Steve:
I had a '67 Bird too.....4 door, black on black on black with the "artillery wheel" wheel covers - what a beautiful car!!!!!!
I bought it used in '69 and kept it until '73. By sheer luck, I got rid of it about a week before the Arab oil embargo........that thing would get no better than 8 mpg and had a 28 gallon tank that needed filling twice a week. I didn't have any problems with it.....but it should have been a clue that the little "low fuel" light in the ceiling was melted when I bought it!!!!!!
On the windshield wipers running off the power steering pump: mine never leaked, thought it was kind of neat since it had 7 or 8 speeds and was totally silent. The problem I had was you had to start the engine if it was raining at the drive-in movies......if she wanted to see the flick.
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My Dad was a Mercury guy in the 50s and I always thought GM cars were better built (maybe they were, then). Have had all kinds of screwy cars, but for transortation, I always come back to Ford.
Fords I've had: '62 T-Bird (great)....'67 Bird (great)......'72 Bird (too big)........'85 Mustang (bought new - not 1 problem in 86,000 miles).........'06 Mustang (1300 miles in 2 years...don't want to wear it out).........'06 Five Hundred (a good, solid, comfortable car)
others over the years:
'56 Packard (magnificent)......'67 Sunbeam Alpine (fun, nice car).......'73 Gremlin (my first brand new car:, V8, X, Levis......piece of crap that I sold before it had a chance to kill me...not that it didn't try)........'74 MGB (British piece of crap).......'62 Alfa 2600 Spyder (it was so pretty, who cared if pieces fell off all the time)........'67 Checker (a civilian, air conditoned 327 - more fun and more reliable than any other car I ever had - even with 200,000+ miles on it)........'67 Volvo 144 (great little car.....had it 14 years - you knew it was going to get you there).........'75 Olds Omega (total junk)......'77 Olds 98 (very nice - the crimson velour pillow seats were a little much tho)..........'79 Camaro Berlinetta (total scrap -the worst piece of junk ever made....bought new and sold 3 years later with
700 miles on it...but it was pretty).........'80 Chevette (nice commuter - sold it at 155,000 miles and it went on for years afterwards)...........'92 Jeep Wrangler (bought it new and I swear I replaced every part of it at least twice)...........'96 Chrysler LHS (bought as a driver with 90,000 miles on it - fine car)........ plus some more assorted Studebakers and Avantis along the way. Hmmmm, I wonder why there were so many '67s?
At least there used to be variety......some people think my Five Hundred is a Toyota, some think it's a Kia and my brother thinks its a Mercedes!