1963 THUNDERBIRD SPORTS ROADSTER
Complete Rotisserie Restoration
in progress now

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April 30,
I got all my chrome parts back from AIH Plating and man 'o man
did they do a beautiful job. The stuff is gorgious! I especially
like the wing window frames. That's something you rarely see
re-plated on restored cars, these are just super!
Thanks a lot AIH! (even though I paid you dearly)
I forgot to send in my top pins, the pins that hold the top frame
together so I did that a couple days ago and Steve at AIH said he
would have someone get on them the same day they receive them and get
them back to me in a couple days. Thanks again!
I've added pictures of the build sheet from behind the back seat back
springs along with the original "gate release" invoice from Ford.
Some of you have never seen these items and they are very important
in authenticating the fact that this is in fact a true Sports Roadster.
Note that someone elses build sheet is still attatched to the one
belonging to this Roadster. I haven't taken the time to run the
numbers to see what model car it is, but it's definately not a Tbird.
If anyone knows what it's from, please let me know.
It's kind of a shame, after the bottom looked so nice in it's new
black paint, and I spent so much time scraping off all the old stuff,
to spray undercoating all over it again, but that's exactly
what I did. It's like original, and the main purpose is sound deadening.
I sprayed the "check coat" on all the parts and did the final sanding,
fixed a few small imperfections and then.....
I finally got this sweetheart painted, and does it look nice!!!
I put up a couple pictures of it after I got the 2nd coat of base on it
and then some with the clear done. The reflections in the quarters
don't have a ripple in them, this baby is STRAIGHT!!
The next step will be to color sand and buff all the parts, I'll start that
on Monday and expect it to take 3 or 4 days. I'll do the sanding in
3 steps, but before I go near it with sand paper I'll put 3/4" masking tape
on all the edges and ridges. It's too easy to sand through the clear on
those areas and the last thing I want to do now is try to patch things up.
I'll start with 1000 grit paper on the areas with the most "orange peel" look
to quickly knock down the high spots. Then I'll use 1500 grit over the entire
car (except the taped areas) and when thats done, I'll do it all again using
2000 grit. After the sanding is complete, the next step is to machine rub it.
It's important that you leave the masking tape in place for this part too.
I use 3M Perfect It II Buffing Compound with wool bonnetts on a 2000 RPM
air buffer. After the buffing is done, remove the masking tape and then
use a foam polishing pad on the air buffer with 3M Perfect It III Glazing Compound.
The result is a "Perfect" Mirror finish.

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