If you were asked to identify one car from the 1950s that was either the most unique or outrageous, would it be the Ford retractable hardtop? You remember, don’t you, that full-size Ford from 1957-59 where the entire roof of the car would pull back and fold up into what normally would be the trunk. This Ford Galaxie Skyliner is from 1959, the final year of production for this interesting exercise in 1950s technology. It’s in pretty rough shape and will need a thorough restoration. From its current resting place in Spring Valley, California (east of San Diego), this representative from days gone by is available here on eBay where the bidding is at just $1,505 with an unmet reserve.
Ford first rolled out the Fairlane 500 Skyliner as a two-door, full-size car for 1957 that had a disappearing hardbody roof. It was produced for just three model years and saw less than 50,000 copies built in total. At the time of its introduction, the Skyliner was the only true hardtop convertible in the world. The Skyliner had a complex mechanism that folded the front of the roof and then tucked it under the rear decklid. The top had six or seven reversible electric motors, four lift jacks, a series of relays, 10 limit switches, 10 solenoids, four locking roof mechanisms, and two locking mechanisms for the trunk lid, along with a bunch of wire. The reliability of this complex system has been debated for years. During the car’s final year, its name was changed to the Galaxie Skyliner as it became part of that premiere new series of cars, and yet you would find both Galaxie 500 and Fairlane 500 badges on the vehicle.
When you look over the car, the extent of the restoration that will be required is enormous. Lots of rust and dents wherever you look. To help deal with the sheet metal issues, the seller has a bunch of extras to go along with the car: two front fenders, two doors, and a spare hood. The right rear quarter panel looks to have a bunch of damage, although no single photo zeros in on it. The floors look as though they will have to be replaced, as well.
On the good news front, the car appears to still run as the seller tells us it was driven onto the flatbed trailer used to bring it from a “barn” to where it is now. But it didn’t do it very well because the gasoline in the fuel system is about as old as the car itself. There was more than one engine choice for the 1959 Skyliner and this one has the 332 cubic inch V-8 that would have been good for 225 hp back in the day. The engine is paired with Ford’s Cruise-O-Matic transmission and a 3.10 rear end.
The seller seems confident that this car has the makings of a big bucks cruiser after all the work is done. While the rust/bodywork is one thing, the integrity of its complex retractable hardtop system has to be a major concern and the seller makes no mention of it in the sales pitch. Fixing or replacing some of those parts and mechanisms, if need be, maybe difficult to source after 60+ years.
Awful lot of moving parts in the roof. Seems like a Never ending headache On paper anyway.
I’m a little smitten with this car and I didn’t expect to be. It has homewrecker written all over it. I like it.
Awful lot of moving parts is the key to this car. Imagine needing some of those movable parts . Great parts car.
I had the 1959 Ford Galaxie Fairlane 500 Skyliner H9FW108948 from March 1974 to May 1980. It was in Tahitian Bronze (the only year Ford used that colour) & Colonial White two-tone. I did a moderate restoration of it, installing NOS fenders, rocker & quarter panels. I replaced its 332-2V engine with a remanufactured 1971 390. I put a 1959 4V manifold & carburetor, & chrome Thunderbird valve covers on it. While doing the repairs, I found the frame rails had badly rusted. I just patched these & didn’t bother to restore the interior, although I kept the contact number for a man who had fabric in the (rare) Tahitian Bronze pattern.
The car proved to be fast as Hell
Concerns about the top mechanism aer unfounded. With my car & those of a few other Skyliner owners I’ve known, the top was completely trouble-free in the whole time I had the car.
Remember when American auto makers made cool cars like this? Pepperidge Farm remembers
That was before the BEAN COUNTER MBAS totally took over. You could put something like this out as an experiment to see what might work and sell. Of course UNCLE didn’t DEMAND EVERYTHING the same Exact SPECS either.
Bill Hall,
Actually, the bean counters at Ford Motor Company realized this convertible top system, originally planned for the Continental Mark II in 1956/57, would result in the company losing tens of thousands of Dollars for each vehicle sold, due to the projected limited Mark II sales. [They were correct!]
In an attempt to recover the substantial research & development costs for the retracting roof, the company bean counters decided it would be better if the system was manufactured as a Ford car, and the anticipated sales numbers would help recover a larger portion of the R&D costs.
As it ended up, Ford still lost thousands of Dollars for each retractable manufactured, hence the decision to stop production in 1959. However the company still continued to use some of the retract system on the Lincoln Continental 4-door convertible and the T-Bird convertible, including the trunk lid, upper back panel, and the electrical system.
Rube Goldberg would be proud. I had one back in the 90’s, purchased it with top not working, had it working a week later (with a little help from Dad, a mechanical engineer). My biggest concern when buying a “barn find” retractable would be getting the trunk lid open to start working on the top. It screws closed like a bank vault, so if the motors don’t work, you are “screwed”.
It looks like the left side is held closed by duct tape
Fred W,
Nope, give me a 9/16 socket on a 3″ extension, 3/8 socket wrench, and a flat head screwdriver, and I’ll have the trunk open in less than 20 minutes. Here’s how:
In both rear inner fenders, at the location of the top screws inside the trunk area, is a 9/16 hex head bolt. Using the screwdriver, you remove the dirt and undercoating around the bolt head. Then use the socket & wrench setup to remove both bolts. [Easier to do with both rear wheels removed.]
