1963 TBIRD Custom Tracking down History

I’m posting this for Marke Kemp

A rodder friend over here in Australia has put me onto this site for some help.

As I have purchased this custom 1963 T-Bird and now trying to track down who it was built by in the late 60’s.

It then had at least two new owners in a 2 year period then sold to Glen Jenning who is a big car collector here in Australia, then to me. The car is unrestored and all steel modifications so well done that 50 years on still very good same Egyptian themed interior with lights and gizmos. In an old craigs list ad from 2007 the car was called the scorpion in gold letters above back window

I hate to give this car up but here goes. This is a piece of American Automotive history. It is a 1963 George Barris Ford Thunderbird comissioned by Los Angeles furniture store owner Eddie Leon. After the original owner passed away it sat for several years

The car is a rust free California car with 98,000 original miles. It was labor of love for Mr. Leon through the end of the 1960’s after seeing Ford’s Caravan of Cars in 1965. The car was completed in the early 1970’s with the installation of a 1963 427 Ford Top Oiler or Center Oiler engine. In 1975 a set of ported and polished 1966 (C5AE) Medium Rise heads (2.19 intake / 1.73 exhaust) were added. I estimate the horsepower to be very near 450 which isn’t bad for a low (9.5:1) cruiser.

It has a trophy in boot (trunk) best custom 1968, so it must have been created pre 1968. The trophy was best Custom Car 1968 San Mateo. Indicating it was an Southern California owner. The owner leo lived and ended up in vacaville in 2005

I had found an old Craigslist ad from 2o07 saying it was a Barris built car for Eddie Leon from the Leon furniture shops across the states (his name all over car including badge on bonnet and on dash also says build one of one she is called the scorpion).

The work that has gone into this has to be a well known or at least very skilled builder. Everything is done in steel, and no cracks or signs of shrinkage or stress fractures. It now is missing the chrome bars grille that can be seen in the smaller photos, but otherwise it is very much the same as it was when built, all of the lights and voice control is still working on the dash, hard to believe after all these years.

Anybody knows any history of this wild T-Bird Custom?

If you have more info on the history of this car, stories, or perhaps some old photos, please add them here to this post, hopefully we can shed some more light on the history of this Bird.

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