4.6 DOHC Restomod Group  Do no longer exist as groups are removed from CarDomain.com   

This project started to many years back. I bought the car in  Sweden, but the car was sold new in Paris France. Car was beyond normal limits for starting a restoration, as the car was severly rusted and uncomplete. Anyway, the rust was fixed, and the chassi was more or less completed, then the car was parked in a dark big garage, not so far away. As time went the car was deeper and deeper into that garage, and soon there were some 10 cars, all with flat tires blocking the way out of the garage. You got the picture ?

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Here the project is coming home after years trapped deep into a storage garage.

In 2007 the garage would have to give room for houses, so I were finally able to bring the car home. In the meanwhile 3 kids grow up and 2 even moved out, and the house loan were paid for, so this was the time to realize the dream that now had changed a bit. In 2004 I bought a Cadillac Eldorado with the 32 Valve Northstar engine, and I were so impressed by that engine, and the response and fuel consumption etc. I wanted a real driveable Thunderbird with a 32 valve engine. Since this takes place in Norway, that have more strickt regulations than the US, I had to describe the project, to a group of people that decide if the project is within limits and regulations. After a few months I had the GO, for the Motor /trans and framestub and 4 wheel disk setup.  Since this is a Thunderbird, I wanted to use a Ford engine, and in 2007 I bought the driveline out of a low milage 1997 MarkVIII.  After all I were never sure I could make this particular car 100% original if I went for a regular restoration, but now doing this restomod project, I realy feel I have saved this car, in addition to give me the flexibility I needed to complete this big project. However, I have told myself that the exterior and interior have to be so stock as possible, so the first thing to find out was if the engine would fit under the hood, as I had  not see one done at that time with this engine.

As expected this physically  huge engine did not drop directly in there , as the exhaust manifolds hit the inner upper wheel mounts, and the big tube crossmemebr interfered with pulleys etc. This was actually no shock to me, and I already knew that FatMan produces MustangII style front suspension as a frame stub kit for these cars, so a frame stub were ordered, and installed. With this frame stub in place, the Thunderbird can welcome any engine, at least from the frame point of view.

Here the engine is mounted and the body test mounted for the n'th number of times to check for clearences etc.

The frame is here almost done.

The idea were to complete the wiring so the engine can be started before the dash is put in place, and as You can see It takes a lot of wires to operate a modernized  55 Thunderbird. Here the MarkVIII harness is unvrapped, and adjusted to fit under the dash. A new Instrument Panel power distribution is made, and it is made such that it sits in the end of a harness branch , as I still do not know where it will be mounted. Since it sits in the end of a separate branch, I should be able to find a place to hide it when things come more together. You can read more about the mods to the varios harness'es on the Elecrical harness page. ( see top / bottom of this page) 

The following picture shows the body after the steel cancer was cut away, and tells a bit about  what condition car that was used for this project that might shake the internals of some Thunderbird lowers. You can read more on this on the body page. This picture is from the first phase of the restoration that took place many years back.

Anyone started something that was worse ?

It takes more time and money than most can imagine to come this far when the starting point was bad as  this car, but some magic slowly happens, and things take shape.

If You want to read about the Restomod modifications to this project in quite detail , then check the page index at the top / bottom of this page. The idea with these pages is to give some solutions to those that consider building a similar Thunderbird restomod. It also put some light on what is involved in the conversion, that is just extra work compared to what I would name a stright forward restoration, compared to a restomod restoration like this.

The actual donor car:

  Check out my other rides following this link.