Part 3, Assembling the Danbury Mint 1962 Thunderbird Sports Roadster

First, a little history…

Ford produced 1,427 Thunderbird Sports Roadsters in the 1962 model year. The Sports Roadster was initially available in 7 different colors, an eighth one was added in early 1962.  Color choices were:

Corinthian White, Rangoon Red, Raven Black, Chestnut, Diamond Blue, Silver Mink, and Sandshell Beige. Castilian Gold was the late addition.

The most popular color combination was Rangoon Red with Black vinyl interior.  Nearly all of the first 465 Sports Roadsters produced were built in this color combination with the exception of four, which all had red interiors.  I couldn’t find a production breakout by color, but the least popular color according to sources on the web was Diamond Blue with only a handful produced.  This color was exclusive in 1962 to the Thunderbird and the Lincoln Continental (as Platinum) and not available on any other Ford Motor Company product.

VintageThunderbirdClub.net did a color survey of their registered cars in 2010 with the following results:

Forty-seven percent of the total production of Sports Roadsters was represented, a substantial amount considering the age of the car!

Just 455 1963 Sports Roadsters were produced.  The total number of Sports Roadsters produced over the two model years was 1,882 making these cars rare and collectible today.

 …and a personal Sports Roadster Story

Flashback to 1963.   I was 8 years old and had been building model cars on my own for a little over a year.  The Sprouse-Reitz Five and Dime store in the local shopping center was having a model car contest and I really wanted to enter.  Part of the requirements of the contest is that you had to buy your model kit at the store and enter it at the time of purchase.  My mom, being the supportive stay-at-home mother that she was, took me (and dragged my two sisters) to the store. Using my allowance that I saved up, I purchased an AMT ‘63 Ford Fairlane kit as my entry.  I wanted to paint it candy apple red over a gold base coat, so we got the spray paint and I was left to my own devices.  Well, things didn’t work out very well with the spray paint and I ended up making a mess out of the Fairlane.   It definitely was not suitable to enter into a model car contest. OK, back to the Five and Dime with Mom.  She agreed to pay the $1.98 for the replacement model kit (I must have begged, cried, or something) and we came out with a  ’63 Ford Thunderbird Sports Roadster kit.  I wasn’t going try spray painting again,  that was too risky, so I decided to paint it the best way I knew how:  with a small model brush. I painted it red with black interior, a rather lumpy paint job if I recall, but I thought it looked great.  Once finished, we took it back to Sprouse-Reitz as my official entry into the contest.  All of the models were displayed in the front window for about a month for all who passed by the store to see.  I loved going by the store and was excited to see my Thunderbird in the window with all of the other models.  Needless to say, I didn’t win, but it was a great experience and one reason why the Sports Roadster is special to me.  This is all that remains of my contest entry 58 years later:

OK, back to the present!  Let’s get this Sports Roadster back together.

Our subject Thunderbird Sports Roadster will be dressed in Color code T, Sandshell Beige, with a combination Light Pearl Beige/Medium Beige/bronze metallic interior.  I initially thought that this exterior color would be boring—certainly not an exciting sports car color.  And while it’s not sporty, it definitely is not boring.  In fact, it looks quite elegant and changes the whole demeanor of the car.

When we left off, the body was stripped of its Corinthian White paint.

Body and panels scuffed with a 3M super fine finishing pad and ready for primer sealer and color coat

I don’t have pics of the primer coat, but below is the body in color coat. Color is PPG water base with a urethane clear coat.

Mocked up assembly

Due to the way the panels are painted their undersides have to be painted once they have fully dried, usually one or two days later.  Here, the undersides are prepped and masked off, ready for color as well as the chassis engine compartment.

In color:

Trunk area masked and painted:

Underside of hood painted

Radiator shroud and support mounted in place

Trunk panel going together

I use Gorilla Super Glue to attach the plastic hinge pieces to the trunk lid and for all trim pieces.  I like it because it’s not a gel and has a small tip.

Next up:  Chassis and interior paint and assembly

The Sports Roadster’s interior floor pan is all plastic, no “funny fur” carpeting, so this makes thing a little easier. The simulated carpeting is textured plastic.

This Bird’s interior will have black floor mats and medium beige carpeting.  The area is first scuffed with a 3M superfine pad to aid in paint adhesion.  Then the floor area is sprayed with flat black lacquer.  Flat black has just the right amount of sheen to it.  Semigloss is too glossy.  I like lacquer because it dries much faster than enamel.

Once dry, the floor mats are masked off with 3M edging tape.  It’s thinner than regular masking tape and cuts easily with and x-acto knife.

Next, the medium beige flat vinyl paint is applied.  I paint the interior cowl portion of the chassis at the same time.  This requires a bit of masking.

Here,  the chassis is partially assembled with the down top in place.

Next, the seats, head rests, door panels, quarter panels, console, dash, and sun visors are ready for paint after scuffing and cleaning. I tape these parts to paint sticks so I can hold them and get good paint coverage. If you tried painting them on a flat surface without tape the air pressure from the paint gun blows them all over the place.  Not good! Water base vinyl paint will also be used on these parts.   The color that I had mixed was too dark so I mixed in some white get the proper tone to match light pearl beige.

All painted.  The cushion side of the front seat backs and console lid are painted after the backs dry since I’m unable to paint both sides at the same time.

I mentioned earlier that the interior would have metallic bronze accents.  This color will be on the tops of the door panels, quarter panels, back seat and dash.  Masked and painted:

The unmasking:

Doors, quarter panels, and dash assembled:

Seat cushion frames and seat backs installed in interior floor pan

Finished interior

…and installed in chassis.  Rear seat back will be installed during final assembly.  Steering shaft and pinion are installed in the steering rack.  Engine compartment accessories installed.  Engine assembly will slip in and be screwed in from below.  You can see the engine mounting holes between the shock towers.

Convertible top painted with white vinyl paint.  I tinted the white with a hint of beige so the top will blend better with the car body, rather than having a stark white top.

Assembled top:

Once the chassis is assembled, it’s just a matter of assembling the windshield, hood, trunk, and doors in the reverse of order of how they were removed.  Reattach the interior quarter panel pieces.  Open the doors.  **Very important:  The doors must be open before attaching the chassis or the dash may be damaged**.Place the front bumper in position and mate the finished chassis to the body using the six screws removed earlier. From the underside, two in front that hold the front bumper in place and two in the rear where the mufflers are.  Reattach the mufflers. Turning the SR over, the upper body is secured with the two small screws behind the rear seatback.    Trunk panel is attached next with the two screws at the rear of the car.  Attach the rear bumper with the screw behind the license plate.  Glue in the rear seat back.

A little refresher on attaching points:

I didn’t take pictures of the trim going on the body, but it’s fairly straight forward.  I use the Gorilla Super Glue on a toothpick to apply on the body, and using tweezers or my hands, affix the trim in place.  It’s helpful to use masking tape around the trim areas before applying the glue to prevent it from getting on the adjacent paint.

The last thing:  Attaching emblem decals

I make my own decals using images I find on the internet.  I save them as jpegs, reduce them to the proper size, and print them on clear waterslide decal paper.  My printer doesn’t have the ability to print white or silver, so “chrome” prints as black or gray, depending on the image.

And that’s all there is to it!

Finished product below: