First published in Street Machine’s Australia’s Toughest Fords #2, 2004

The story behind most street machines follows a very familiar plot: enthusiast buys basket case, enthusiast spends thousands of hours and dollars rebuilding basket case, basket case emerges better than when it rolled off the production line. As we speak, this time-honoured tradition is unfolding in literally thousands of garages around the globe.

And just like a million and one other street machine tales, this ’56 Thunderbird pretty much followed the standard script, except the enthusiast in this case, Chris Dixon, started with a whole lot less than most. This particular ’Bird was rooted with rust from the waistline down, and after Chris had trailered the old girl home to his workshop, a lot of what he’d paid for was piled up on the trailer in the form of rustic brown powder. What was left of the body shell – minus any skerrick of floorpan – was a frail skeleton with tailfins. However, this hardcore basket case had one redeeming feature: it was one of the very few power-optioned, twin four-barrel carbed, 270hp 312ci V8s built in late 1956 – the Thunderbird equivalent to a Phase Ill Falcon.

The conclusion to the usual fixer-upper saga would be where we tell you that Chris simply filled out the order form from Ford’s restoration parts department and bolted the T-Bird back together. But that ain’t what happened here. There’s something about Chris that he’s slow to come clean about: he’s the bloke who scratch-built the last two Batmobiles for Warner Bros.

Give the man a drawing and he’ll build a car. Or better still, give him an idea of what it used to look like and he’ll rebuild it to better than new.

“If I have one forte,” he says, “it’s that I can take a flat piece of steel and shape it.”

That’s obvious, as Chris and his crew of metal crafters remanufactured just about every panel. And not just the exterior panels; we’re talking complex pillar and frame structures as well!

“The Thunderbird styling is great as is, so we didn’t want to botch it up by going radical in the steel,” he says. “What we did was smooth the hiccups.” He sleeked the ’Bird with a frenched number plate, pulled the chrome and door handles, zipped up the vents in the front guards and deleted the continental kit.

There are other tweaks that only a Thunderbird freak would pick, like the tight-fitting bumpers and the floating front grille. Chris made it himself using 27 metres of 30mm aluminium square tubing. But you can’t miss the big billet wheels against the DuPont African Violet paint job.

Loading a set of 17×7-inch Colorado Custom wheels under the guards meant trimming some steel from the front wells to clear the rubber on full lock – a job complicated by a four-inch compression in ride height. She’s as low as she’ll go without booting you with a speed-hump-sized enema at every break in the pavement.

The ’Bird is the 17th car Chris has built at his Wounded Knee Motors workshop (named after he hurt his knee in an accident) in Toledo, Ohio. Build that many cars and experience has a way of sorting out problems before they hit the road.

Chris is a traditional hot rodder who is now getting into post-1948 cars. They’re the guys who are bringing a real ‘drive it’ attitude to the cars they build. Building a car that’s unreliable or can’t be driven across the continent definitely doesn’t park with these guys.

For the sake of driveability, the donk under the T-Bird’s hood can be sourced from any Ford Motorsport parts dealer. This goes for a lot of other parts in the car.

“I like the idea of being able to go into any parts house or Ford dealer and buy anything for the car,” says Chris. “Keep it kerb-side simple, and keep it Ford. Yeah, I thought about dropping a Chev into it. Chevrolet was even willing to get involved, but everyone I spoke to said it had to be a Ford in this Ford.”

Good mate Steve Saleen – the same guy who’s famous for tweaking Mustangs – had a few exchange 302 Windsors sitting on the floor in the workshop. The bonus of having influential friends in high places makes getting choice hardware so easy. Chris pinched the engine, gearbox, rear end and all the electronics from Saleen. The theme here is to upgrade the 48-year-old T-Bird to today’s technology – clean emissions and all. Inside each of the huge billet wheels rides a whopper set of stoppers. Chris adapted GM calipers and rotors to the Ford hubs. He did the same with GM power steering to replace the original Ford servo unit.

Other options include air conditioning courtesy of Vintage Air, two-speed wipers, power windows, 4.11:1 Posi LSD, B&M shifter on the four-speed auto and the 195kW 5.0-litre HO V8. While it might not seem like much power, 195kW pushes the relatively light T-Bird along quite smartly; it’s a cruiser, not a bruiser.

The ’Bird may be new-world drivetrain in an old-world body, but that suits Chris to a T. The grey hair and shades hide his fresh approach to street machining.

DOIN’ THE CONTINENTAL

Early cars had no provision for carrying a spare tyre. If owners were considering travelling any great distance, they would simply lash a spare to wherever they could. Consumer demand forced manufacturers to incorporate a spare in their designs, many of which slotted them into the trailing surface of their long, flowing front fenders or mounted on a rack attached to luggage or dickie seat cover.

As vehicle designs became more integrated, the inside of the boot became the industry standard. However, a few manufacturers continued to offer the exterior rear position as a distinct styling cue, rather than a design necessity.

This rear-mounted arrangement for the spare tyre became universally known as the continental kit. Many cars that were designed to house the spare in the boot (including sports cars like the Corvette) could be dealer optioned with a continental kit.

CHRIS DIXON
1956 FORD THUNDERBIRD