The Italien

THE 1963 THUNDERBIRD ITALIEN

Chapter 9 - The MECHANIC

Copyright © Thomas Maruska 2008
All Rights Reserved

Now this guy we know a little about.

You recall back in Chapter 6 I mentioned a "enthusiast" who followed The Italien
around the roads of Los Angeles. He later turned out to be a mechanic and actually got to
do minor repairs and tuning on the Italien for Joe.
His name is Rick and I recall him telling me he was so excited to see the car again and
actually have it in his shop and be able to work on it.
He said when Joe called him to see if the car was ready he would keep putting him
off so he could keep the car there as long as he could.
The Italien had been repainted since Rick saw it last, several years ago.
This was early 1975 now and the Italien had been repainted back in '65.

Rick was not only a mechanic, but a very avid Thunderbird enthusiast. He had several
61-66 Thunderbirds himself and was known in the area for his knowledge about them
and his ability to repair them and their tri-power engines.

When Joe was asking around for someone who could get his tri-power car running
smoothly he was directed to Rick.

While Rick had the Italien in his shop and he kept delaying Joe from picking it up
he thoroughly documented all the unique features of the Italien.
He took measurements and pictures of each unique and custom feature
because he wanted to build a clone.

Below are a few pictures Rick sent me from December 1974. Joe must have taken these
when he first purchased The Italien from William (The Gardener)

Left front

Right front with the hood open

Right front at night with the headlights on

Left Rear, note the back grill is off and the taillight centers are missing.

Left rear at night

Back window on "fastback"

Trunk open, again you can see the grill is missing

Cockpit...even at only 11 years old, the interior is already shot

This really shows the wear

Note the leather covering falling off the dash
I didn't cut the date off this one when I scanned it

Another dash shot (....or shot dash)

Drivers door panel looks pretty good yet.

Back seat

Sad little girl behind the Italien. If anyone knows who this is, please EMAIL ME She looks about 6 or 8 years old so she would be 36-40 today

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