New Thunderbird Body

[Thunderstruck95]

I found it for sale on the side of the road 8 miles from my house. The seller had it for the last 20 years while it was sitting behind a bodyshop. He intended to make it into a circle dirt track car but never got around to it.

He claimed it was a 1998 model that got lost when Ford axed the Thunderbird program. He said it was originally used by a local company (Lacks Enterprises) that was making trim pieces for Ford. When Ford canceled the Thunderbird, the trim company just got rid of the car. He got it through a friend who worked at the trim manufacturer.

Here are some pictures- what do you think?

 

[Thunderstruck95]

 

[Thunderstruck95]

Some pictures from today- had to relocate the body from a friends place back over to mine.

 

[Zep5.0]

Any plans for this car yet?

 

[Thunderstruck95]

Any plans for this car yet?

No plans at the moment. I just needed to move the car today and figured it would be a good time to repost the pictures on the new site.

 

[supergordo]

I do recall this shell. Neat stuff.

 

[XR7-4.6]

I probably mentioned it at the other place but what the hell, I still find it interesting the interior is painted without any sound deadener mats applied, as far as I can tell every 94-97 had the mats applied after the grey primer/E-coat but BEFORE the color paint. Assuming that was manufactured for the trim company to use it was treated to a different paint process than any other MN12 that left the factory. Or it was painted white later on, the interior looks more oversprayed than the usual complete coating you see. Either way it's a fascinating car, it's too bad it's the size of, well, a car, it's a great artifact as is!

 

[Grog6]

Body was punched for the side cladding. And the core tag says it had a spoiler.

 

[Thunderstruck95]

Either way it's a fascinating car, it's too bad it's the size of, well, a car, it's a great artifact as is!

Yaaa.. it’s a bit of a burden to be preserving a car that can’t roll or have windows, but I’ll keep it up for now.
A cool artifact for me is also the assembly line skies that it sits on. There are 100+ layers on paint on parts of them.

Body was punched for the side cladding. And the core tag says it had a spoiler.

The trunk is drilled for a spoiler.

 

[Grog6]

Hey, There's me a new body for Lazarus. How much would you want for it, delivered to tennessee?

 

[Thunderstruck95]

Hey, There's me a new body for Lazarus. How much would you want for it, delivered to tennessee?

You got a rust free 94/95 body to trade for it?

 

[Grog6]

No, only a bent up cougar body, a 96. But it's rust free.
I'm joking. If I hadn't had a stroke, I could drive up swap the parts, and drive home. But that's no longer even possible, lol. It is a nice car; Someone will want to buy it. Seeing what these guys go thru rust-wise is terrible.

Is there a door sticker? I'm curious on when it was made...

 

[Thunderstruck95]

No stickers. No VIN tag.

 

[Grog6]

I have a post saved on the other computer that lists where all 5 vin numbers are located.

 

[theterminator93]

Core tag says it was made on August 8, sequence number 6939. My 97 is sequence 4439 made on 8/2/96. The FIL's sport was made 3 days before and was sequence 123. Production volume seems to indicate either a massive line slowdown (if it's a 97) or it was made in 95 as a 96 model.

 

[Grog6]

My cougars are only a few weeks apart. Both sold to a dealer in SC, and the red one was driven for a few years by the dealer. (I got carfaxes years ago).My dad got Lazarus from an auction in 98, I inherited it in 99.

 

[Derphound01]

No stickers. No VIN tag.

I have a post saved on the other computer that lists where all 5 vin numbers are located.

I am not saying I condone those who commit felonies.

But.

In my Volkswagen days, I may have been involved in a few instances of cutting and welding VIN plates from valuable shells with rotting shock towers or rockers to shells with clean metal. I also had a way to get new door jamb decals.

There's a few Harlequins running around that aren't the original shell but still have the original Harlequin VIN stampings.

 

[Grog6]

I've seen that done on old muscle cars, where 1 letter or number can mean big bux.

 

[KevinVarnes]

That is incredibly awesome. It would be a ton of work to make that into a running driving car, but what a fun build it could be. There is a pretty tired looking SuperCoupe for sale on Facebook Marketplace in Caledonia that could probably donate most/all of the parts needed to bring that back. I was considering possibly picking it up since it is cheap and local, but I really don't need any other cars sitting around right now.