Rust, Roses, Rice Crispies & Relatives

Polaroid SX70 photograph of my 1964 Thunderbird, just before it was restored in 1980. Rust had ravaged the lower bodysides, with the exception of the removable fender skirts. They were never taken off the car, but were most likely made from aluminum which doesn't rust. If they were steel, like the body, they would have rusted out also. The 'Bird was in the shop for about six months and came back looking brand new. The color was called Diamond Blue—almost white. The interior was a medium blue pleated vinyl that shone in the sun.

This is an almost ten year old photograph, back in the film days and cheap processing at the local drug store. The flash bulbs were very "hot" and the fast processing always produced really oversaturated colors and deep shadows. Although I miss the medium of film, for historical purposes especially, I find I have much more control of my images with digital cameras now. I suppose if I had ever learned how to develop my own film, I would have enjoyed that more, but once a photo is developed, there's not much you can do to it to "fix" it.

A real Ford Family—My aunt Hoohoo in the family's 1952 Ford F-100 pickup, and one of their Ford sedans in the background,a plain-Jane '52 Mainline. If you could have seen more of the driveway, there would also have been a beat up '51 Country Squire wagon, a '36 Ford Phaeton slowly turning back into the soil, and her gorgeous '58 Thunderbird. This truck was bought in the late '50s from a local guy nicknamed The Rebel. He owned a body shop in town and that's a custom gold and white paint job. Notice the "wide whites" and full chrome wheel covers, a pretty flashy touch for a Fifties pickup.

Another shot of my great uncle Art's store, this time in color. I'm surprised at the number of items that are still being sold today. Of course the boxes and logos are different now, but the brand names remain. Art was pretty "modern" having a large TV in his little store! Even though the store was about 10 steps from the house, it had an intercom system so Art could communicate to the people in the house without leaving the store. I thought that was neat. You just pushed a button and spoke into what looked like a radio and someone in the house would answer. I have audiotapes of "little me" talking to my grandmother through the intercom—they're reel-to-reel tapes!

 

The Sanborn family, circa 1930, Leete's Island, CT. Five year old Hoohoo on the left, twelve year old Veronica, my mother, in the back and my grandmother and grandfather. I think I may have posted this image before, but I found a better print of it this weekend and rescanned it.

"Unique in all the World," 1971 Final Edition

The 1971 two door Landau coupe, with its revived blind rear quarter roof panel, a look that was used in 1966, and 1969 as well.

M Y   C O L L E C T I O N — There is a case to be made that the 1971 Thunderbird was the final edition of the original "4-seater" Tbird's life, first produced for the 1958 model year. Prior to that was the now-classic 2-seat convertible built from 1955-57. Other Tbirds were built on several different platforms until the late 1990s culminating with the revived roadster of the 21st century, but the '58-'71 versions, to this writer, represent the "real" Thunderbird. 

Many people consider that "real" line ended in 1966, as the '67s abandoned unit-body construction in favor of a separate frame and body, but the '67s-'71s carried on so many unique Thunderbird traits and features, including the close-coupled interior and styling proportions, they are completely 100% classic Tbirds to me. Beginning in 1972, in my opinion, Thunderbird began the long slide to oblivion, although this was not the opinion of the general buying public. The "mid-size" 1977 edition, which was really a deluxe Gran Torino along with a greatly-reduced list price from the luxury-class Tbirds of the past, sold in the many hundreds of thousands per year, but was about as "unique" as shag carpeting in a 1970s family room. 

Bucket seats and a console had been an option since the late sixties, but represent the quintessential Tbird  experience to me. This emerald green cloth interior is gorgeous, isn't it?

The 4 door Landau was entering its last year in 1971, its suicide doors consigned to the halls of history until Casey/artandcolour began their revival in the mid 2000s, lol.

The 4 door's optional Brougham interior was as luxurious as the early 1970s got, as luxurious as any car ever needed to be in my opinion! This is still a pinnacle of design and execution.

While the Landau coupe reverted to the blind rear roof of earlier models, the base Thunderbird coupe kept the wonderful fastback roof from 1970. Though only a very clever facelift of the 1967-69 models, the windshield and roof was cut down about an inch and a half, making for this very stylish silhouette, another high-point of Tbird design.

The cover of the '71 Tbird brochure featured this three dimensional Thunderbird, raised and embossed, creating a sculptural appearance. It seems to be modeled in clay or wax, and the paper used was a heavy stock with an almost burlap texture. 

