Success Story: A Tale of Three 1978 Thunderbirds

Shortly after featuring a low mileage 1979 Ford Thunderbird, you can see Scotty’s post here, reader BillO posted a photo in the comments section of a 1978 Thunderbird that he just so happened to find here on Barn Finds. He’s now the proud owner of said T-Bird, so I asked him if he would send us more photos and information on his find. To my surprise, he sent over an email right away with not just the story of his T-Bird, but the story of how he became a fan of the late 70’s Thunderbird. It’s a fun read and a great success story, so you can find it below in Bill’s own words.

BillO – Even during my last couple of years of college, I was dreaming of what new car I would buy when I graduated in 1977. Although I was driving a pretty decent 1971 Ford LTD my father had bought new when I was in high school, I couldn’t wait to get my own car. When the new, smaller Thunderbirds came out for 1977, I had my sights on one. I graduated college in May 1977 and went to work immediately. I started looking for a Thunderbird but they were hard to find since they were selling so well. One salesman tried to talk me into an LTD II, saying they were basically the same car, but I liked the styling of the Thunderbird so much better. But my mission was to save a little money for a nice down payment along with the money from my LTD. After much persistence from my sister’s mother-in-law to buy my LTD, I sold it to her a few days after Christmas 1977. I had decided to order me a new 1978 Thunderbird just like I wanted. Meanwhile, I would drive my now deceased father’s 1972 Chevrolet C10 to work. That first day, a Thursday, the truck let me down by the headlights not working when I left work that December evening to go home. After 24 hours of trying to get it fixed from a slow-moving mechanic, I drove home Friday and made it my mission to get that car ordered on Saturday morning.

That Saturday morning, December 31, I walked into the showroom of Lee Motor Company in Wilson, NC, and there it was, a black Thunderbird with a dove grey top and dove grey vinyl interior. I had planned to order brown, but the black and grey car was so striking I decided it was for me. It was a well-optioned base model, even though it still lacked a few options I wanted like cornering lights and velour interior. I test drove it and decided to purchase it. It listed for $8,222, and I quickly made a deal at $7,500 out the door. I probably could have made a little better deal, but they weren’t dealing on Thunderbirds too much because they were such a hot seller. I put down a small deposit on the car and had to wait all weekend until Tuesday to go to the bank for financing. It was a LONG weekend. The banks were closed on Monday for the New Year’s holiday (it never occurred to me to finance through the dealer). I financed $4,600 with a monthly payment of $132.

The car served me well on the 50-mile round trip commute to work. I often thought maybe I should have gotten something more economical like one of the new smaller GM cars such as Buick Regal or Pontiac Grand Prix, but I still really enjoyed the Thunderbird. After almost three years, I was promoted and moved to Washington, NC, 50 miles away. Now I wouldn’t be putting the miles on the car quite as quickly by living right in town. However, by now I was dating a young lady that was moving to Raleigh, which was 100 miles away. So most every weekend the car was making the 200 miles round trip to Raleigh. We married in September 1982. We took the car on our honeymoon to Niagara Falls and Toronto, ON. I also drove the car on several trips to the NC mountains and to Florida. In 1989 my mother died and I got her 1984 Oldsmobile Delta 88 Royale LS. After 112,000 miles and over 11 years on the road, I semi-retired the black Thunderbird. I decided not to sell it, but would someday get it back on the road. By now, we had a young son with another son soon on the way. By 1994, I had tired of my job and got a job in Raleigh where my wife’s parents lived. I had a mechanic in Washington work on the car so I could get the Thunderbird ready for the move.

I made two attempts to put the car on the road to Raleigh, but it was not yet ready for such a trip. I called my cousin about one-third of the trip to Raleigh and asked him to tow it with his wrecker to my home. The car would not pass inspection in my new county. By now I thought I had lost interest in getting the Thunderbird back on the road, so in 1997 I decided to donate it to the American Lung Association. I thought it was best I not be there the day they took it away.

I almost immediately regretted getting rid of the Thunderbird. In 2003 I found a 1978 Ford Thunderbird Diamond Jubilee listed in the paper for $2,000 with 104,000 miles. I went to look at the car and bought it for $1,750. It was not like most Diamond Jubilees that were all ember or all blue. It was white with a dark blue vinyl top and dark blue leather interior. The car was bought new at Sexton Motors in Lillington, NC by a gentleman who took it home and his wife didn’t like it. He took it back and a Mrs. Eastwood bought it. By 2003 she had to go in a nursing home and I bought the Diamond Jubilee from her son, so it was almost one owner. However, after two and a half years, I decided I needed to sell the car because my older son was getting ready to drive and I needed a more suitable vehicle for him. I parked it at the front of my subdivision to sell.

One early Sunday morning, I was awakened by the phone to come to the end of the street. A drunk had stolen a Jeep Cherokee and plowed it through our subdivision sign and into the right rear side of my Thunderbird. He hit it with such force it was knocked at a 70-degree angle and popped the left rear tire and buckled the left rear fender. He walked away. The car was not quite at the classic car stage so I never put collision coverage on it. The insurance company of the Jeep’s owner would not pay for it since the owner wasn’t driving it. After over two months, I finally settled with my insurance company under uninsured motorist coverage.

Years went by. I always kept my eyes open for another Thunderbird but had about concluded maybe I wasn’t meant to have another one. I still wanted a classic car anyway and looked at several other kinds of cars, but everything was either out of my budget or was not in very good shape. Checking classic car websites was a daily action. In February or March 2017, while reading a Barn Finds discussion online about a 1974 Thunderbird, one of the posters furnished a link to a 1978 Thunderbird that he thought was nicer and a better deal. I clicked on it and got really excited when I saw it was in Sharpsburg, a small town about 50 miles from me. I looked closer and saw it was Sharpsburg, GA.

The car looked really good, but I thought, I can’t go to Georgia to buy a car. I pondered over it about a week before I even told my wife. She supported me and said if I wanted it to get it. I called the guy and we talked at length about it on Friday. Because of weekend commitments, I couldn’t come until Monday. He was asking $4,500. The car had been bought new by his uncle and only had 45,000 miles and was original throughout.

The car had been in storage a few years after the uncle died, and because of other projects and financial reasons, the man needed to sell it. I didn’t decide immediately on the car because of some title issues but the next week I went back to Georgia and paid him $4,250 for the Thunderbird Town Landau and towed it back to North Carolina. It is brown with brown vinyl top and white leather interior. Oddly enough, when I was going to order my first Thunderbird, my plan was for a brown body, white top, and brown velour interior. Close!

So I’ve owned all three models of Thunderbird offered in 1978, a well-optioned base model, a Diamond Jubilee, and now a Town Landau. My sons will have to decide when this one goes. It’s a keeper as far as I’m concerned.

While it’s a bummer that Bill’s Diamond Jubilee was totaled, I’m glad that the Barn Finds Community was able to help him find this Town Landau! You just never know what’s going to show up on the site, especially in the comments. I want to thank Bill for sharing his find with us! If you’ve purchased a classic that showed up on the site, even if it was just in the comments, we would love to hear about it. You can send your photos and story to mail@barnfinds.com!