Here's a photo of my bone-stock, ultra mint/low-mileage '58 Coupe parked next to an incredibly well restored '58 Coupe painted in another rare paint combination. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

This is the condition of the '60 sunroof when I bought it. Check out the rusty rockers and the rotted away lower rear quarter panels. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

Mike Smith pulled the engine (we sold it, the auto transmission and the factory a/c set up to a restored who became very hostile when he learned I was going to customize the very rare '60 sunroof!), and George Layton started to weld up the many superfluous engine compartment holes. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

Check out the same engine compartment panel has improved. Note the hole in the sheetmetal for the installation of a '58 shock absorber (the '59 and '60 shocks come up through the coil spring) – I'm going to run two front shocks per side. This going to be a '58 phantom sunroof, eh? Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

George nipped away the rust rear quarterpanels, stripped the paint from the substitute factory sheetmetal, and mailed it into place. Note that the rocker panel has not yet been snipped away to be replaced with more original/rust-free factory sheetmetal. Note that the holes for the rear fender chevrons have been welded up at this point. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

Of course, some bondo was used. George's work is so excellent, however, that only a thin skiff of bondo was used. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

George is seen here using an air-activated line board sander to smooth the bondo on the lower rear quarter panel. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

A bit more bondo was used to take out the very small ripples on the rear quarter panels (both sides – identical work was underway on the other side). Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

The potmetal on the rear quarter panels was duplicated by George in fresh sheetmetal. The complex-shaped pot metal at the end of each quarter panel was duplicated by a series of small, individually-shaped sheet metal pieces. George analyzed the shapes and made up all of these parts. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson.

George laboriously assembled the sheetmetal to duplicate the factory pot metal and welded all of the separate parts to the rear quarter panel. Superb work! Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

Similarly, George had to duplicate the potmetal shape for the piece that original bolted to the body and transitioned the trunk shape into the taillight pods. This is the factory part. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

On the factory car, here's where that potmetal part shown in photo #11 was placed – it was bolted to the body. You can see that when the trunk was closed, there was a side-to-side line aft of the trunk and that was visually messy. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

Here's a shot of the custom-made sheetmetal trim pieces welded to the trunk which was now stripped of paint. When the trunk closes, you could only see the "line" by getting down low and looking up from the tailight pod. The line will be hidden! Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

George welded up the original potmetal mounting holes above the taillight pods. The rear quater panel has been treated to a few coats of primer. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

Check out how great the customized rear quarter panels look after lots of restoration and custom body work! Squarebird styling is really cool, and needs only some careful clean up work to maximize the aesthetic design!  Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

The very sharp front hood opening is really clumsy. I asked George to round the front hood corners and modify the body to match. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

George simply trimmed the hood corners and then welded up the factory pinch weld.

  Photo by Mark S. Gustavson 

The factory headlights were awful and very clumsy. I picked up two sets of very rare/imported Marchal headlight assemblies and decided to use them. The sides of the front fenders didn't match the radius of the Marchal chrome surrounds, so I told George to split the front fender a bit (top and bottom, and just under the character line), and pull that sheet metal inward a bit. Note the paint-stripped hood with the potmetal scoop trim piece still in place.  Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

The Marchal units look like they were just made for the Squarebird. The front 'Bird emblem was also removed.  Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

The rear quarterpanels were primed, block sanded, treated to more primer, guide-coated, and sanded again. Those quarter panels are perfect, with just the right radius curves. Check out the paint-stripped doors at this stage. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

In this view, the front fenders and doors have been paint stripped, and prime coated. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

Here's a shot of George with my custom '60 Sunroof, just after it was prime coated and almost ready for delivery to me. Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

The car was then delivered to Mike Smith's shop. Mike removed the dash assembly in preparation for mocking up a four-speed set up.  Photo by Mark S. Gustavson

Two of my best friends and helping me work on the car. On the left is Mike Smith, the best restoration/custom mechanic ever. Mike is handling all of the electrical and mechanical systems on the car – he's very careful and no stranger to fabrication! On the right is George Layton who has done some of the most incredible paint jobs and custom body work ever though he's virtually unknown outside of Utah. George is also a superb scale auto modeler and won the prestigious GSL Championship! George will be painting my custom Thunderbird.

When I purchased the Thunderbird tri-power set up about 20 years ago, it came with the top of the famed tri-power air cleaner. Those old Ford parts were cast in marginal aluminum alloy, and they were porous and looked awful. The tolerances on the top for the "Bird" were crude and best, and there was no way to positively "locate" the oval air cleaner. Through Mike Smith, I hired incredible prototype machinist Cedric Ozminski ("Ozzie" to his friends) to machine the top and bottom of the air cleaner to my specifications. Billet aluminum chunks were used so that there wouldn't be any porosity, and so that the parts could be buffed! Check out the raised inner part of this bottom plate around which the NOS air cleaner will be placed, thereby locating the air cleaner element.

With the air cleaner bottom placed on the Holley two-barrel carbs, check out how the close tolerances of the inner radius of the air cleaner element fits the outer radius of the locating surface! Wow!

Here's the underside of the top of the air cleaner assembly. There's a corresponding raised "panel" that will locate the upper part of the air cleaner element. I like the machining marks which will be preserved even though the upper part of the assembly will be buffed. Check out Ozzie's incredible work!

The top of the air cleaner is breathtaking! There is less than .015 space around the outside of the NOS 'Bird emblem. The ribs match that of the original air cleaner top with two reveals so that button-head Allen screws (to attach the top part to the carbs) fit flush. You would have to see this work in person to properly appreciate the fantastic machining work! The air cleaner will be polished, the Thunderbird-script valve covers will be chromed, and all other non-cast iron/cast aluminum parts will be chromed. The intake manifold will be lightly media blasted to create a light texture to visually balance the rest of the engine compartment.

I asked Mike to pre-fit all of the mechanical and electrical components (including the wiring harnesses) in the engine compartment before finish bodywork and painting. In that way, all holes are made and problems solved before the beautiful paint is applied. This will greatly help us in creating a very tidy vehicle!

As a nod to the past, I asked Mike to mount four expensive Stewart Warner gauges to the firewall. Holes had to be cut, mounting brackets fabricated and then a wiring harness fabricated. All of this kind of work is done before painting. Because the car and engine compartment will be painted a pearl gunmetal color (with a pearl black roof), I ordered a repo '66 'Bird windshield washer bag. This car will have aftermarket AC, converted electric windshield washer system, and other amenities.

Mike has fitted a rebuilt T-10 four-speed transmission (using a '63 big block bell housing). A spare console has been rough cut to indicate where the shifter will come though the floorboard – a much better unit will be more carefully opened up for a more elegant shifter – the goof-ball NASCAR-style shifter will get the heave-ho!