1957 Ford Thunderbird
1986-1990
These are actually the "before" shots, taken around the time I got the car in November 1986. Yeah, it looked cool, but it needed work.
By the summer of '86, I pretty much had my Bronco where I wanted it. I never really got over the disappointment of not getting that old '65 Mustang, and I started to re-introduce the idea to my dad in the hopes of getting a project car that I could do a ground-up restoration on. He began to warm up to the idea, but told me I ought to think about a 1957 T-Bird instead of an old Mustang. Well, I wasn't that familiar with the old Birds, but one look at those cars will change anybody's mind. I immediately embarked on a nationwide search for a candidate. I located Amos Minter, of Dallas, TX, who restores old birds and has several for sale. Dad and I drove to Texas in the hopes of bringing one back, but we couldn't find the right one.

I managed to find one across town in Clinton, MS, and after visiting with the owner, we left him a deposit on the car, and would come back a month later to pay the grand total of $11,000 for what appeared to be a decent car. I'll never forget the night I drove it home...the first song that came on the radio was Bruce Hornsby's "That's Just the Way it Is." I drove the car around for a month or so, and then parked it in our shop for a very long and educational restoration.

Somehow, taking a car apart is alot easier than putting it back together. I think I had completely disassembled the car in a 2-week period. removing the paint, however, revealed that much of the body was plastic filler, leaving a tell-tale pink cloud of dust at the touch of the DA sander. Much to my chagrin, the inner and outer rocker panels, front and rear quarter panels, and rear fender doglegs were rusted away and would have to be replaced. After a trial and error process of patching and welding, I trailered the body and frame to Ozene Cumberland's bodyshop in Brandon, for a new cloak of Raven Black paint.
Now we're talking...it was downhill from here. Everytime another restored part was bolted back in place, I was a little closer to hitting the road again. Man, the re¢eipt$ sure did start to add up...new interior, new soft top, white wall$, everything re-¢hromed...wire harne$$e$...you get the idea.

Once it was all together though, there wasn't anything finer on the road. Absolutely the most gorgeous car to roll across the surface of the earth. The restoration finally came together in the fall of 1988, when I sat out of school for a semester to earn a few bucks. A switch of educational venues from Millsaps College in Jackson to Mississippi State University found me packing up and rolling the whole fleet to Starkville, inhabiting the only mobile home in the Pines Trailer Park (now a "Manufactured Housing Community") with a 2-car garage.

Things were fine until I ran out of money my Junior year, and was faced with the dilemma of working and quitting school, or sell my toys and get a piece of paper that said I knew something in exchange. I opted for the paper, but still have more than a tinge of regret that this one got away. I sold it for $20,000 in January 1990 to some guy from Memphis, TN.

Highs:

1) Are you kidding? Just look at it-
2)The ultimate babe magnet
3) Music that takes me back: Bruce Hornsby, The Georgia Satellites, Stevie Ray Vaughn, George Thorogood.

Lows:

1)Looking at it and not being able to drive it during restoration
2) Driving it after I got it back from the paint shop, with no interior, sitting on a milk crate, and going through the drive-though of Ward's Hamburgers in Pelahatchie only to have brake fluid spew all over everything, then slamming the hood on the wire harness, causing a major electrical fire. Yeah, that sucked.
3) Selling it.
Summer 1988, sister Molly at the wheel
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