Sort of Unique in All the World

1974 Thunderbird Dealer Promotional Portfolio

This "premium" dealer promotional brochure for the 1974 Thunderbird came packaged as a portfolio, which opened up with an interior pocket holding three separate fold-out pieces. The three interior pieces were divided into Exterior/Performance, Interior Styling, and Optional Equipment. All of the paper used was a nice substantial stock, and the piece measures an ample 10 1/2 x 10 1/2 inches.

The cover of the portfolio featured the Thunderbird's hood ornament and what I'll call a setting sun. This would be the last "full size" T-bird developed on its own luxury platform (shared with the Mark IV, of course), and by '77 the Tbird be downsized to the Gran Torino platform.

The Exterior folder opens up to this Pearl White coupe with optional Exterior Decor package and White "Odense" vinyl roof. The dark red pinstripe along the beltline coordinated with the Dark Red leather interior.

The back of the Exterior folder showed this coupe in Medium Ivy Yellow with a Gold Odense vinyl roof. Those horrific I-Beam bumpers were Federally mandated. Starting in 1973, front bumpers needed to meet a 5 mph crash without damage, and in '74 the rear bumpers had to meet the same standard. Tbird's designers did their best with the crude technology of the day, giving the rubber strip on the rear bumper a form that mirrors the shape of the taillights in an attempt to give the square bumper a pleasing shape, at least visually.

The Interior folder opened up to this optional Dark Red leather interior with its reclining passenger seat. The car phone was listed as being available from outside sources. How quaint—the car phone has a cord! Shades of Burke's Law from the 1960s, a millionaire police detective who was chauffeured around in his Rolls-Royce while often speaking on his phone—the first car phone I ever saw.

Joy of Joys! By the late 1960s, people of color were finally being seen as consumers and an integral part of American society, and thus used in prominent advertising. When was the last time you saw a gorgeous green interior on a new car? I think that green is a very soothing color and as shown here, can be very elegant. 

The third folder for this Thunderbird portfolio featured the optional extras. Of note was a Quick-Defrost windshield, which sandwiched a thin gold film in the glass, power mini-vent windows for the front doors, an automatic on/off headlight delay system, and numerous power options and sound systems including 8-track tape decks.

The back page of the Optional accessories folder illustrated the Power-Operated Glass Moonroof. In Seventies-Speak, moonroofs were sunroofs made from glass instead of metal. They both opened up the same way however. Thunderbird had a fairly long history of sunroofs for a domestic car. The 1960 Tbird had an optional steel sunroof, manually operated via crank, and I believe at least 2,500 cars were so equipped. In classic car circles, a 1960 Sunroof is a very desirable, and relatively rare, car. Ford then dropped the option until the 1969 model year, when it reintroduced the opening overhead panel in electrically operated form.

Ford's Fine Feathered Friends—1969 Style

Ford's Luxury Bird—These scans are from "Ford Times" October 1968 issue, a small monthly periodical published by FoMoCo until 1993. The magazine measured 5 x 7 inches and consisted of 64 glossy pages and a heavier stock front and rear cover with a stapled binding. In addition to the requisite promotional pages for FoMoCo, editorial content included illustrated articles on the Talimena Scenic Drive in Oklahoma and Arkansas, bird watching, wood carving, a story on the Great Salt Lake in Utah and recipes from famous restaurants. 

Above, the 2 page Thunderbird piece. The first page shows the new for '69 blind rear C pillar, strongly evocative of the '66 Tbird Town Coupe and Landau, and which would be repeated in the '71 model year. The reason for Ford to use this coupe roof style only in '66, '69 and '71 is something I'd love to know! Please notice the "plain" coupe on the top of the second page, has a strange C pillar and quarter window. I'm not sure if it was an overzealous airbrushing graphic artist, or if Ford had contemplated a change to the '67-'69 roofline, released these early photos and then rescinded the facelift, but I suspect it's the first. I'd like a Landau 4 door in maroon with black interior and vinyl roof.

Ford's Economy Bird—Also in the October 1968 issue, is this '69 Falcon, in Futura coupe and 4 door versions. This would prove to be the Falcon's last year as a compact, with the new Maverick in the wings, due to be introduced on April 17th, 1969. In 1970, the Falcon was, for a brief time, the lowest rung of the Torino lineup, appearing as a pillared coupe only. I always liked this second generation Falcon, in showrooms for model years '66 through this '69. They were based on a shortened Fairlane platform, and even shared the wagon bodystyle and wheelbase with its larger brother. I'll take a black Futura coupe with a black vinyl roof, 302 V8, power steering and brakes and SelectShift automatic transmission! 

