As a result, the body and interior look pretty good for a car that’s spent most of its life in hiding. The first order of business was to clean it up and do a bit of detailing work. The seller discovered it in the Summer of 2022 and talked the title holder into selling. The second owner of this Ford put it into dry storage in 1977 when she went off to college (and apparently never came back for it). As the story goes, the car was bought new in Encinitas and then moved to San Diego, making it a California automobile from the beginning. The seller indicates that only four percent of the ’59 ‘Birds were built with this motor, which would equate to fewer than 2,500 hardtops (20% of T-Birds were convertibles, too). This T-Bird is rare as it has the 430 cubic-inch “MEL” V8 engine rated at 350 hp with a 4-barrel carburetor. Part of the success of the reinvented car was a greater emphasis on both sexes in Ford’s advertising campaigns. It’s hard to believe today, but in 1959 the T-Bird was considered a compact when compared to the Fairlane/Galaxie, and the “real” compact, the Falcon, wouldn’t arrive for another year. The car had established the personal luxury segment that the competition would spend the 1960s playing catch-up. Sales went from 21,000 copies in 1957 to 38,000 units in 1958, and more than 67,000 Thunderbirds were produced in 1959. The Ford bean counters had to be thrilled with changes to the second-generation T-Bird. Located in Oceanside, California, the Ford is available here on Barn Finds Classifieds for $8,600 OBO. It was recently pulled from a barn/shed after 45 years in storage and may only need some minor mechanical work. Other than some refinements, the 1959 T-Bird like this one would be little changed (why mess with success?). But those complaints were short-lived as the revised cars appealed to a broader audience who responded by buying twice as many of the automobiles. The car was transformed into a 4-seat cruiser that turned up the dial on both luxury and performance. Ford redesigned its 2-seat Thunderbird in 1958 and took some heat from purists.
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