Craig Barnard
Please accept my condolences on Floyd’s passing. I just found Floyd’s obituary. I knew both Floyd and his wife as well as Janet and Ruth Ann.
I grew up across the street from Floyd. My most favorite memory involved spending many Saturday afternoons watching Floyd work on his pale blue/white top 1964(or 1965) Thunderbird coupe. That Thunderbird was always kept in perfect shape. After many years of watching Mr. Zerfowski work on that Thunderbird, I finally got to help. My job was to watch the tail lights (directional signals) and to verify that each set of the lights worked correctly (in sequence). The lights operated using a set of motors that turned in sequence, three motors with three lights for each set of taillights on the car ; three left lights, and three right. The motors (which were activated by flicking the turn signal indicator mounted on the steering column) were mounted in the trunk area of the car on a raised section of the trunk flooring directly over the car’s rear wheels and differential (when viewed from underneath the car). When the turn signal directional motors stopped working, repair and/or adjustment required a minimum or two people. One person (me) flicked the turn signal switch in either the right or left (up or down) direction, which then activated the motors/cams that were in the trunk.I would then get out of the car and run to the front fender of the car. I was then to yell out whether the indicator light mounted on the top of the fender was flashing three times. I then had to look under the appropriate part of the front bumper for the light that would flash indicating the direction that the car would turn. I would yell to Floyd whether the light flashed or not. I would then go to the rear of the car and look at the red tail lights (3 for each side) which were to flash in sequence from the middle of the car to the out side edge of the car. Other than my voice and the external lightbulbs that flashed (2 in the front and three in the rear)the only way to prove that the turn signals were working correctly was to “hear” that the lights in the rear of the car were flashing in sequence. There was a motor for each of the three bulbs on each side of the car. These motors had tape which surrounded them, sealing the directional unit for each side of the car. The next step was to figure out whether the external light bulbs no longer worked because the externally mounted light bulb had failed or whether the problem was actually in one of the three motors which operated the mechanical sequencing process. Because the unit was sealed in tape on the Ford Assembly line, the unit of three motors had to be cut open. If the sounds or the motors turning were correct, the next step was to disassemble the complete external tail light units which were mounted inside the rear bumper. I will not go through the process of disassembly of the rear lights, suffice it to say Floyd and I spent a lot of time together because these flashing units/the bulbs failed frequently. I grew not only to love Floyd, I also grew to love these Thunderbirds (1964-1966). I am now 66 years old and I have owned two of these exact thunderbirds as well as several other thunderbirds from different years of the cars. I am current working on a 1966 convertible Thunderbird that my wife and I have owned for 25 years. I can’t work on my Thunderbird without thinking about Floyd.