source: www.mustangandfords.com
Ken Wallace and his wife, Darlene, are a match made in heaven. The Florida couple share a passion for highperformance classic cars, so Ken never had to argue much to build a fun toy. Together, they helped create the vivid hot rod you see before you–a Thunderbird that generates its own seismic activity, and brings new meaning to the famed moniker. The fact that it started life with a 245- horse V-8 is but a memory now. With a storied past building hot rods, and as avid enthusiasts, Ken and Darlene discussed buying a classic T-bird to perform a concours restoration on. “We were both very excited because this has always been a dream car for both of us,” explains Ken. With a little looking around, they located a clean example in Tampa, just north of their Parrish, By Kevin DiOssi Florida, home in 1999. After making the quick drive up and giving the car a once-over, Ken was behind the wheel of the ‘Bird and heading back home. “The car seemed fairly clean and still had its original engine,” he recalls. “We didn’t even start on the restoration until several months after we got it home.” From the looks of it, Ken thought he would be able to get away with just some minor wet-sanding and the bodywork would be done. Needless to say, that didn’t work out; so the Thunderbird was blasted down to bare metal where it revealed its many imperfections.
