Sandy's 63 Jetfire 4 spd manual

[tbirdz12]

Haha thats why im not touching mine.. its only original once.. Yours looks great and I especially love that Red Interior.. Its stunning!!

graytoad wrote:

Over the winter I received my Turbo back from ‘our favorite Turbo Guru’ – Jim Noel of Bloomington Minnesota – who did a complete rebuild on the unit – looks brand new! We also delivered the engine block to Mark at D&D Aluminum V8 in Michigan before heading to Florida. Mechanically this car will be fully restored – Done once and done right! The rest of the car will be given all the love an attention it has been missing for over 30 years and we will bring the best out of ‘what we have’! Over the years we have been more into restoring our cars to somewhere between ‘top driver quality to show quality’. Wanting the mechanicals dependable and trouble free means restoring those systems for the most part. Having the turbo and engine rebuilt and looking fabulous leads to – ‘we may as well restore it all under the hood’. This car was an unmolested rust free original: where do you stop while wanting to keep it as such? I am sure there will lots of opinions about this but I guess for me the answer is: It is my car and I need to enjoy it as I see fit!
AS OF TODAY, July 22, 2020: the US/Canadian border is still closed to everyone but essential services so Mark at D&D is still babysitting my engine and we are tinkering away on all the other thing that need doing!

[tbirdz12]

Did you find a hand written build sheet in your car? I found one stuck in the springs of the backseat upright portion.. listed model and options.. some couldn’t be deciphered…. just curious..

[graytoad]

tbirdz12, – I included a photo of the red paint residue in my rear fender turbines. They were full of wax residue etc so I soaked them in warm water then went at them with a nail brush and when I had them real clean that is when I found the red. There are a couple other 63 owners with original unrestored cars who confirmed theirs have red too. However Ken D has some NOS turbines that do not have it. Like so many things with these cars there often are two answers. (like firewalls: some are black and some are ‘exterior color’ and now one seems to know why. My car was built the 3rd week of January ’63 in the Southgate California plant with a white firewall but another car that was built the same week has a black firewall – not body color. How about yours: when & where was it built and your firewall? . . . . and I am curious – what color is your interior?

As for my build sheet: no I did not find it but now you have peaked my curiosity! The seats are still out: I am going to do more looking…..

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[graytoad]

TRF bottle lid: Does anyone else here have an original ‘under the hood’ TRF back up bottle with the lid? I have my original with no intention to ‘restore it’ but am pursuing making stencils for anyone else who wants to replicate their own. If you look at these closely it looks like the one we did has slightly bigger print but it in fact it is not. I think it just appears bigger as it is not ‘shop worn’. (its done on a wine bottle cap) However, I can not decide what color the original print is. I am starting to think it is silver not white. The test one my daughter used antique white as that is all she had at her house and she pulled the stencil a bit too soon I guess as there are little marks etc. She said it VERY difficult to work with – the centers of the R’s and B impossible to deal as they are super tiny, the O’s and D was bad enough…. Through trial and error we realize that a stencil is not the best answer but it is the only one I have and it is easily mailed. Unfortunately those letter centers are too tiny so what I did was stencil (as shown) without the centers and after dry I used a toothpick and touched appropriately sized black dots in those letters. Anyway, let me know your thoughts and if any one is interested in a stencil. These are ‘ALPHA’ test, but we will finish them if anyone interested.

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[jensenracing77]

Very nice! This is something I will have to do. I had one original cap but it was rusted really bad and not really saveable. I ended up letting it go with my last 63 I sold because it was original to that car and the guy asked for it.

[JimNoel]

I have one bottle cap with the original lettering, somewhat rusty too. It is hard to tell the color but it looks like white?
I have had several bottles without the lettering. Wonder if the only ones lettered were original to the cars and the dealer sold extras were just black? I now notice that the lettering is off center to the right…slightly.

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[graytoad]

I thought the color was white too Jim, but even a light spray of white from a rattle can proved to be ‘too white’ so I tried a light silver and it looks better. As for the replacement caps, I too am guessing that the dealer would only have plain caps as those were the same as the back up windshield washer bottles. . . . and for that matter vinegar came in quart bottles that were identical as well! I would be happy to trade you some cap stencils for some more TRF bottle labels!

[graytoad]

And yes Jim, the printing on mine was ‘off center to the right slightly’ as well!

[oaklyss]

Maybe everyone should show their caps to help you make this stencil.
Here’s mine, I don’t think it’s off center?

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[graytoad]

Thanks Greg, yes – yours looks better centered!

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