Thunderbirds were modern cars for their time. recirculating ball steering is still being used by Mercedes in some of their cars. This will result in a permanent flat spot in the steering of the car. You risk crushing the recirculating ball tubes in the steering box if you tighten the nut on the steering box without following the directions. You must do this adjustment using the procedure in the shop manual using a inch-pound torque wrench. The steering box gear develops some play over the miles, but this can be tightened up with an adjustment. Make sure the suspension pieces such as the ball joints, tie rod ends and idler arm are not worn. Coker sells brand new rims that fit, if yours are not roadworthy. Make sure that the rims are in good shape since the radial put more stress on them. This is equivalent to the 8.00-14 and G78-14 size. I am running Coker Classic P215/75R14 wide white wall radials. If you run the car with radial tires, you will not have this problem. You may find yourself holding onto the steering wheel for dear life if you hit a groove in the road. The roads are no longer cut for bias ply tires. Most of the improvement in the handling of cars in the last 50 years is due to the improvement in tire technology. There are kits available to convert the front brake to disk brakes, but for normal driving the stock brakes are fine. You will learn not to tailgate with the car. If you know their limitations, you will be fine. The brakes on the car are weak point of the car. Vapor lock can happen in traffic on a really hot day. The gasoline in the past few years is formulated for fuel-injected cars. You will not be able to run the A/C on a hot summer day in traffic. The car tends to run hot, though I have never overheated. The other parts of the A/C system are not so easy to get but Classic Auto Air in Florida can get all the parts if you need them. The York compressor for the A/C was used on new cars until the 1980's so replacements are easy to get. Most of the mechanical parts are readily available either new, reproduction or rebuilt. Two years ago I did a 1500-mile round trip to Detroit, with no problems. I used it mostly on long trips in upstate New York. My '59 thunderbird was my daily driver in the 1980's. The 1958-60 thunderbirds are overall above average in reliability. It is the most refined of the 1958-60 Thunderbirds. The 1960 Thunderbird was always a good car. RE: 1960 Thunderbird a Good Daily Driver? PS I'll be bringing a mechanic with me when it comes back from the shop. I'm thinking that the trade off for possible malfunctions is that the insurance/repairs are going to be cheap.I've had many people tell me that it's too much maintenance but the car is calling my name!Īll of you lucky owners out there plz give me your two bits! I realise that fuel efficiency is out the door, but are these cars easy to work on and get parts for? There's is nothing out there that comes close to the beauty of this car, at least in my price range. Were they? I plan to use this car as my daily driver. All of the problems I found, he said were minor. He said that he would fix all of these problems and include it in the price because he had to fix them anyway. He had already told me about the exhaust leak in the manifold and that it needed a new compressor. As it's been awhile since I drove an older car, the brakes seemed like I had to really press down to stop, steering a little loose, window got stuck while trying to roll up, heater got stuck on and I noticed a coolant leak. This dream car has had two owners in between. This elderly couple restored the car as their retirement project. The dealer knows the history of the car and says the engine only had 5000 miles put on it in the past 5 years. I fell in love with the 1960 black hardtop w black/white vinyl interior, power windows, AC/Heat, all mirrors, power steering/brakes, and odometer reads 2543. I'm in the market for a "new" car and went to a classic car place to look around. I'm so glad I found your site! This is going to be a little longish.
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