With the top down, there’s no trunk space.” “If you take it off, you have to leave it at home,” Raymond said.
#Red thunderbird car full#
The “tonneau” is a fiberglass piece that lifts off to reveal the full back seat. It took about two months but finally he did sell it to us,” Raymond said. “After I sold (my Thunderbird), he said, ‘Well, maybe I’ll sell you the red one.’ Then he backed out. He had told me he would never sell it because it was a Sports Roadster,” Raymond said.
Raymond was interested in buying the car but Cioffi was reluctant to sell. “The rest of it is like it was when he had it.”
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“I sanded it all down and painted it with a base coat and a clear coat,” said Raymond, who checked the code on the door to get the original Rangoon Red color. “It was rough, it had a lot of fish-eyes and it was just acrylic enamel so it faded. “Somebody had painted it and didn’t do a very good job,” said Raymond of the Roadster’s condition. He had it for years,” Raymond said.Īfter Cioffi purchased the T-Bird, he turned to Raymond, who had worked on other cars Cioffi owned, including a ’53 Hudson and a ’56 Buick convertible. He used to drive it out of the driveway and put it back in the garage. The car, manufactured in Detroit, was first sent to Miami where it sold for $5,100 to a man from Montreal who eventually moved it to Maquam Shores in St. Raymond was familiar with the Roadster and owner Robert Cioffi, who brought it to Raymond’s shop to be repainted. When I got the chance to sell the other one, I bought this one from my friend,” Raymond recalled at the Better L8 Than Never car show in Bristol in September. “I really like Thunderbirds and I wanted a convertible. “I had a Thunderbird before this one, a year newer but it was a hardtop,” said Raymond, who operates KAR Auto Body in St. One of those 1963 models is traveling the roads of Vermont under the hands of owner Ken Raymond of St. The car cost around $5,400 and only 1,427 were produced in 1962 with another 455 coming out in 1963 before production ceased. According to, “a fiberglass tonneau cover, designed by Bud Kaufman, fit over the rear seat area of the normal four-seat convertible to give the appearance of a two-seater with a very long rear deck.”Ī 390-cubic inch motor capable of 300-340 horsepower drove the 4,400-pound vehicle. By 1958, the T-Bird had gained a full rear seat, disappointing many of the early enthusiasts.īy 1962-63, Ford decided to recapture the interest of those dispossessed fans with a modification designed to recreate the two-seat look, though in larger form. The Thunderbird originally was introduced as a sporty two-seat convertible in 1955, although Ford did not tout it as a sports car rival to Chevrolet’s Corvette, but rather as a personal luxury vehicle. Though Ford was pleased to see sales of the Thunderbird rise to a record-breaking 21,380 units for 1957, company executives felt the car could do even better, leading to a substantial redesign of the car for 1958.According to the website the Thunderbird Sports Roadster manufactured by Ford in 1962-63 was “a gesture toward buyers pining for the two-seat Thunderbird” of earlier years. Other, more powerful versions of the 312 cu in (5.1 L) V8 were available including one with two four-barrel Holley carburetors and another with a Paxton supercharger rated at 300 hp (224 kW). The 312 cu in (5.1 L) V8 became the Thunderbird's standard engine, and was now rated at 245 hp (183 kW). The instrument panel was heavily re-styled with round gauges in a single pod, and the rear of the car was lengthened, allowing the spare tire to be positioned back in the trunk.
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The Thunderbird was revised for 1957 with a reshaped front bumper, a larger grille and tailfins, and larger tail lamps.
Under rapid development, the Thunderbird went from idea to prototype in about a year, being unveiled to the public at the Detroit Auto Show on February 20, 1954. The Ford Thunderbird was introduced in February 1953 as response to Chevrolet's new sports car, the Corvette, which was publicly unveiled in prototype form just a month before. The Ford Thunderbird '57 has come out in the following versions:
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