The 1955 Ford
Thunderbird was the first of that name. In a way, it was Ford's answer to Chevrolet's Corvette sports car, though Ford marketed it as being simply a sporty-looking two seater. Which it was.
Those T-Birds appeared around the same time as Ford's heavily facelifted 1955 models bearing the newly fashionable panoramic (wraparound) windshields. Line-topping Ford Fairlanes featured a rather odd "checkmark" shaped side chrome strip that served as a color divider for two-tone paint schemes.
Production Thunderbirds lacked that detail. But a few pre-production cars had it. Moreover, early T-Bird advertisements showed it. Why was it eliminated for production? I don't know. One guess is that it had been decided that there would be no two-toned Thunderbirds. Another is that the cars looked better without that trim.
Below are largely Ford images illustrating T-Bird checkmark side trim. Click on most of them to enlarge.
Gallery
A production 1955 Thunderbird, Mecum auction photo.
Advertisement showing that side trim. Clearly, the decision to not use the trim came too late to affect early advertising.
A publicity photo of a T-Bird with side trim.
Probably the same car with its hard top removed and canvas top raised. Same lady, same house in the background.
Taken near the same time as the color photo above, judging by the shadows.
Same house, but a different day (after a rain shower), different models, and a different car -- a production job.
2 comments:
The first generation Ford Thunderbird is an all-time favorite of mine. I've seen the side spear treatment before. It probably looked better in person than in the images you shared, but I still prefer the clean lines of the production model, even going so far as to say those little fake vents or whatever they are in front of the V8 emblem are not necessary. 1956 is my favorite of the three years. 1957 tailfins are not my thing, and in 1955-no porthole! Here is a borrowed image of a custom that takes my ideal to the extreme, but I like it:
https://images.classic.com/vehicles/9dc426a0302bf51f5ede1f3236d1cc5f7d86163b.jpg?w=672&h=576
The change was done so late it must have been directed by Henry II or someone else in a top position (who probably went to the top to make it happen). Some product planner types must have wanted the checkmark to link the Thunderbird more closely with the regular Fairlanes, but lost out at the last minute, maybe to the head of styling. It wasn't just substituting the fake louvres for the checkmark but also changing the fender die to make the sculpture of the fender go with the louvres. Anyway, good call.
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