Did you ever lust after a vintage Ford Thunderbird?
The early bird?
The flirtatious two-seater built between 1955 and 1957–before Ford added a back seat in 1958?
John Travolta loves his 1955 T-Bird, and the late actress Mary Pickford’s equally late husband Buddy Rogers was known to tool around Beverly Hills in a perfectly preserved ’56 model. And what about Suzanne Somers in “American Graffiti?” Wasn’t that a T-Bird porthole through which she leered at Richard Dreyfuss?
There’s little doubt that vintage Thunderbirds have become rolling objets d’art, pampered and preserved by devotees who pay $24,000 for a basic driver up to $175,000 for the rare supercharged F-Bird.
T-Bird fanatics love their Eisenhower-era Ford iron–an obvious enough observation for anyone who stopped by the International Classic Thunderbird Club show held July 30 at the Sheraton Arlington Park Hotel.
The club was formed in 1963 and includes 7,000 members worldwide, with 128 in the Chicago area chapter. This year’s exhibition featured 168 vintage Thunderbirds standing fender-to-fender, their finishes lovingly buffed and fussed over by worried owners applying and re-applying Slick Stuff and Speed Shine polish at the hint of a raindrop.
This public display of affection was preceded by a full day of Concours judging.
Brad Hanson, one of the local program coordinators, estimated that 600 owners from across the country attended the event, which is held every two years. (The 2002 show is set for Atlantic City, N.J.)
T-Birds boasting plates from New Jersey, Arizona and Connecticut were spotted, and “we even had two members make the trip from Sweden, though they didn’t ship their cars,” Hanson said.
So how exacting are the judges?
“At the Concours I level they look for perfection,” said Hanson, who, at 46, is one of the younger club members. Original standards are the key. “The undercarriage and engine compartments are inspected and every inch of the car is gone over, right down to the screw heads. Do the doors and hood line up? Are the decals correct?
“Concours II does not require the undercarriage inspection, and Touring Class is for cars that are actually driven to the show and not trailered. All cars are judged on mechanicals and appearance, and we have a People’s Choice Award for the most popular car in the show.”
Ford built 53,166 of the two-seat Thunderbirds, with 1957 a high-water mark in production, as 21,380 cars rolled off the assembly line. The first motor, a 292-cubic-inch V-8, gave way to the more powerful 312-c.i. powerplant in 1956. Carburetor configurations include a single four-barrel arrangement, the dual quad system and a supercharged unit of which only 208 were built. They were known respectively as the D-Bird, E-Bird and F-Bird. And 26,000 of these have survived.
Len Keil, a club member from Chicago, motioned to the driver side door of his immaculate Willow Green ’57 T-Bird: “Did you ever sit in a Thunderbird? Come over here. Slide in behind the wheel and tell me how you feel.”
In a word–cramped. Perhaps claustrophobic. Keil is nodding.
That’s the Thunderbird’s clumsy little secret. Gorgeous to look at, yet if you stand much more than 5 feet 6 inches, they’re a bite to enter and exit.
Hanson admits he needs to stop every 90 minutes or so when he’s on the highway to unfold his 6-foot frame and shake his right foot back to life.
“Driving with the top down makes all the difference in the world,” says Hanson, who bought his 1955 T-Bird six years ago and will leave it to his children. (“My 6-year-old’s already polishing the T-Bird. She has plans.”)
Casual observation pegs the average age of vintage T-Bird collectors at 55 to 65. You’re talking empty-nesters hanging off the north end of the Baby Boom. Folks who dreamed about these babies through high school in the mid-1950s and pulled the trigger on a purchase in middle age.
Keil chased down a half-dozen leads before buying his T-Bird in 1994 from a local seller who was interested in a Mustang. “New Jersey was the worst. I flew in to LaGuardia, and they sent me this way and that way, and I finally found the right house and the car was a bucket of bolts. A total waste of time. I learned you have to be skeptical and not believe written descriptions with old Thunderbirds.”
Keil and Hanson say it helps to have a club member along when inspecting a potential purchase, somebody such as Joe Kraatz who knows T-Birds inside and out.
At the Sheraton show, Kraatz was off to the left, tinkering with his 1957 model. The former Mobil service station owner from Valparaiso, Ind., took delivery of this ‘Bird April 2, 1957, and has never stopped driving her. Summer and winter, 99,000 miles, with only a few delightful modifications.
Kraatz didn’t like the way the gas filler door broke up the car’s lines, so he hid his gas cap in the trunk. The trunk lock also was eliminated in favor of a pull-cable arrangement under the front seat.
“And I didn’t care for the arch of the wheel wells,” he said, “so I added these skirts you see here from a Mercury cruiser. You’d be amazed at the people who come to shows like this and stand there looking at the skirts, scratching their jaws. They want to ask, but they don’t know if they should.”