At the bottom right is Ford's new-for '69 Country Squire, with its innovative 3-way "Magic" doorgate and newly hidden headlights, which had been used in '68 as well. Thanks to loyal reader, Paul, for the correction! I love the '68 full sized Fords, and can't believe I forgot the XLs, LTDs and Country Squires came with hidden headlights! But that's why I love my readers, too. : ) 

"Ding Dong, Avon Calling!" In the 1960s.

Avon has sold "collector" bottles of its colognes for decades, many of them in the shape of cars. I have eight of these various bottles, three still in the box as is this '55 Thunderbird. All of them still contain the cologne in them. Believe it or not, this Thunderbird "Wild Country" cologne smells really good, and I have to stop myself from wearing it regularly. I don't want to deplete it! Some of the others include an old touring car, complete with a plastic roof windshield and pillars, two '53 Buick Skylarks and an E-Type Jaguar among others. I think it's the Jag whose aroma has gone "off," just smelling like old alcohol, but the others are still pretty fresh. I'm not positive of the production date of this Avon Tbird, but the box includes an address with a Zip Code, so it's not any older than 1963. You can see in the photo, the tail end of the car is plastic, not glass. It comes off revealing the screw top cap of the bottle. The box is 5 1/2 inches long. 

In researching for this post, to find a production date, I found a couple of these for sale at eBay and Etsy, but no production dates. The eBay item was unopened, but the Etsy piece was just the empty bottle. Don't worry folks, neither of them are mine, you know I don't sell anything except my art!

The description of the original 1955 2 seater Thunderbird is remarkably complete, right down to the use of the 292 V8 Mercury engine in that first year personal luxury coupe. Click on it to read for yourself. For some reason, I don't see a company going to the trouble of actually researching this information today for their boxes. Or, it would be wrong, lol.

Another view of the Tbird bottle, showing the plastic rear end covering the screw top.

Old Chops Never Die. Or Rust.

I'm going to revisit this concept as a chop soon. This is the late and unlamented Tbird roadster, made much more classic than the one Ford produced. I set the cab further to the rear to improve the proportions. I also changed the porthole roof, which is an idea that worked in '56, not 2006, with a sharper edged removable top with triangular quarter windows—a more classic Tbird styling trait. Overall, I tried to "butch" it up a bit more than the production car as well. I would like to start over with a better original photo one of these days. This chop dates to 2007 I believe.

A tongue-in-cheek look at the future of über luxury cars if we ever see $10/gallon gas, lol. This is the Dodge Hornet concept with a Chrysler Imperial front clip from that brown luxury concept of a couple of years ago. I was more concerned with the overall coloration of this piece, and I still love the pastel lavenders, teals and greens. The car, well, it is what it is! I think this is from 2008.

A slightly more svelte Smart ForTwo, the ForTwoPlus. I lengthened it slightly, enough for a few grocery bags on a shelf behind the front seats. I changed the trim, gave it better wheels, and added a whole bunch of small LEDs outling the front airdam, grille surround and center bar. I think it looks less like a grocery cart here. Hopefully it would somehow get better mileage than the real one, which is really disappointing considering how tiny it is.

How about a Yaris coupe? This was chopped from a photo of one of the Autoweek and MotorTrend 'regulars' back in the day, a kid named Brian. This was his mother's new Yaris in 2008 I think. Brian is a really talented musician that is probably going to hit Nashville any day now. He has several CDs he's produced already. For this chop, I wanted to see if I could  make the Yaris lower and wider, a la Harley Earl's mantra, but keep the Toyota-ness of it. I added chrome to the grille's center bar, and modified the headlights, although I don't remember just what I did to them, lol. Chromed door handles, and a glass roof add a suitable upscale touch to this little economy car. I think this is the first chop I made from a personal photo rather than a PR piece.

Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

The September 1957 issue of Popular Science magazine touted the brand-new Edsel by Ford Motor Company. In a few short years, that would be "all she wrote" about this much-hyped and much-focus group tested automobile. While the name "Edsel" has since become synonymous with "lemon" or failure, there was really nothing wrong or even out-of-the-ordinary about the Edsel except for they styling of the front grille and a couple over-the-top features. One such feature was the location of the "PRNDL" buttons; they were in the center of the steering wheel hub, the horn's customary position. They weren't built any worse than any other car in 1958, and they weren't any more prone to rust or mechanical failure. BUT, they were introduced during what has become known as the Eisenhower Recession, and it was just the wrong time for an upper-middle class car to be introduced. Car sales for the entire domestic industry were down by about half compared with the year before. Edsel's weren't "all new" either, as much as the press seemed to believe they were. The lower two series of Edsel shared inner structures with the Ford, and the upper two series were based on that year's Mercury. All images clickable to see larger.

Also new for '58 was the 4 seater version of the classic Thunderbird, featured here on the cover of Popular Mechanics' February 1958 issue. Everyone that reads my blog regularly knows I am a Tbird junkie, and I'll leave it at that, lol.

Hard to see, but here I am at the age of 5, in 1962, sitting behind the wheel of Hoohoo's '58 Silver Mink Thunderbird  coupe. The only reason I've blanked out the license plate is that I have the same number on my Infiniti today. That license tag number has been on a family car since the mid 1920s.

But Where's the Varsity Dude?

The reissued 2002-vintage box and cover art for the '58 Thunderbird scale model I had as a child. Something is missing from the original cover art though!

The original 1964 box cover art for the very same Monogram scale model. What a dreamboat, and the car ain't bad either! I don't have this box anymore, but was able to find the image online, and with a little artandcolour cleaning up, it was suitable for publishing... Images clickable as always.

R E M E M B R A N C E — This is the third copy I've owned of the same Monogram scale model kit of the 1958 Thunderbird.

The first time I set eyes on this model I was seven or eight years old. It was 1964-65 and my aunt Hoohoo, who drove a '58 T-bird, the first car I ever fell in love with, and in '64 had just bought a new one, bought the scale model for me on a shopping trip to New Haven. We were shopping for new school  clothes, and a new pencil and lunch box and looseleaf notebooks. Hoohoo always wanted all of my school supplies to match, and to have something artistic on them, and as I positively adored her, I didn't care what she bought me. I knew she would pick out something nice! On trips like that, if I behaved properly, saying Thank You, and Excuse Me, and You're Welcome, at the appropriate times to everyone we came in contact with, and she really meant EVERYONE, I was allowed a 'special' gift that had nothing to do with school. It was ALWAYS a model car for me to build, or a Matchbox car or a Corgi or a Dinky Toy.

This particular day we were in Grant's Department Store, a much larger store than anything we had in Guilford where we lived. There were two floors and the toys were in the basement. Of course I was a good boy, I always was, so after we had gotten my supplies and some shirts, pants and sweaters, we went downstairs so I could pick out a model car. There on the shelf was HER THUNDERBIRD! Her car was Silver Mink, and the car on the box was black, but it was the same year. It was the same car I would sit in the driver's seat and pretend to drive, the same car I would help her wash from top to bottom (I was on the bottom of course, being so young and short, lol) and I had eyes for nothing else on the shelves that day. I remember it was a bit more expensive than the other models. I'm not sure if Monogram was more expensive than AMT or the other model makers, or if it was because it could be built in four different ways, and the box was larger than the normal scale model, too. I really didn't know if I could pick that one out, I was always conscious of not being presumptuous! She said yes, and the gorgeous model kit was mine. I'm sure you could have seen my smile on the Moon that afternoon. Gosh I wish she had lived to a ripe old age so I could treat her as specially as she treated me, but that's another story for another post!

What I didn't know how to articulate at that young age, and something I remember so clearly I could be seven years old right now, was how drawn I was to the box cover art. They had placed the Thunderbird in a college scene, with a Varsity College Boy and his girlfriend standing outside of the car, and another attractive couple inside the car. They reminded me of the older kids I would see on the Patty Duke Show, Dobie Gillis, The Donna Reed Show, or any number of early sixties TV. I always had crushes on high-school or college boys, even at that young age, although I didn't realize what I was feeling. I liked their 'Letter Sweaters' their chinos, their crewcuts or 'butch' haircuts, their unwavering, smiling good looks. When I hear some TV commentator or political hack talking about gay being a 'choice' or a 'lifestyle' I get mad or laugh, depending on how my day went. I was gay the minute I was born, probably before that, and by the age of seven or eight, though I had no idea what those feelings were, I knew that the Varsity Boy was as intriguing to me as the car he was standing next to. Long story short, I really don't know what happened to that actual scale model. I have a feeling I assembled it poorly, lacking painting and gluing skills, and I also have a feeling the "demon seed" brother probably destroyed it at some point. But I never forgot the model or the box art.