This allows both the male part of the screw jack, along with the female part, to come up when the trunk lid is gently pried up using some wooden shims. There is enough play in the system to allow the trunk lid to be lifted high enough to reach the 2 long screw jacks that open up the trunk lid. Each has a pull-pin at the point it attaches to the trunk lid.
Pulling both pins allows the pivot pins to be removed, then the trunk lid can raised all the way up [but do brace it with a 6′ 2X4 or it can fall back down].
This is basically the same as the T-Bird and Continental convertibles.
In 1970 I was part of the last FOMOCO training school for the Retract, T-Bird & Continental convertibles. I still have the course training books and the factory service books for all 3 types.
The number one reason one of these won’t work, is because an idiot, without consulting the factory manuals, tries to make adjustments to the system. Adjusted correctly, these are VERY reliable. Over the years the Retract Club members have figured out most of the other problems like corrosion in the push-on connectors for the solenoids.
If you buy one,join the club & get the manuals.
The last FOMOCO class I went to was before the debut of the Granada/Monarch at the Ford plant in Pico Rivera, Ca. I still have all of my factory manuals as well. I’m still wondering if the mechanisms got simpler as the years went on.
Used to work with a guy who was a mechanic at a Ford garage at one time. He told me stories about the Skylines’ and issues with the top. After he fixed the first one, he got every one after that while he worked there. Sounds like Fred is the ‘go to’ man for anyone that has one of these with top issues. ‘-)
Personally, this one looks like a parts car to me.
It’s a complicated mechanism, but if you have a schematic and understand the sequence of events, it can be troubleshooted fairly easily. For example, when you hit the top button, the trunk lid unscrews and the motor lifts it up, triggering the mechanism that unscrews the top, which triggers the lifting mechanism, which triggers the folding mechanism. etc etc. If an event doesn’t happen, you first go to the switch that is supposed to trigger it, or the associated wiring. Parts are readily available from Jerry’s Classic Cars and others. If you want one, start with the best one you can find and use one like this for parts.
Is it true that the top mechanisms were simplified over the three years these cars were available? So the’57 was the most complicated and the ‘59 was the least? I thought I read that somewhere.
The system you describe, and the troubleshooting method, are straight out of the Industrial Control handbook. All you need is an Allen Bradley PLC and the ability to write the control program.
IIRC, the mechanism was developed for the Continental Mark II. As that prestigious model was loosing money for Ford and only lasted for two years, Ford tried to amortize development costs by adapting the mechanism to the Ford line. Interestingly, the name was transferred from the glass top Fords of 1954-’56. Though greatly simplified, much of the mechanism lived on in the early and middle Sixties Lincoln and Thunderbird convertibles.
“car appears to still run as the seller tells us it was driven onto the flatbed trailer”.
One has to wonder if when they were driving it they even dared to press that “Top” button. .
OK, I’ll admit this idea is not for an amateur like me, but let me think out loud – this being a very rusty example it’ll require enormous amounts of work anyway. Wouldn’t it make a usable donor to build an Edsel Skycruiser out of…? I mean; if one should happen to be very good with bodywork and have access to a restorable Ranger or Pacer ?
https://forums.aaca.org/topic/75707-edsel-retractable-hardtop/
I own a 58 Edsel retractable that was built using a 57 Ford retract. It is a TON of work to do this swap correctly. It’s relatively easy to bolt an Edsel front clip on, but to weld on the Edsel rear quarters, tail lights and rear end, as well as the Edsel dash and teletouch transmission, is not for the inexperienced. I’ve had my car (with the full Edsel conversion described above) for over 15 years. Once set up correctly the top works very reliably, and – YES – the car does turn heads.
I can only imagine it’s a massive process and of course easier with an AMT kit than IRL! Are you the builder of that Edsel of yours?
It was just an idea that crossed my mind since the ’59 in question seems to be all junk apart from the roof section. I know how much of a spectacle regular Skyliners make so I have no doubts your Edsel make most people look twice…! 👍
No, I didn’t build my Edsel retractable, I’m just the current caretaker. A gentleman by the name of Galen Weber built the car sometime in the 1980s and he is a master craftsman. My understanding is that he built the retract Edsel would have / should have built, and he spared no detail to make it as factory looking as possible (i.e. true Edsel sedan tail lights that had to be grafted on, not wagon tail lights that simply bolt onto a 57 Ford). Same level of detail on the Edsel Citation side trim, full Edsel interior, etc.
My first car as a new 17 year old NJ driver in 1970 was a 1962 Lincoln Continental soft top convertible. Complete with all the mechanisms for the top to retract into the trunk. Fortunately for me, I was at home, putting the top down when it decided to stop halfway. Couldn’t get it up or down. Couldn’t drive the car with the top halfway in midair. My father was a machinist and it took him about an hour, but he got it working again. That was the only time I can recall it not working properly.
Ford/Lincoln had a thing for backward operations. The hood opened backward, as did the trunk lid and rear doors.
But, for a 17 year old kid, it was a fun car.
more recent ones a beemer and a vedub, MB, Mazda, lets C…porsche, ferrari, I think McLaren…
ford didn’t start it did they?
chrlsful,
No, Ford didn’t have the first metal retracting top, that honor goes to the 1930’s Peugeot Model 601D Eclipse. It’s generally accepted as the first retractable hardtop. Google Peugeot Eclipse to see examples, a beautiful car, top up or down.