Pleasanton man owns first-, last-generation Thunderbirds

Pleasanton’s Ronald Wacek seems just lately together with his 1955 Thunderbird.

Wanting again, I feel it’s honest to say that up till 1953-1955, the American auto trade was fairly bland.

Common Motors was clearly the chief, promoting roughly twice as many autos as Ford, and Ford was promoting roughly twice as many autos as Chrysler. All three corporations constructed good household automobiles — sedans and wagons, with essentially the most glamorous all the time being a convertible.

Then Common Motors upset the apple cart when in January 1953 the primary Chevrolet Corvette was launched at GM’s Motorama Present in New York. It created numerous pleasure and curiosity around the globe, and I think it additionally created some panic on the Ford Motor Co. in Dearborn, Michigan. Ford set a objective for a real sports activities automobile for the 1955 mannequin yr.

The concept for the Thunderbird got here from George Walker and Louis Crusoe. Their idea was a two-passenger automobile with a convertible prime utilizing as many off-the-shelf components as potential. It wasn’t to be a radically styled automobile however one that may have the Ford look so automobile individuals would instantly acknowledge it as a Ford product.

A standard problem when a brand new mannequin comes out is what to name it. Among the 1000’s of rightly rejected names had been Beaver, Detroiter, Runabout and Tropicale. Louis Crusoe proposed a contest for the title and promised a $250 go well with ($2,882in 2023 {dollars}) to the winner. Ford stylist Alden Giberson received with “Thunderbird” and doubtless grew to become among the best dressed males at Ford.

Thunderbird made its first public look on Feb. 20, 1954, on the first postwar auto present in Detroit. It was priced at $2,695 to $4,000 ($30,836 to $45,768 in 2023 {dollars}), and it was an instantaneous hit. It wasn’t like a Corvette in any respect however was extra of a private luxurious automobile that created a brand new advertising and marketing section separate from Corvette.

This was the primary technology of T-Birds, from 1955 via 1957. In accordance with automotive specialists, there have now been 11 generations of Thunderbird, however I disagree. I think about solely the primary and eleventh generations true Thunderbirds. The primary and final generations are the one ones by which the Thunderbird is a two-seater. The remaining are good automobiles with the Thunderbird title on them however, in my e-book, not true Thunderbirds.

I feel Pleasanton’s Ronald Wacek, who owns a first- and last-generation Thunderbird would agree. He has been a fan of the T-Chicken since he was 7 years previous. At the moment, he was dwelling with an aunt and uncle who owned a café/fuel station on the Pacific Coast Freeway.

“Sooner or later a cool automobile drove in, and a Navy officer received out and went in for a chunk to eat,” Wacek mentioned. “I went over to examine the automobile out. It had no again seat, and it had a giant black telephone in it! It will need to have been for navy communications. I simply mentioned, ‘Wow’ to myself and thought that someday possibly I might have a automobile like that with a telephone in it.”

The dream by no means left him. Whereas in highschool in 1967, Wacek borrowed $1,200 from his stepmother.

“I purchased the primary early ‘Chicken that I noticed. It had a boring pink paint job, the driving force’s door was caught, however heck, I might name the automobile mine, so I slid in via the passenger door and drove it residence.”

It had the mannequin’s customary 292-cubic-inch V8 engine with a three-speed floor-manual transmission plus overdrive.

“However it was drained,” Wacek mentioned. “It wanted paint and an inside. It was needy.”

The proprietor had his share of mechanical challenges. The self-taught mechanic did many of the work himself. He did about 10 transmission jobs earlier than studying of a defect within the bell housing. It has been painted 4 completely different colours.

“Within the ’80s, I went to a GM gentle yellow paint colour. I additionally put a porthole equipment in and continued to make use of it as my every day driver. The ’80s additionally discovered me with a starter spouse and mortgage, so automobile actions had been curtailed.