1976 Ford Thunderbird Bicentennial Edition Survivor
Recently, another Ford bicentennial vehicle had come up for sale. If you missed that one, you now have the opportunity for another one with this 1976 Ford Thunderbird Bicentennial edition. It is currently up for sale for a respectable $5,000 and is located in Hebron, Illinois. The seller has included a VIN in the listing, along with 89,000 miles, and a clean title. Thank you, Roger, for the tip. You can view more here on Craigslist.
Under the hood is an 8 cylinder engine connected to an automatic transmission. The seller has recently replaced a few items because the car has been sitting in a garage for the last several years. A new battery, oil filter, and spark plugs have been installed. While the engine is not seized, it will not start and the seller is not confident in mechanicals to know how or why. They also note that there is very little rust on the car.
This car has a very plush, white interior that does appear to either be slightly faded or dirty. If it has indeed sat for a number of years, it is more than likely dirty. It was purchased by the sellers parents in 1988 and they had only put 15,000 miles on it. The carpets appear to be clean. There is an 8-track player in the center console and the seller has a photo of tapes for it. It also has a CB radio. This would be a good cannonball car.
They do note that only 3 of the 4 tires are in drivable condition but that the spare tire is in place. You should prepare for new tires once you can get the car running. Hopefully it shouldn’t take much to do that. This car is in incredible condition and would be a great candidate for any rally or classic race. Thankfully it was garage kept and looks to be safe from the harsh northern winters. Hopefully this car can move to a warmer climate for the winter.
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Comments
The vin shows it’s an A code so it’s a 460…could be a good deal if the engine needs little and the rust isn’t too bad…
The 460 was the only engine available in these that year. With 202 HP to move 5,000 pounds, acceleration is leisurely.
I never really liked these when they were new but they’ve grown on me. Not far from me up here in Calgary there’s a guy that has 6 T Birds in front of his house. All his cars are in the 75 to 77 range. All of his cars look pretty free of rust too. Funny thing with this guy is there is a Pontiac firebird parked with the thunder birds. All seven cars have sat there for years, I guess the guy likes birds.
Happy Thanksgiving fellow Canadian 🇨🇦.
Happy thanks giving to you too Pat.
My Dad bought one of these brand new back in 1976. I still remember washing it with him every weekend. Not to nit pick, but this car does not have a centre console. The 8-track player is in the dashboard.
Don’t know if it was one of these special editions but I remember a white ’76 sitting in the Ford showroom near me well into 1977 after the new downsized and considerably cheaper Torino-based Thunderbird came out. I bet they had to really discount it to get rid of it.
In my opinion Ford had destroyed the look of the Thunderbird with this model forward. They were so beautiful through 63….
For 89K miles and an Illinois car, it looks fairly nice. Seller would do much better having the car in running condition. There are mobile mechanics these days that might not charge an arm and leg to get her running again.
Loved my 74 Bird with the white leather interior.
Seats look great in it. BTW what’s the expression ‘cannonball car’
mean?
Cannonball is a race across the states. All kinds of cars trucks and what evers are included. There’s several movies out about the ‘Cannonball Car races’. Look them up, some are good and some are abit cheesy.
Hmmm.. So that’s what that movie “Cannonball Run” was based on!
Give me a 66 any day. These are heavy and not all that comfortable. A friend has a 73, same car. I rode in it once. Could not wait to get out if it. No leg room. Dash crowds you.
I grew up with a car like this, but with the blood red interior. My grandfather’s car. Drove and rode like a boat. Huge, heavy doors. The 460 would lumber up to speed and cruise like an ocean liner on I-75 to Florida each year. I think I only threw up once when attempting to ride in the back.
For the record, or maybe 8-track in this case, I hate electric cars. Especially electrified sports cars, I don’t care if they do 0-60 in two seconds; no manual trans, no raspy exhaust note, and no oily parts to fiddle with equals no sale.
With that being said, if I were going to electrify a car, this would be it. These cars were meant to isolate you from the mechanical bits of the vehicle, give you near-silent cruising, and be all about the torque. All things electric cars can do well.
So a 1970’s float boat would make an electrified classic without the guilt. Plus you could say goodbye to 8 MPG and have ample room for the motors and batteries. I could see this with a Tesla drive line.
460s have a great leaning towards the timing cover corroding quite badly. If I were to purchase this car. I would plan on trailering it home and just plan on tearing it apart to get to the front end of the engine. When/if you do ever get an older 460, (They run almost forever) you then have a couple of decisions to make. 1. Go ahead and replace the timing gear set ( and timing cover) with a gear set from a 1972 429. Or a high performance gear set with an adjustable cam gear. The reason you say? Because this mid ’70s 460 has a 1972 429 camshaft. However the cam gear is retarded 8 degrees for emissions reasons. It wakes the old girl up a little and also improves the fuel economy a little. OR the other thing to do would be to install a truck RV cam at the same time. (R&R intake time) It will slap the girl wake and still improve the fuel economy. (Just don’t use the original cam gear!) A stock 460 profile camshaft is about as lame as having a 302 2bbl. camshaft profile in a 460. If you are going to have a big V8 it might as well perform like one. The vacuum pulse (because of the wimpy camshaft profile) is just a joke. Huge ports and valves and a wimpy camshaft make for ok throttle response and nothing after that, even remotely happens. Don’t forget about the power valve in the carb. It will be toast by now destroying any hope of fuel economy. (Cheap fix for about $8 and 30 minutes of time.) Now if you going to do this, then also consider a throttle body injection system. Now you will get the most possible fuel economy possible and have a very nice driving car. So for a total of $10,000 (not counting transportation) You could have a very nice highway cruiser that will last almost forever. (I would still tighten up the suspension with some beefy shocks and wider wheels to put those wheel covers on to keep the sidewall flex to a minimum.)
I like my cars like my women, big and easy to get into. I’m here all week, try the veal.
It does look like a nice car, I’m fairly certain it’s not any Bicentennial Edition. I’m not convinced Ford did a Bicentennial Edition T-Bird and I don’t see any red or blue to go with all the white, other than a license plate. It just looks like a nice triple White 76 Thunderbird to me.
Probably a dirty fuel line from sitting so long.
No provenance paper work to prove Bi-Cent claims ?
As far as owner claiming someone could make big money on this, that is a good joke.
Probably go for lots less than asking price. Sounds like he just wants to dump it.
I had one, same year, about the same condition (I accidentally damaged my rear bumper, but not terrible), burgundy in & out with cloth instead of leather, and a power moonroof. Mine had lower miles, verified with paperwork. Mine ran & drove very well. I ended up selling it for $2600 to a friend after trying for 2-3 months to sell it on Craig’s List, including advertising it in Chicago. This might be a nice car, but their asking price is insane. They need to get her running, then plan on selling it for a lot less. Sentimental value means nothing to a buyer.