Thunderbird Handling Upgrades

Here is a list of handling upgrades I intend to make on my 1956 Thunderbird. I am currently in the process of installing the brakes. More on that in a later post.

To make the car handle better:

• 4-wheel power disk brakes
• Battery relocation
• Rack and pinion steering
• Radial tires

Disk brakes are the single most important upgrade for the Thunderbird. Anyone who has driven a car with 4-wheel drum brakes will remember brake fade, overheating, and non-linear response. I ALWAYS leave extra room in front when driving this car with outdated brake technology. Fast stops are, in a word, scary.

The battery relocation is done only to make room for the new brake booster. The original booster was not mechanically connected to the brake pedal. Odd, since modern-type booster were available in 1956. I guess they simply did not have enough room on the firewall. The battery will be located in the trunk

Ever watch an old movie with the driver moving the wheel back and forth on a straight highway? That is truely what it is like to drive a car with old recirculating ball technology. Another problem with the older steering technology is something called "bump steer". When the car goes over a bump, it will pull in one direction and must be corrected with opposite steering input. This is caused by the asymmetric nature of the steering system. Hitting a pothole at highway speeds can cause sever enough bump steer you could lose control of the car. Add to this bia ply tires which follow the grooves in the highway, and you have an "exciting" experience merely driving straight at highway speeds. I hope the rack and pinion upgrade along with the redial tires will make this a thing of the past.

The brakes, battery relocation, and steering are invisible upgrades. There will be no appearance changes to the car. The new steering column is specially made in order to accept the stock '56 steering wheel. The radial tires are made to look as close as possible to stock bias ply tires, with 3 1/2 inch wide white walls. However, if you see both tires side by side, you would be able to see the difference. The bias ply tires do not flex as much as the radials, so the contact area of the radial will appear flattened while the bias ply retains the roundness even at the road contact area. It would appear over-inflated.

Of all upgrades I will be doing, if I had to pick just two, it would undoubtedly be the disk brakes and the radial tires. The brake kit cost about $1600 and wide whitewall tires cost about $800. If I had to stop there, the $2400 make a world of difference. I will cover engine upgrades in the next post.

Ed Garcia