’57 T-bird back in family after once slipping away
Many of us coveted the firstgeneration Ford Thunderbirds at some time in our lives. It was a sweet two-seat convertible introduced for the 1955 model year. Ford and Chevrolet have been fierce competitors from the earliest days of the auto industry, so when in 1953 Chevrolet exhibited the first Chevrolet Corvette at General Motors’ former Motorama car show, it telegraphed a very competitive challenge to Ford. While that first Corvette was not a very successful model, it was highly successful in making post-war Americans aware of cars that were fun to drive. Ford actually had built a small two-seater for Henry Ford II in 1953 called the Vega, but it never made it to production.
Naturally, Ford wasn’t going to let Chevrolet have this new market segment to itself, so Ford came up with the Thunderbird two years later. Ford didn’t copy the European sports car design or style but instead built “a personal car of distinction.” The first public showing was at the Detroit Auto Show in February 1954 as a 1955 model that went on sale the following October. It used Ford’s existing 292-cubicinch V8 engine with either Fordo-Matic automatic transmission or manual overdrive transmissions. It was a metal car with a removable fiberglass top as standard and a fabric top as a popular option. Ford planned on selling 10,000 Thunderbirds that first year, but the car was a hot seller and 16,155 customers visited their local Ford dealer for the car of their dreams.
Not many changes were made for the 1956 model, except for more trunk space due to the use of a “Continental Kit” for the spare tire and a “port hole” side window in the fiberglass top. Sales were good, but not quite as good as in 1955. For the 1957 model, there were some noticeable but minor styling changes, and it was the best sales year, selling 21,380 Thunderbirds.
This model had a longer deck and tasteful tail fins. The grille was larger, with the front bumper altered. The spare tire was moved back into the trunk. Performance packages were offered and a clever “Dial-o-Matic” fourway power seat that moved the seat backward when the ignition was turned off for easier exit and entry was an option.
Piedmont resident Ted Leyhe says his family has owned this issue’s beautiful black 1957 Ford Thunderbird twice. His father bought it new for $4,485, or about $41,760 in today’s dollars, from a Ford dealer in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. It’s a V8 with Ford-o-Matic transmission but no power steering or brakes. He selected the no-porthole option for the top, which Leyhe has since learned was not a good economic decision. It also has a white soft top,.
“Dad bought it new in 1957, and then in the 1980s he had it restored. In the mid-1980s, my brother called me from Oshkosh to tell me that our dad was selling the T-Bird. I called my dad and asked if I could have the first right of refusal. He said, ‘Do you have $28,000?’ I said ‘no.’ The story goes that a guy came to my dad’s office carrying a briefcase with $28,000 in $100 bills. My dad lit up like a Christmas tree when he saw that.
“So, it got out of the family and I kind of forgot about it, but I have always been fond of that car.”
Leyhe’s father died about 12 years ago.
“At the celebration-of-life service, the man who bought the TBird told me, ‘I know where your father’s car is; I know it’s for sale; and I know the guy selling it is desperate to sell it.’ It was the year 2008, when the Great Recession hit, and the current owner was a building contractor. Surprisingly, it turned out that the car made its way out to Antioch.”
Leyhe contacted the contractor by phone.
“I went out to look at the car. It was just shining like a gem, and I drove it. I came home thinking, ‘I am not going to buy that car; I am not going to buy that car.’ But the guy kept calling me back, lowering the price.”
Finally, the asking price was lowered from $39,000 to $34,000, and an agreement was reached.
“But when I bought the car, I was disappointed because it ran like crap,” Leyhe said.
He had heard of T-Bird Headquarters in Concord, experts for all sorts of useful T-Bird information. He learned of a shop called Adams Auto Classics and made an appointment.
“I left the T-Bird with them for about a month, and it has run great since then.”
Leyhe has no plans to sell this family treasure a second time. While the odometer reads 49,000 miles, he suspects it’s at least on its second time around.
“’Drive it,’ the mechanic told me, ‘because they don’t like to sit.’ ”
So he tries to drive it twice a month and almost always gets some “thumbs-up” signs from observers.