My 1963 T-Bird did not have the trunk weather seal installed but did have a brand new kit that was purchased by the previous owner.

I asked my buddy to come and help me install the trim. He’s done complete renovations on various types of cars and vans. It turned out I was a helper as he wanted to do the work himself.

I probably could have waited until later when the rainy weather returned but when I installed the higher power amplifier it also introduced a rattle when the bass line hit hard. I won’t be able to test and hear if the weather seal helped dampen the noise until the 3M sealant has completely cured a couple days from now. In any case the trunk is ready for wet weather.

In my quest for a cooler engine I checked out the timing of the car and it turns out my damn harmonic dampener timing marks have shifted throughout the years. You can adjust timing by ear and listen to the engines performance but you can’t use a timing light because the marks are about 180 degrees out of view!

One lesson learned is I should have changed out the dampener when I had the radiator out as there is not enough room to remove it now and install a new one. The timing is done by ear and the carb has been adjusted for idle.

I’ve must have changed out the thermostat at least a half dozen times trying different configurations of 160, 180 and 195 temperature T-Stats. The last configuration and the current one installed is a 160F thermostat with three 1/8″ holes drilled into the flange to allow air to pass through (burping the system of air).

During the last change out one of the threads in the intake manifold gave out. I had to drill an oversize hole and add a Helicoil inside. This also made it more robust. I also changed out the bolts with new ones I got from NAPA Auto Stores.

I’ve been riding around listening to my tunes through a very small rear speaker setup. The original set was a pair of J4″ JVC’s that looked as if they were tossed in to cover a hole. Even though they were functioning both were mounted very loosely.

I decided to replace both of them with something a little larger and more aesthetically pleasing but still matched that era of sound systems. After a visit to the local car stereo shop I found a set of ARC Audio 5.25″ that sounded good but also had the perfect brushed metal vibe going for it. Both the speaker grill and base plate matched the interiors theme.

Next I added an Alpine 12″ R Series subwoofer and an Alpine 500W amp.

It doesn’t always work out as planned. It turned out the Alpine amp had a bad remote sense wire connection. I had to open the case up and do a modification.

I got most of the engine bay and front driver/passenger wiring cleaned up. The next step was to clean up the rear seat and feed the 4AWG power cables and RCA audio cables for the amplifiers.

I began tracing the various harnesses and wiring inside the panels, under the seats and in the engine bay. The goal was to remove any non-stock or functional wires. This is a tedious and careful task as you can really mess up something that was once working.

I’m going to trace back the origin of the small red button under my rightside dashboard. I forgotten about it until I read about some guys tying there electronic choke to a manual button setup. I can’t figure out any other reason why a button would be placed there and for what purpose. 

The audio setup that came with Josie seemed to be a throw in in place of a system. There are bits and pieces of sound system that was much higher in quality. I’ve found a short piece of 4 AWG cable in the trunk that presumably went to the battery. There are also sounds deadening pads lined in the trunk to probably get rid of bass/metal vibration. A set of 4″ JVC speakers were put in the back and barely fit. I can see the hole was cut out for either a 6×9 or a 5.25 hardware. Another sign of downgrading.

The first step was to identify the hardware I already have. That starts off with the Stereo deck made my Custom Auto Sounds. This deck is designed to look like an older era radio down to the knobs and push button presets. It has modern features we take for granted nowadays such as search, memory and AUX input. One good point is the deck has pre-amplifier outputs, two sets. I can drive two separate amplifiers one for the sub-woofer and the other for the rest of the speakers. Here’s the online manual location here.

So far I’ve pulled the deck out and cleaned up some of the wiring I’ve identified as not being used. This will help out identifying all the wires. This car is over 50 years old and different times wiring was added for some purpose. You can’t just yank out wires you may end up breaking a connection to some car function like wipers, courtesy lights, power windows etc.

A few weeks ago I had this ingenious idea of removing the stock mufflers and throwing a couple of turn down tips in its place. That was a freakin’ mistake as the tone was so loud it took the fun away from cruising around.

I went to a local performance muffler shop here in Stockton to have a pair of Flowmaster Series 50 installed. It still has some rumble to it but doesn’t sound like a complete muscle car.

What are the odd of going to a muffler shop and the car next to you is a 1963 Thunderbird getting worked done. Well this happened to me yesterday. The 63′ red had a lot of work done on the underside. It had a complete air ride system.

After inspection of the lower side it turned out Josie had glasspack’s up front. The owner of the shop recommended keeping them in and installing the 50 series Flowmasters to give it a classic sound.

The difference is night and day. I would cringe before when taking off since you could here every bit of the motor working taking off. This included the mechanical sounds that were not pleasing to hear.

I can now hear the music playing inside the car without exhaust system drowning it out. It’s a keeper.

So I finally looked up what this button did in my 1963 Ford Thunderbird user manual. It turns out the white button was placed in the parking brake bulb location. I had purchased the electronics needed to make a button operational from the brake light location. The intent was to have a button that would manually turn on the electric fans pulling air through the radiator. After some consideration I decided I don’t want to take the risk of the fans not being on during higher temperatures and just have it on all the time.