The second time I purchased that model, in the same box, with the same cover art, was in 1981 or so, just after I found out that Hoohoo had been diagnosed with cancer and probably wasn't going to recover. I was 24 years old, and searched all over for the kit so I could recreate her coupe for her. In those pre-Internet days, that involved a lot of driving, but I managed to find one. My modeling skills had improved quite a bit by young adulthood, and I really put everything I could into detailing it for her. I painted the interior black with white pleated inserts like her original, the exterior color was as close as I could get to Silver Mink, and I painted the engine and undercarriage in realistic colors. She loved it, and kept it where she could see it whether she was at home, or in the hospital or eventually, the hospice. A couple of years after she died, her husband, my Uncle Bill (also my father's brother) killed himself, and when we had to clean out the house, I found the T-bird model in many pieces in the back of a drawer. I'm not sure what happened to it, maybe my uncle smashed it in frustration or something. I still have it in a baggie so all the parts won't get lost, but I've never had the heart to put it back together again, and that was 25 years ago.

So in 2002, on a regular "scouting mission" for my now-vast model collection, I found this re-issue of the model at Toys R Us. The actual kit is exactly the same, although it's advertised on the front as a convertible. There is clearly a hardtop option visible on the boxsides, and the original had a separate hardtop too, but the box it came in is totally different. Now it's the same shoebox-shape as 99% of all 1:24 scale models, rather than the oversized box of the original. The box art is generic too, lacking the college kids and the rest of the painted artwork. I haven't put this T-bird together, but I enjoy having my kits in unbuilt condition these days. I have enough dust-collectors to stare at and watch disintegrate from what life throws at them. Now I like my kits to remain fresh and clean in their plastic wrapped boxes, unbuilt, but also perfect and unblemished—much like my memories of Hoohoo, her low and sleek '58 Thunderbird and a certain Letter-Sweatered Varsity Boy.

Here's a link describing the original kit and its box graphics.

The Art of the Chop—1970 Thunderbird

What if Ford had further developed earlier Thunderbird design cues such as slim rear quarter windows and rear fender skirts on their almost-a-fastback 1970 model? I pushed the front wheels forward several inches for a shorter overhang and more classic steering wheel-to-axle proportion. As extreme as this looks, it's just about the same as the classic Continental Mark II of '56-'57. 

Photos of older cars are harder to find than press photos of new cars, so I'll take what I get as long as the resolution is adequate. This car had seen better days in the original, so while I fixed a few flaws in recreating it, I kept the look of a slightly used car. I'm including the original photo below to show that in addition to the changes to the car, I "touched up" the background as well. There was something about the car that screamed for graffiti, which I found on a photo of the new Kia Optima. I also deleted the apartment building in the rear and added a canopy of trees for that "tree grows in Brooklyn" look which I find so appealing.

Original image of a fading glory, a white 1970 Thunderbird standard coupe, which I found through Google Images. Even in less than mint condition, vintage Thunderbirds have a glamour about them that doesn't fade no matter how much the paint does. 

1970 Thunderbird Sportroof Sedan Sketches

A 1970 Four Door Thunderbird, based on the Coupe's lower roofline and shorter wheelbase. The Sportroof Sedan might had been a bit more mainstream than the more formal Landau Sedan produced from  1967-71. Shown in one of Ford's great colors from the era, Copper Glow with a Ginger interior and dark charcoal vinyl roof.

C H O P S — In the Lincoln MK-Zephyr post Comments, regular reader Keith/PhantomX, and I agreed that the 1970-71 Thunderbird fastback coupe was a great looking car. Keith has owned one before and is looking for another one. I wondered what a 4 door Tbird based on the coupe's lines would look like, the beginning question of most chops of mine. What if ... I did a few quick chops of this idea tonight, sketches really since the photos weren't that great to start with. 

