My 1959 T-bird! Gramps has been in my family since he was new. He was a Michigan car so he has some cancer but for being all original he’s in pretty good shape! My uncle inherited him from his father-in-law when I was about 12. I remember at that age riding up to Traverse City on four different occasions to try to get him out of storage when my uncle inherited him. Those were quite memorable adventures.
My uncle eventually did get him back to his house and moved him into his barn. Overall, between storage sentences he was in the barns for about 50 years. When my uncle retired, he decided he did not want to restore Gramps and was going to get rid of him, but I had other ideas. I have kept him as original as possible but obviously, have had to do some maintenance and updates.
I call him Gramps and he currently resides in Galveston Texas, where I love to cruise around and show him off! His paint is all original. We just wet sanded him and patinaed him a little. When I had the electrical system redone, I had new factory seat covers put on because the other ones were dry rotted. He definitely gets a lot of attention. One of his great features is his 430 cubic-inch V8 engine rated at 350 hp. Not very many were made that way. Only four percent of 1959 Thunderbirds shipped from the factory with that engine. He’s very fast and a lot of fun to drive, but it’s scary trying to stop him with his four-wheel drum brakes!