3 weeks ago, I was GIVEN a 70 T Bird.  It is a 1 owner car with 49K miles.  It has sat outside for about 20 years, so the vinyl top and paint are shot.  The good news the D0VE 429 runs well, considering the dormant time.  No smoke or bad noises.  My dilemma is simple-do I fix this Bird up, or pull the motor and find something smaller?  Can anyone give me a ballpark figure of what the motor and trans are worth?

  I remember these cars when they are new, so a cruiser would be fun.  This car has elec sunroof, windows, seats, vac doorlocks, AM/8 track player.  Oh yeah, I have the original title also, bought new in Oct 69.

Restore it and take it to a Barret Jackson auction$$$$$$$$$$  

man i like lots of car but that thing is ugly. original is the way to go if you do restore it. are all 429s 4 bolt mains? regardless you would probably recieve stupid amounts of money for just the 429 engine. why not sell it and throw a 460 at something else for less  

HOPEFULLY THE WEATHERSTRIPPING, ETC IS OK. NO ONE MAKES RUBBER FOR IT. AT LEAST I COULD NOT FIND ANY FOR A 70 MARK III THAT I HAD NOT LONG AGO. NEAT CARS, THOUGH. CHECK IN TO PARTS AVAILABILITY BEFORE YOU GET TOO FAR INTO IT, DEPENDS OF COURSE ON HOW FAR YOU INTEND TO GO WITH IT.  

Not all 429's are 4 bolt mains - my 429 thunderjet out of a '68 Thunderbird isn't, but might as well be.  The mains are completely boxed in from side to side.  Strong to say the least.  I didn't even put main studs into mine, and it was very strong.  I punished it pretty hard and it never failed.  Heck it still runs, but needs to be freshened up. 

As for the car - that is a keeper.  Most of those got thrown into the crusher and they are rare anymore.  As far as the hard to find parts like weatherstripping or specialty items, Hemmings is a good place to go for stuff like that.  Yea you got to go to a news stand to buy one, but it has everything from soup to nuts as far as car parts, services, and suppliers go. 

That old Bird - WOW.  Especially with that few miles on it - it can be made cool, and those 429's can be made very fast.

Bowser

I can tell it's the bird's engine, but thats it. Can you see if you can get us a full shot of the car?  I'd love to see it in it's raw form.  Bowser

Here ya go.  Hope these come out OK.  

One more try at the pic.  

You need to get that old ratty vinyl top off soon before it gets real bad rust pits on the roof.  Rip it off and use some rustolium. But, the interior looks to be in good shape from what I can see.  

Its winter here, so the average daytime temp is like 15 degrees.  I don't have a shop, so the top will get removed this spring, when it gets above freezing.  I need to go junkyardin and pick up some fancy wheels for the Bird, but the closest yard is over 100 miles away.  Living up in the mountains really complicates car crafting.

The interior is in very good shape.  The headliner has a couple of spots where the stitching has failed at the seams.  The liner has to come down anyway to install the new vinyl top, so no big deal.  The dash has 2 long cracks in it, but now discoloration or warping.  I can't wait to get the sunroof working and go cruising with my big dog hanging her head out it.

I rest my case - when was the last time you saw one of those on the road?  I saw one for sale that looked pretty good driving down the opposite side of the road from me about five years ago.  Would have looked at it seriously if I had the time to turn around and chase the dude down.  It's worth saving - I agree though.  Immediate attention needs to be paid to the rust - esp. on the top.  You got a winner.  I have a book that can probably price that out for you in the condition that it's in.  I'll take a look tomorrow.  Bowser.  

The rust is my first priority.  Like I said though, it is-13 this morning with an expected high of 15!  The Bird is gonna hafta wait till the spring thaw (June).  If I get my shop built this summer, it will spend the next winter indoors getting bodywork and paint.  Right now, I just want to sand and primer this summer, so I can drive it a little.  Gotta get the exhaust fixed-both mufflers and resonators are blown and falling apart, but the pipes themselves are completely solid.  Thanks for everyone's interest.  I figurre the motor/trans is worth as much as the whole car.  The only option that is of note is the power sunroof.  Can't find any prod #s of cars built with that.  

Those are getting rare.. check this parts car for $950 (firm) and you can see that:
http://www.classiccarprojects.com/htmlfiles/inventory.html

Like Bowser mentioned, those 429's has a bulletproof bottom-end with the cross-bolted mains you don't need any more stiffening!
I remember drooling over these ford motors wondering why my beloved 400 Pontiac had such a weak bottom end!

The 429 did not have cross bolted mains-that was the late 406 and the 427.  However, CJ and SCJ 429s are 4 bolt motors.  The funny thing is the factory did not change the casting number between 2 and 4 bolt main blocks, so one of these days I will have to open mine up and see what I have.  

I know they didn't - but they did have mains that were entrapped betwwen the solid webs of the block.  That's why I didn't install studs as I didn't think they were needed on my '68.  It could easily be retrofitted with side bolts, to make 4 bolt mains (it would cost a little), but for performance street use I didn't see the need.  Of all the engines I have worked on, it had  the stiffest 2 bolt main construction I had ever seen on a factory engine.  In my opinion, it was the next best thing to 4 bolt mains without modifications.  If you wanted to make it totally bullet proof, then studs, or side bolting the mains would do it. 

Bowser