I think the look is a bit more contemporary and mainstream for the period than the severely formal roofed Landau Sedan Ford offered. The image above shows the car with its trademark suicide doors. I've used door openings cut into the roof a bit to help with the Coupe's lower roofline. I've done a few variations of the second photo, including two with, gasp, normal opening rear doors! Ford dropped the suicide doors on the '70 Lincoln Continental sedans that year, so it's possible they would have tried to mainstream the Tbird's rear apertures as well. 

Original photo for above chop. Even when the resolution is high enough, and this was originally 1600px wide, the quality of the original photo and of the digital scan also plays into the selection process. I try not to have to restore the actual photograph before I can start pushing the pixels around. In this case I liked the color of the carand the angle the car is parked, so I used it anyway.

I'm not sure why the Ember coupe above came with the mid bodyside rubstrip moldings, and the Silver green coupe below had chrome rocker panel and rear quarter panel moldings. Perhaps it's a trim-level thing. I'll have to find my old dealer brochures for this year, and see if I can get to the bottom of this discrepancy. Original sources are usually the best.

A slightly used-looking example of a Sportroof Sedan with suicide doors. Note the slight rust on the rear quarters and rear doors.

The same car with 'normal' opening rear doors, and rendered in an old, stained snapshot-like format.

The same car in a slightly more colorful presentation! Click on each image to enlarge. 

Both of the base photos for these chops were found with Google Images, and show well-preserved examples of the Landau Coupe, but they were not high-resolution press photos by any stretch.

Crouching Tigers, Driving Dogs

Click on image to enlarge.

C H O P — It doesn't happen very often, but I really can't remember what the original car was in this chop, lol. It very well might have been any number of ill-proportioned, or frankly ungainly Chinese cars in the news these past few years, but for some reason I don't think it was. It might have been a Korean Daewoo... Whatever it may have started out as, I've made it into a compact RWD Chinese sport coupe. It's now a pleasingly proportioned Crouching Tiger, presented in a silvery-mint green with a dark henna or russet leather interior—an odd, but one of my favorite, juxtapositions of colors.

Why Crouching Tiger, besides a partial riff on a movie title? 'Cuz the Chinese are the absolute KING of, shall we say, colorful, names. These are some examples of Chinese cars shown in the last year, for realz—Dongfen Crazy Soldier, Geely Beauty Leopard, Geely PU Rural Nanny, Tang Hau Book of Songs (seriously!), and Tang Hau Detroit Fish. I think Crouching Tiger is almost blasé in comparison! Click image for maximum beauty!

B T W : 

On second thought, this is not the way you should be transporting your Great Dane, fabulous 1961 Thunderbird convertible or not.

Driving with Dogs

One of my close friends, Bette, lives in Seattle so we don't see each other very often—twice in 10 years maybe, lol. We email almost daily, and we keep up through our blogs. She's the coolest artiste-type, (would I know any other?). Bette is a cinematographer with many credits, an avid gardener, auto mechanic, full-size Boy Scout cutout owner, inventor, owner of Tiny Growl, and now blog owner/writer. She is a huge animal lover and a tireless proponent of animal rights—think of a young Doris Day without the hit songs—yet! She has created the ScooPup Pocket, an awesomely simple and attractive carrying bag for dog poopies, and writes Walking the Dog listed in my blog roll on the right side of this site. Her most recent post is about carrying your beloved pets in the car safely—safely for them as well as for you. When it comes to animals, there is no Que Sera Sera in Bette's life—it's all proactive and very much well-thought out.

While I haven't owned a pet since a few stray cats were forced upon me as a child, meow, meow my ass, I certainly don't hold a love of pets against people. It's not like they're Republicans, lol. I KID—don't write mean comments... Please check her latest post out if you own dogs, transport dogs, ever saw a dog on the street, or if you just want a good read. Click here.

Once a Mercedes, Always a Mer. . . Not So Much!

Starting out as a Mercedes Benz CL coupe, this new Chevy Bel Air is a favorite chop of mine. It incorporates several classic Bill Mitchell GM styling cues—a flying-buttress roofline, trademark "2-hole" Chevy taillights, and the pillarless coupe styling that the original 1950 Bel Air brought to the masses. Just about the only Mercedes left in it are the front fender bulges and rear valance panel with quad tailpipes. The louvered rocker panel trim piece wouldn't necessarily be functional, but is a styling detail that Harley Earl and Mitchell both would have loved. You know the drill: click images to enlarge.

