If you saw the car without seeing the comparison (or you really know your T-Birds), this would look factory. This drawing shows the difference between a stock ’57 and the same car with the Fairlane rear quarter panels. Removing the red paint revealed very little rust but a lot of damage ‘repair,’ especially in the floors and rear quarter panels. Cool Hand scraped it all off, replaced the floor pans and crossmembers with reproduction parts, and made patches for the transmission tunnel and other places that had minor rust-through. Body The floors were ‘repaired’ with a ton of fiberglass and heat control mat. The wheels are painted to match the tan canvas top and are fitted with dog dish-style hubcaps. The Thunderbird rides on 205/55/17 Diamondback whitewalls mounted on custom-built 17 x 7 US Wheel smoothies. The rear suspension is a four-link with QA1 Pro coilovers and Classic Performance discs. It came with a Mustang II-style front suspension that Cool Hand upgraded with a QA1 Pro Coilover conversion and Classic Performance discs brakes. The frame is a steel reproduction made by Regal Roadsters, a company that builds fiberglass Thunderbird replicas and components that is virtually down the street from the Cool Hand shop. Classic Performance disc brakes sit on all four corners. Out back is a Ford 9 inch rear axle suspended by a four-link with QA1 coilovers. The front suspension is Mustang II style with QA1 coilovers. Chassis Here’s the T-Bird in bare metal, sitting on its new Regal Roadsters reproduction frame. It sends power back to a Ford 9 inch rear axle with 3.73 gears and an Eaton Detroit TruTrac differential. An AOD four-speed automatic transmission with a 2,500 to 2,800 RPM stall torque converter sits behind the small block. It’s fitted with an All-American Billet serpentine accessory drive system and a Holley Sniper 2 EFI system. It was replaced with a small block Ford crate engine rated at 365 horsepower and 370 lbs.-ft. The T-Bird arrived at Cool Hand Customs with its original 312 cubic inch Y-block and Ford-O-Matic automatic transmission. of torque and is backed by a Ford AOD four-speed automatic transmission with a stall converter. The engine is rated at 365 horsepower and 370 lbs.-ft. You’ll be impressed with the work that went into this car! Drivetrain The Thunderbird’s factory 312 cubic inch Y-block engine was given the heave-ho for a small block Ford crate engine with Holley Sniper 2 electronic fuel injection. You can see tons of Baby Bullet build photos on Cool Hand Customs’ Facebook page and project videos on their YouTube Channel. My son Colt does the same thing, so it’s now a family tradition and great way to honor my father’s memory.” His real name was Jim, but that was so common and our last name too difficult to pronounce that he just used Sam when he made reservations at a restaurant or other places. “Baby Bullet is from the combination of styles from the two generations of Thunderbirds,” Joe explained. Joe named the Thunderbird “Sam the Baby Bullet.” Yes, there’s a story behind it. Stripping the red paint revealed a mostly rust-free body, but one with a lot of previous damage repair. Joe Tegtmeier’s 1957 Thunderbird looked nice when it arrived at Cool Hand Customs. As you’ll see, they fulfilled Joe’s vision and then some. Having assembled cars like a 1978 Pinto Cruising Wagon with a drivetrain from a late-model V6 Mustang to a 1960 Simca Châtelaine mated to a shortened 2007 Cadillac STS chassis, EJ and Amy Fitzgerald are no strangers to custom fabrication. Then, Joe got Cool Hand Customs in Middleton, Wisconsin to build it. He found the ’57 in Florida (“A pig with lipstick-looked nice but lots of mystery under that paint!” Joe said). To make this vision a reality, Joe needed two things: a car and someone to build it. “We also wanted modern suspension, four-wheel disc brakes, fuel injection, and other modern upgrades, something we could just jump into and go.” “We wanted to build something that combined the flowing exterior lines of the original 1950s ‘Baby Birds’ and sweeping interior of the 1961-63 ‘Bullet Birds’,” Joe explained. He, his wife Janet, and son Colt settled on a 1957 Ford Thunderbird-with a twist. Joe wanted to have a classic American ride that looked and felt vintage but rode and drove like a new car. It was a classic father-son bonding.įast-forward to 2023. The pair also built Joe’s first car, a 1971 VW. For Joe Tegtmeier, being a car guy involved going to hot rod shows with his father, Jim, and washing the family cars every weekend when weather allowed.
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