The belt line kicked up "coke-bottle" style after the rear windows, again a styling trait that would prove ubiquitous. The sides were the barrel-like "fuselage" style that was very popular during this period. The look was clearly influenced by the air intakes on jet fighters such as the F-100 Super Sabre, and was enhanced by the flush-fitting front bumper incorporating the bottom "lip" of the "mouth". A gaping wide "fishmouth" front grille that incorporated hidden headlights was the most obvious new feature. Ford's stylists delivered a radical shape that in many ways anticipated the styling trends of the next five years. The 1967 design was radically different from what came before. The 4-door Thunderbirds featured quite narrow rear 'suicide' doors. New for 1969, the Continental Mark III coupe was built on the same four-door chassis. It remained in the lineup through 1971 but never generated substantial sales. The convertible, increasingly a slow seller, was dropped in favor of a four-door model that was 2.5 in (6.3 cm) stretched, featuring suicide doors, a signature feature of the Lincoln Continental four-door sedans of that era. The listed retail price of the two-door Landau coupe was US$4,704 ($41,284 in 2022 dollars ). An overhead console (that first appeared on the previous years Town Landau) containing illuminated indicators for emergency flasher use, low-fuel warning, door-ajar and seat-belt reminder light returned in a revised format. Ford decided to abandon the Thunderbird's typical unibody construction for this larger car, turning to a body-on-frame method with sophisticated rubber mountings between the two to improve noise/vibration characteristics and reduce weight by a small margin. History 1968 Ford Thunderbird interiorįor 1967 the Thunderbird would be a larger car, moving it closer to Lincoln as the company chose to emphasize the " luxury" part of the "personal luxury car" designation. They would share commonality again later from 1984–1998. In fact, for 1969 the Continental Mark III was launched as a two-door only personal luxury coupé, that was based directly on the four-door, 117 in (2.97 m) wheelbase Thunderbird chassis, and from that point until the end of 1976, Ford Thunderbirds and Continental Marks were related cars. The debut of the Ford Mustang in early 1964, and subsequent introduction of the larger, more upmarket Mercury Cougar, to compete with the similarly larger Dodge Charger – Chrysler's more upscale answer to Ford and G.M.'s pony cars – began to erode the Thunderbird sales and drove it to still get larger, with Ford even introducing four-door Thunderbird Landaus. The Thunderbird had fundamentally remained the same in concept through 1966, although the design had been revised twice. This fifth generation saw the second major change of direction for the Thunderbird. Ī pair of 2 1/2" inlet and 2 1/2" oval mufflers will do wonders without making the exhaust sound cheap, you know like the little bumble bee imports running around today.The fifth generation Ford Thunderbird is a large personal luxury car series, produced by Ford for the 1967–1971 model years. That's $50 difference in price that you wont notice on this application. ![]() You will probably not notice any difference between a cheaper stock timing chain and gear set and an expensive double roller set up. I'll bet the stock timing chain and gears are well worn too. Could save a lot of head aches in the future, especially since you will be doing some hot rodding, he he. The cam swap is some work but you will replace all of those old gaskets in the cooling system while your there. ![]() Ī mild cam, 3 angle valve job, and free flowing exhaust will be your best bang for the buck. The 4100's have a crisp response and atomize fuel better than your average Holley or Edelbrock. Īn aluminum intake is nice and the shoebox 4100 autolite carb is probably the most efficient 4v ever made. A 68 429 has a respectable 360 Hp & 480 lb torque with 10 1/2 : 1 compression.
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