This slightly tongue-in-cheek Ford Crown Victoria chop is a bit lower in resolution than I work in now. It dates back a few years. The donor image was an S63 AMG sedan, but the only Mercedes left in it are the rocker panels and rear valance/exhaust pipes. I wanted this large RWD Ford sedan to evoke the Crown Victorias of the early '90s, hence the 6-light DLO, although the C pillar window treatment is actually a bit '70s inspired. A full-length chrome beltline modling incorporating the door handles, is a touch that goes back to the '30s on many cars, as well as early '60s Fords. Rover first brought this styled molding back in the '90s on its last UK-built cars, but I think it could work on today's cars if done right. The front and rear styling was meant to be "Super" Fusion in appearance, although the chrome molding on the trunk lid with the Ford logo centered on it is very '68 Torino. The slight indents on the hood and trunk lids suggest Ford's trademark dual paint stripes used on it's performance models. The vertical headlights evoke the '65-'67 fullsize Fords, and the polished silver front passenger door is a nod to the Crown Vic's long-standing record as a police vehicle.

This Thunderbird is based on an image of the CL coupe, just as the Bel Air above was. I'm sure by now you've recognized the rear diffuser with quad exhaust and the rocker—I think they work really well so why change 'em, lol? My Thunderbird chops usually continue the 'real' Thunderbirds—the posh 4-5 seat luxury coupes that first entered the market in '58. This Tbird uses the classic indented trunklid of the '64-'71 models, but takes it a step further by indenting the rear window too, creating a glorious 3D piece of glass-probably enormously difficult and expensive to produce! Large square multi-element taillights and pillarless 2 door coupe styling are more Tbird cues, and the broad C pillar with Thunderbird logo round out this return to sporting elegance!

Thunderbird: Unique in All the World

My 1967 Thunderbird GT estate wagon, complete with reversible Pucci seat cushions. The real 4 door Tbird, with Lincoln-inspired suicide doors and a tight 4 place bucket seat interior, is one of my favorite Tbirds of all time. Adding a hatch and upping the lux was a natural. Click on all images to enlarge.

My version of an '80 Thunderbird. Instead of using the actual Fairmont-based Tbird fielded that year, I cut down the previous '77-'79 Tbird, resulting in a more attractive, and appropriate, Thunderbird. I rendered it to resemble a wrinkled piece of sketch paper.

The 4th generation Thunderbird, 1964-66, also known as the Squarebird, lend's its lines quite well to a Squire type wagon. I used the suicide-type doors, as Tbird would in '67 for its new 4 door. The unitized body could well have supported an upward opening rear hatch. It would have opened 24 inches into the roof, similar to the late Dodge Magnum's hatch, and would have included the glass of course, leaving the trademark bumper-encircled taillights intact. The wood option was a no-brainer-Country Squires were all the rage in the '60s.

This '64 Sedan is a perfect example of using Photoshop to modify cars. This original Googled image was the standard painted-roof coupe. I've photoshopped it into the suicide door sedan seen here as well as the Squire wagon above. Notice in the wagon photo I've 'deleted' the large rock and sign in front of the driver's door. I've learned to retouch photos in almost any way you can think of, while having fun at the Mac and creating digital works of art of my favorite subject: cars. Work, Education and Fun all at the same time. Not a bad way to spend hours and hours and hours...

C H O P — Thunderbirds have long played a role in my life. The first car I ever fell in love with (age 5) was my aunt Hoohoo's Silver Mink '58 Coupe. Then it was her '64 Diamond Blue coupe she gave me at the age of 16 (along with the '69 Comet I mentioned below that my dad gave me that year. 2 cars for one birthday-I haven't quite hit the jackpot like that since, lol!)

I've chopped more than 25 Thunderbirds in Photoshop throughout the past 5 years. I've created modern ones, and I've 'adjusted' older ones. I use these renderings as practice in Photoshop, hence the various treatments seen here—trying to make them look old/wrinkled at the same time I'm changing their lines in some way. Many, and I mean many, things I've learned by creating these 'fake' cars I've ended up using in the books I design, and in restoring antique photographs.

This fake ad is based on one of the '66 Thunderbird's real ads which appeared in the National Geographic. I changed the roofline's C pillar, added two fixed "skylights," and cleaned up details all around. I also rewrote the taglines and text to reflect this new model's features. I used various filters to make the ad appear aged and stained, as so many vintage paper pieces become. I think the ad captures the feeling of Ford's sixties advertising quite well.