Rich Stuck has had a relationship with Fords all his life and the Battlebird is a direct result of this relationship. Rich grew up in the late 1950s with a 1957 Ford country sedan station wagon as his family’s main mode of transportation as a kid Rich thought the best part of this car was it’s 312 cubic inch Thunderbird special V8 engine, and the fact that his dad didn’t mind showing off it’s power every now and then. This car and its Y-block Ford three-twelve started Rich on a long and meaningful love affair for all things Ford and for Y-block powered cars in particular. In 1965 at age 14, a 1957 Ford custom two door was acquired for Rich’s eventual use. The former moonshine holler was sitting engineless in a shed when they found it and sold for the princely sum of one hundred and fifty dollars. Overtime it got a rebuilt three-twelve Ford engine custom 300 trim and a flamed paint job. That car was discovered to be a f-code factory supercharge vehicle and was eventually restored back to stock some years later, but ultimately it was a 1955 Thunderbird Rich had owned many years that became the catalyst for the Battlebird build. In his teenage years while searching magazines and catalogs for Thunderbird parts which were harder to find back then, Rich came across a photo of a 1957 Daytona Thunderbird that became known as the Battlebird, and that photo stuck with him. About five years ago Rich discovered that the original car was put up for auction but the price quickly rose above his means. Almost simultaneously he found a Battlebird clone that was for sale in Florida. Built by Tom Kitchen, the body held a fair resemblance to the original, but underneath the car was a very tired and worn out stock ’57 T-bird. After purchasing the car Rich set about building a very accurate recreation of the Battlebird.
