SOLD to Alabama!! This 1955 Ford Thunderbird is a wonderful touring car that with its red livery looks sharp anywhere. It was restored for one purpose: cross-country driving. This is not a trailer queen, but a car meant to be a dependable and great looking touring car.

This is a consignment from Doug and Mimi from San Diego, terrific long term clients of ours that have slowly been reducing their collection as the years advance. This particular car was purchased in 2011 for Mimi by Doug to celebrate her birth year: 1955. Since being under Mimi’s ownership, they have driven it on many extended tours, including about 4,000 miles round trip from San Diego to Biloxi, MS for the Cruising the Coast auto show.

The Torch Red paint (Code R or 70540) was done many years ago and shows several areas of defects if you look closely. This was the original color and always looks stunning! From ten feet away, the car looks terrific with plenty of gloss and a nice deep luster. The photos highlight the main defective areas, which include one small scratch and areas of poor body prep under the paint. The chrome and stainless trim are in good condition. The bumpers look more recently chromed while the other trim show some pitting, but in line with the rest of the car.

The interior is overall in good condition. The red and white two tone looks sharp! The original red dash covering is in good condition and they made a red cloth cover to snap over it to protect it from sun exposure. The seats and door panels have been done in red and white vinyl and show well. The carpet looks very nice in red loop.

Mechanically, the car has been thoroughly gone through and it runs great! As an example, I offered to have the car shipped from San Diego to our showroom in Phoenix and the owners declined. They wanted to drive it! And they did. All 360 miles! And they made sure the car is bullet proof for tours by spending over $20,000 in labor alone to go through the car.

The mechanical upgrades include:

7,000 miles on a complete engine rebuild of the 292 cu in V8 (excellent compression)
Edelbrock 500 cfm 4 barrel carburetor
Power steering and rebuilt steering box
New radiator, 6 blade fan and thermostat with custom fan shroud and overflow tank
All brakes and other ancillary systems rebuilt
Converted to 12 volt
Auxiliary oil pressure and water temperature gauges

If you are looking for a trailer queen, skip this car. This is a great looking and wonderful driving car meant to be dependable when most old cars aren’t. And in Torch Red, this is a real looker! For more details, call Harry Clark at +1.602.245.7200 or email us at harry@classicpromenade.com.