We've all taken a project car off someone else's hands and scored a good deal in the process. Larry Marzen is no different. He was searching for a '66 to '67 Fairlane to park next to his '70 SportsRoof Mustang when he found an ad in the Des Moines Register for a '64 project car parked less than 50 miles from his home in Dougherty, Iowa.
He kicked on his boots and went for a walk-around. The Fairlane had a fair body without the rusty panels made famous by the Midwest and a pile of speed parts from Ford Motorsports. The crown jewel was the 460 crate engine with aluminum heads and an advertised 535 hp. The original owner was going for a big-block Thunderbolt look without the FE power.
Once the car was in his hands, Larry found out about Ford specialists Crites Performance and went to work. Crites sells everything needed to turn an ordinary sports coupe into a Thunderbolt replica using the correct FE or virtually any Ford powerplant. With an armful of parts, Larry and a few of his friends assembled his version of the T-bolt you see here.