Finishing the Hardtop & Hubcaps

The hardtop on the t-bird is original, but it has an interesting story.  The car didn't come with a soft top, so the hard top was on the car for it's first 18 years or so.  Then, the top was stolen off the car while it was sitting in my parent's back yard.  I walked out the back door on my way to high school, and noticed it was gone.  I spent a half-hour on the phone to the police, and got a ride to school.  I was devastated.  A great many other expensive parts had also gone missing.  I had pulled the engine, and I wasn't too tidy about putting parts in a secure location.  While I still treasured the car, I was beginning to suspect that getting it back together and running might be a lot harder than I had first thought. 

Several months after the top disappeared, the left exhaust manifold was also stolen.  Why only the left one?  Well, I soon found out that the left exhaust manifold is unique for early t-birds, not interchangeable with other Ford cars, and as a result they are pretty expensive.  The thief pilfering parts from my car knew exactly what he was doing!

I was visiting a famous local t-bird restoration & supply shop looking for a replacement exhaust manifold, when I saw a rather suspicious looking hardtop propped against the wall!  How did I know it was mine?  Well,  I had painted it the ugliest shade of bright lime green, and I had been in the process of sanding it, so it was a patchy mess.  Here's a pic of it going to the body shop last year, unchanged from the condition in which it was stolen.  Pretty distinctive, huh?

I left the shop quietly and called the police.  I met them at the shop 20 minutes later, and had no problem proving to them that it was indeed my hardtop.  The shop was in the process of restoring it... they had painted the inside trim black and replaced the headliner.  The shop owner seemed a little irked that he wasn't going to be paid for the work he had done on the top!   I was in no mood to compensate him!  I also confess that I have a little trouble letting go of my resentment toward the shop, which is still in business.  This was the only stolen part I ever recovered, and several months later I had my first experience on the witness stand in a courtroom.  The value of the hardtop was enough to qualify for grand theft auto, and the thief was convicted.  I sometimes wonder what happened to him.  After this whole ordeal, the grille and the seat were stolen off the car.  That's when my spirit was finally broken, and I looked for ways to sell the car.  God was still with me, however, because I ended up selling it to my Uncle Toronado.  I never would have foreseen that 30 years later I would be given another opportunity to restore it!

Now the top has been painted white, but I didn't like the black interior trim. I decided to paint the inside edges the same dark green color as the dash board and the steering wheel.  I didn't photograph the masking process, but it was very routine.  I used the same base/clear paint that I used for the steering wheel.  I think it turned out very well!  The color, even in these small areas, matches well and looks as if it belongs on the car.  I'll take an interior shot once I get the doors done.

I cleaned, installed, and adjusted the latches to fit the hardtop to the car.  I learned a few tricks in the process, but that is another story.  I will say that the car is much quieter and less windy going down the road with the hard top snugly latched in place!

I may have mentioned earlier that I got a very good deal on a set of driver quality "dog dish" hubcaps.  I prefer these to the full wheelcovers that came on the car,  because the smaller hubcaps show off more of the wheel color.  The set I got on eBay are pretty rough, but my son has been keen to repaint the centers and get them on the car.  A car just doesn't look finished without hubcaps.

Stock dog dish or "poverty" hubcaps had red painted centers in 1955.  In 1956, the same hubcaps came with white centers.  Neither of those colors seemed appropriate to me.  I have a lot of body color paint left over, so why not use that?  My son did the hard work of masking the inner and outer sections of the hubcaps, leaving just the ring to be painted.

I mixed a tiny amount of paint with hardener and reducer, and sprayed it with a detail gun.  After a few minutes for the paint to get tacky, my son and I used lacquer thinner and q-tips to wipe the paint off the Ford lettering, revealing the chrome underneath.  We went through a lot of q-tips!

The results look pretty handsome... at least from a distance.  I did say that the hub caps were pretty rough!  Well, the dents and pitted chrome give them character...

 Of course, here are a few victory shots of the car with the hubcaps on.