Grandpa’s Beauty: 1955 Ford Thunderbird

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Grandpa put this car away in the garage in 1985, and now the old house has been sold so the car has to go. The seller has listed this 1955 Ford Thunderbird for sale here on eBay. Currently bidding is up to $8,300 but the reserve naturally has not been met at that price. The first-year T-Bird is located in Westlake, Ohio.

As you can see, someone has been under the hood, although apart from saying the drive train condition is unknown we know nothing about the mechanical condition of the car. Of course, since it hasn’t moved in at least 34 years, you can expect some issues! Even under the dust it’s pretty though in black paint.

Unfortunately, all of that paint isn’t intact. Kudos to the seller for showing us the bad along with the good. Of course, everything you could possibly need for this car is available, so even if what looks like surface rust turns out to be worse you’ll be able to get patch panels or even replacement ones.

We have no way of knowing if this is the original interior or just a nice reproduction, but it certainly looks like it could be cleaned up pretty easily. The shifter is indicative of an automatic transmission, but let’s see what else we can learn from the data plate. This great data plate site gives us all the information we need. It turns out the car is the 114,772nd Ford (not Thunderbird) assembled in 1955 and is wearing the correct Raven Black paint. The black and white trim is also correct. It was the 69th car scheduled to be produced on the second day of December and was originally delivered to the Detroit sales area. Isn’t that cool that we can get all that information? Thank you to the internet!

Like all 1955 Thunderbirds, the car has a 312 cubic inch V8. This car apparently was never converted from its original 6-volt system, and the rest of the pictures have me believing it is a very original example. What do you think? What experience do you have with the original “Baby Birds”?

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Comments

  1. Todd Zuercher

    What do I think? I think this car has been shown here before a few days ago.

    Like 6
    • Brian

      Editing Correction:
      In 1955 Thunderbirds (and all of Ford’s product lineup) would only have a 292 cu in Y-Block OH8 as an engine option to the 6 cyl.

      1956 was the first year the 312 was available.

      Like 0
  2. 70SuperSport

    This car didn’t meet reserve at $10400 in prior auction

    Like 4
  3. b-rad jeepster

    It’s like dega vu all over again

    Like 3
  4. patrick george

    292 was biggest for 1955

    Like 3
  5. Pookie Jamie

    Again?? Sell the darn thing!

    Like 3
  6. pete

    Didn’t care then don’t care now

    Like 1
  7. george

    why waste your time bidding on it, he may end it early like he did on the 58 bonneville

    Like 4
  8. Bob McK

    I owned one of these that needed a lot of work like this one. I sold it for $7K and was happy that it fund a new home. It even had both tops. This one is sitting on a girt floor in Ohio. Guess what. The frame is probably rusted a lot.

    Like 2
  9. Jim

    Right. The 312 wasn’t made in 1955 —
    You beat me to that comment —

    Like 0
  10. Harley505

    This is the same guy that pulled the listing ‘’Buried 58 Pontiac’’ from eBay, he basically tells the same story Grandfathers Car… Selling his house… Grandpa must have been a car collector, I can see an another oldie parked in front of this one! Well at least this T-Bird is not buried!

    Like 0

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