by the seller in 2022, and work in preparation for the sale included cleaning the carburetor and changing the oil. It is equipped with the Trail upgrade package, and additional features include full suspension, a center stand, a twist-grip shifter, and trail lighting. Crazy Thunderbirder here.This 1966 Harley-Davidson M50S is powered by an air-cooled 50cc two-stroke single paired with a three-speed transmission and is finished in red with white accents. Safety for the 66 passengers was not compromised however body damages to the Thunderbird's in a front crash were greater. The sheer strength of the 64 - 65 front end was leathal in crashes and Ford was ordered by the NHSA to reduce the rigidity of the 66's and replace it with a lighter crumple zone Thunderbird in that year model. Interestingly, the reason the 66 front end was redesigned was to reduce the number of fatalities of crashes not to the occupants of the Thunderbird's but to occupants of other cars that were in a front end collisions. So that would tell me that it may have been a safety consideration also. The car's were modular built in sections with two subframes one front and one rear attached to a rigid body frame or cage if you would. It would seem to me that there may have been an assembly reason also. I'm pretty sure that the reason Ford went to the Unibody construction was to cut costs and to reduce the weight of the car. That's about all I can thing of at the moment. But there are plenty of good guys, and you can find them by asking around. These cars were later found in North Carolina, picked apart. I know a shop in Bradenton (FL) who disappeared in the middle of the night, taking several customer cars with them. I've had my own bad experiences, and I've heard stories from others that are even worse. Don't go with the shop that sets up a booth - well, you can, but only if you have 10 other people telling you this shop does really good work. Looking for a good shop in your area? Go to some local car shows and ask around. That carpeting feels bone dry until you remove it - and yuck! It rained one day in 1969, and some water got inside the car, and it's still there. ![]() Trust me, it's soaking wet, and rusting out the floor. Use new stainless lines and you're good forever.Īs for body, first chance you get, remove the carpeting and the carpet backing, and hang it out to dry. The steel lines can rust, and the rear one is notorious for rusting inside a plate, where the line turns and goes under the driver's door. ![]() Rotten hoses can let go, and even good-looking old hoses can swell up inside, making the brakes feel sticky. ![]() I'm talking cylinders, brake shoes, flex hoses, steel lines, everything. One major piece of advice: before you drive it anywhere, replace the brakes. I made it a rolling restoration, and although it still is a bit rough around the edges I've had years of enjoying it. In my case, I bought a basket case of a car - sitting in a field for years with rodents living in it, formerly owned by some mountain boys who knew how to rig it up with bailing wire and chewing gum, and parts source being another Bird in the backyard on blocks. The general public doesn't look at auction results, they love the cars!Īs for restoration, you should ask yourself - are you doing a total rotisserie restoration, or are you fixing it up as you go along? This makes a difference as to what to do first, or how far you should dig. BUT - take it on a drive, take it to a car show, take it anywhere, and it turns heads. These cars are expensive to restore because (1) repro prices are higher than the same parts for Mustangs or Falcons - because there are fewer cars to divide the costs with, and (2) the car is actually a Lincoln, built with the concept of "Why use 3 moving parts when you can use 47?" Then when all is said and done, the finished car is not worth as much as that Mustang. for starters, yes indeed it's better to buy one fully restored than to fix up a project. There are plenty of things I've learned along the way.
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