Thunderbird Restoration Guide, 1958-1966 (Motorbooks Workshop) Paperback – September 13, 1997

This is THE book if you are in the process of restoring a 1958 - 1966 Thunderbird. This book goes into every detail. I mean, they even give the specifications of the M 390 engine, right down to the cam lift and duration! This book goes into more fine details about the classic 4 seat Tbirds then any other book I have ever read. This is a must have if you are even thinking about buying or restoring one of these classics. It has chapters for every year from 58 - 66, and talks about every model for every year. Such cars as the 62 and 63 Sports Roadster, the Princess Monaco Landau, the 65 "Special Landau", and the 1960 sun roof are even included. This has to be the most complete restoration guide for these classic 4 seat Thunderbirds I have ever seen. Even if you think you know all about Thunderbirds, read this book! I can assure you that you will find things you never knew about these timeless classics.

So the book was exactly what I was looking for, however the delivery was disappointing. I had it shipped to another address since it was a gift. I did not choose gift wrapping since that was an unnecessary expense. However I did expect since it was sent to another person's name and address that my detailed invoice information would NOT be included in the package. My credit card was charged; I received an invoice via email, so including an invoice copy inside the book that was shipped was totally unexpected. I shouldn't HAVE to purchase gift wrapping in order to keep the price I paid a secret. Last time I'm ordering a gift from Amazon for sure.

Each version gets a small section in a book that is too many pages for what's in it. Pictures and information are of poor quality and not relevant to the specialized information that you'd want in a book like this. A good example would be the differences between model years in a generation. Swaths of text are dedicated to this information, but a scant few images actually give you a visual reference to that information - this is only made worse by the fact that the text can be thoroughly confusing at times on what it's describing. The text itself is not well organized, nor is it fully relevant to actual restoration. At best, this book is something to invest in should you be looking to purchase a Thunderbird of a particular model year between 1958 and 1966. This would give you ample tools to determine what to look for in your prospective vehicle to maximize both its collectible value and ensure it is original and unaltered. Once you've purchased the vehicle, there is little guidance on the actual restoration - you'll need a shop manual for that - just repeated discussion on each model year and its differences, as well as some interesting history and factoids.

Good historical book. Not the restoration guide I hoped it would be.

This book is referred to by other writers, cited in ads, and discussed at classic car shows. Information on VIN information and model variations is the best I have found. Nit picking--a few more photographs would be great. William Wonder has done Thunderbird fans a real service. My wife didn't understand why I fixated on the '63 Sport Coupe as something worth hunting down...now she is helping me review the ads online. Really an excellent volume.

Good book. It covers the '58 to 66 Tbirds in depth. It will be helpful in restoring my '66.

Lots of info on the birds more than I expected. We always say it ( the book could be better ) but it have a good amount of tech info on the birds

This book had been out-of-print. The new edition that is now available looks like it was copied from an original on a Xerox copier. This makes many of the photos of little value since they did not reproduce well. The book is still good to have but it would be worth looking for an old edition with good quality photos.

Nice for third restoration

I bought this for a birthday gift for my husband. He really enjoyed it as it is packed with interesting facts and trivia.