There are some vehicles, which for some reason or another, get added to my favorites list of best cars of all time. Sitting atop the list, sharing space with the Oldsmobile Delta 88 convertibles, and '71-'72 Chevelles, is this era of Ford's personal luxury car, the Thunderbird. Introduced in 1955 initially to combat the Chevrolet Corvette, the Thunderbird quickly morphed into a "personal luxury car", a class that would be reserved for Oldsmobile's big two doors as well as certain Chrysler products.
While this example is far from pristine, I don't love it any less. Slathered in baked, rather dull factory paint, this car used to evoke class, and stateliness, as much as a Thunderbird could offer. Now, however, this example is relegated to beater status. Although the chrome and certain trim items are still in decent shape considering its age, the car as a whole needs some rescuing. Though it appears rust free, I'm quite positive there has to be some rust, probably in the wheelwells and definitely caking the underbody. What is relatively amazing, though, is the sheer fact that body could be cleaned up pretty well with as little as an afternoon with Meguiars and a clay bar. That's good and well, because examples of this generation are quickly disappearing into relatively thin air, along with their immediate successor. While I don't admittedly love this particular example, it is indicative of the condition the majority of this generation is left in some 30 years after their introduction.
Aside from the cliche 1955-1957 cars, the 1977-1979 cars are quite possibly my favorite generation of Ford's personal luxury car; and it goes to reason that I think more of them need to be saved.
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