Over the intervening years, his very fertile imagination and true reverence for the legends of the restyling art have resulted in a multitude of beautiful customs that emphasize and retain the best original design elements of each car with tasteful accents, creating a unique statement every time.ĭ’Agostino was already a seasoned competitor on the West Coast ISCA show-car circuit by the early 1970s with his brand-new 1970 Pontiac Grand Prix, which took Best Custom honors at the Grand National Roadster Show, followed by a much more radical 1972 Buick Riviera. Wheelbase: 113"Īs customs go, it is hard to improve on a sleek 1961 Ford Thunderbird coupe with its build orchestrated by John D’Agostino, who has been instrumental in reviving the art of customizing since he rose to prominence in the 1970s. in V8 engine, single four-barrel carburetor, three-speed Ford-O-Matic automatic transmission, independent front suspension and live rear axle with Air Ride front and rear, and four-wheel hydraulic drum brakes. Candy Red paint with golden scallops finishes the car perfectly.ģ00 bhp, 390 cu. Custom hood hides 390 cubic V8 that is mated to a single 4-barrel carb and 3-speed automatic transmission. Interior was also tastefully modified: dashboard features aircraft instrument panel, “waterfall” console and nice white vinyl upholstery.
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It runs on a set of chrome plated wire wheels with wide whitewall tires – one more trademark of Mr D’Agostino. Headlamps got European style and were housed in mesh, the custom grille features bullet-shaped mesh. The car was built in 1997 and it beautifully renders D’Agostino’s customizing style and traditions.Įven though Firestar looks very smooth and “light” it actually hides much of custom work: the roof was chopped, taillights were nicely modified, rear fender peaks were redesigned to echo high-canted fenders from 1857 Thunderbird. I'm trying to be somewhat faceious, but I still don't have a place in my heart for sporty-looking white-letters on a luxury car running full wheel covers or wire wheels - on a sporty OEM/aftermarket wheel like a 5-spoke styled steel wheel, Magnum 500, Shelby MagStar, Keystone Klassic, Cragar S/S, M/T slotted mag, ad infinitum, sure, I can get into that (again, been there, done that as a teenager/early 20's thing back in the day), but the beauty of these cars to me is the nostalgia of what was appropriate for when they were designed, and to me that says 1" whitewalls, full wheel covers, quiet exhaust, yada yada yada (Full disclosure - I did run WSW snow tires on the rear of my hardtop when I was in college in the late '80s, only because that's what was lying around the garage when I needed to replace the bald ones on the back).John D’Agostino, who is very well known customizer, used his extraordinary imagination and skills to customize this custom ’61 Thunderbird Coupe “Firestar”. And since I need to be getting tires for my '63 hardtop to replace the aged-out Goodyear Arrivas currently on it (15+ years old now and less than 10,000 miles including our drive to Portland, OR for the VTCI International in 2005 from KCMO), I need to start thinking serious about this topic, too. While I currently have Hankook Optimo 724s (? - search for my post on replacing tires/tubes on my Roadster a couple years ago) and the price was very reasonable ($50-60/corner for the tire itself), I'm not real thrilled about the whitewall width nor the 'furrin' country-of-origin. What about Diamondback? I thought they offered a custom whitewall width to a purchaser's specifications. You'll have to use 205/80-14 with 5.5" rim and 3.8" backspacing to represent the 8.00 -14 originals but that should get you close. There are a number of sites that let you compare the specs of different size tires. If you go to a different rim, you can always play with the backspacing (assuming you can find the right rim) to adjust clearance outboard and inboard of the tire. That should give you enough clearance for your skirts, but each tire is slightly different so you'd have to check. On the same rims that would make the tires stick out about 10mm (0.4") more on each side of the tire.
![1963 ford thunderbird wheels 1963 ford thunderbird wheels](https://photos.classiccars.com/cc-temp/listing/116/3290/14181940-1963-ford-thunderbird-std.jpg)
That being said, if you do use 225 tires they are about 20mm wider than the standard 8.00" tires (which are about 205mm). 225 tires really need at least 6", or preferably 7" wide wheels like Bill used. But I'd be a little leery of using 225 tires on the stock TBird rims. I'm not going to wade into the raised white letters vs whitewall vs blackwall silliness except to say to each his own.