So it's Christmas 2007 and I'm off work. I get to browsing the adverts on the HAMB and fell upon this lil beauty. It was from South Dakota, had dash, firewall, grille shell, garnish mouldings and was basically rot free., especially by UK standards. It was by now located in Mt Vernon WA. I checked into shipping, had a chat with the owner and after one false start, ended up buying it. Here are some of the pics from the ad.

The seller, Ken was very helpful and I ordered some parts and had them sent up to him. At my request he had the tyres fitted and put the hubcaps on. The size and proportion of the tyres are a vast improvement over the wide radial rollers that were on it before. This pic was taken just prior to shipping.

The car finally got underway in late Feb. It was quite interesting following the progress of the ship via the web. I could see when it went through the Panama canal etc. After what seemed like an eternity I got the call to say the car had arrived in the UK and was ready for collection. I borrowed a trailer and  the journey home went without an hitch. Here she is just prior to unloading at Chez Mart. I think the new tyres caps and rings contrasted against the patinaed wheels and bodywork look pretty good.

I moved the T-Bird out of the garage into temporary accomodation to give me some room to work. Here's the new project safely tucked up in the garage.

Watch this space for more updates showing the progress as it happens.

Mart.