Years ago, when he had a U-Haul distributorship, he added a trailer hitch for moving stock. And when his daughters went to high school, he handed them the T-Bird. (Kami Kraatz said she had no great love for the Thunderbird at 16: “All my friends said, `Why are you driving that old car?’ “)
Her father has made road trips to Wisconsin and Michigan this summer, and, of course, drove from Valpo for the Arlington Heights show. Indeed, the Kraatz T-Bird is no “trailer queen,” as most show-quality restorations are called. Such museum-like restorations, with their mirror finishes, enjoy heated winter storage and only the occasional fair-weather outing.
Otto and Judy Bruggenthies of north suburban Mettawa displayed their exquisite Dust Rose ’57 up the aisle from Keil’s T-Bird.
“We bought ours on the spur of the moment,” said Otto, a courtly gent with a hint of a European accent, who was resting in a lawn chair placed behind his trunk to afford a full view of the car.
“My wife and I were visiting the Volo Auto Museum when she spotted this Thunderbird and said, `Otto, I have to have that car!’ We had no experience with Thunderbirds. We were not club members. We were not even looking to own a Thunderbird, and the next thing I know we have this car and we’ve taken a Second Place trophy in our first show.
“Each winter since we’ve owned her we try to give a little upgrade. The exhaust system is new, and you see here the armrest? I had those re-upholstered. They had yellowed and we were losing points in the judging.
“I don’t know, I think after this year maybe we give up the shows and go touring. We’ve got enough trophies, and I’m tired of the forever wiping and wiping with the cloth. I think maybe it’s time to enjoy the darned thing!”
That’s what Gaspare DeSimone of Smithtown, N.Y., had in mind when he shoe-horned a 4.6 V-8 from a 1992 Ford Crown Victoria into his black 1956 T-Bird. The retired police detective wanted a daily driver good enough to show.
“If you look under the hood,” he said, lifting it, “you’ll find the exact same engine compartment as Crown Victoria. I have the 4.6 here, an impeccable performer. I wanted a car I could drive anywhere and that would hold its own in today’s traffic.
“I used Fat Boy Fabrications in North Carolina for basic chassis work, and I did the rest myself. They took the suspension from a Mustang II and added disc brakes. I’ve blown past guys on the highway with hotter cars, and they roll down their windows and shout, `You have to pull over and let me see what’s under that hood.’ I stop and show ’em. It’s all pure Ford equipment.”
(Keil, by the way, had perhaps the best line regarding the vintage T-Bird’s original drum brakes: “If you want to stop a Thunderbird, you need to plan ahead.”)
Rain threatened but held off as visitor Ron Juergens observed: “I think God likes Thunderbirds.”
By 12:30 p.m., about 1,500 visitors were winding in and out of the T-Birds, leaning to examine (but not touch!), asking questions.
Greg Santry of Lockport had his white supercharged F-Bird parked toward the rear, sporting a $112,000 for-sale sign. A machinist who has owned Chevrolet Corvettes and a Dodge Challenger, he bought the T-Bird because: “I always wanted one and this is about the finest you’ll see. I’ve enjoyed owning the car, but now it’s time to let somebody else have the fun. I might buy something else later, and maybe I won’t.”
Santry may have hit on a fundamental truism regarding Thunderbirds when he spoke of letting somebody else have the fun. Looking out over row after row of vintage classics, one realizes there are no true owners in the crowd.
They’re simply caretakers.
And at some point they’ll pass these magnificent automobiles along to younger collectors who share their passion.
THUNDERBIRD IN BRIEF
1954–Ford introduces the Thunderbird roadster at the Detroit Auto Show in response to the Chevrolet Corvette. The first T-Bird rolls off the Dearborn, Mich., assembly line Oct. 22.
1955–The ‘Bird has a removable hardtop with a 102-inch wheelbase and an overall length of 175.3 inches. It is powered by a Mercury 292-cubic-inch V-8. Horsepower is 198 with automatic transmission and 193 with manual. Prices start at $2,695 for hardtop and $2,765 for convertible.
It comes in Thunderbird Blue, Raven Black, Snowshoe White, Goldenrod Yellow and Torch Red with matching vinyl upholstery.
1956–Portholes are added as an option to increase visibility. Spare tire is moved from the trunk to the exterior of the car right above the extended bumper. Prices start at $2,944 for the hardtop and $3,019 for the convertible. Available with a 312-c.i., 215- to 340-horsepower V-8 or the original 292-c.i. engine.
1957–Grille, rear deck and bumpers are restyled. Volumatic Radio System automatically raises the volume as the car’s speed increases. Dial-O-Matic seat slides back when car is stopped for easier entry and exit and returns to its set position when the car is started. List price is $3,607 for the hardtop and $3,681 for the convertible.
Source: Ford Motor Co.
