- 1956 THUNDERBIRD BIRD USED POWER STEERING ASSEMBLY MANUAL
- 1956 THUNDERBIRD BIRD USED POWER STEERING ASSEMBLY WINDOWS
Most didn’t know or care the T-Bird V-8 wasn’t as good as the sensational new 1955 Chevy V-8, but it was potent enough to give the T-Bird good performance. Now this was an engine Americans could appreciate.
1956 THUNDERBIRD BIRD USED POWER STEERING ASSEMBLY MANUAL
The 292-cubic-inch engine generated 193 horsepower with a three-speed manual transmission and 198 with the Ford-O-Matic three-speed automatic transmission. Powering the 1955 T-Bird was a V-8 from Ford Motor’s Mercury division. It even was offered with a push-button radio.īy 1957, you could get a T-Bird with automatic windshield washers, a Dial-O-Matic power seat with fore-aft, up-down memory and a radio with volume that rose as engine speed increased. The new Thunderbird came with a standard removable hard top or optional, snug power soft top - or both. (Only two adults actually fit, so the 1955-57 T-Bird always has been described as a two-seater.).
1956 THUNDERBIRD BIRD USED POWER STEERING ASSEMBLY WINDOWS
It could be had with options including power steering, brakes, windows and a power front bench seat designed to look like two bucket seats. The new Thunderbird was better for 99 percent of the U.S. The parts sharing also let Ford successfully use the 2,980-pound Thunderbird to rub off some of its sporty, glamorous image on the restyled regular Fords. They included headlights, taillights and instruments. The new T-Bird used a good number of regular Ford parts to hold costs down. It had the same 102-inch-wheelbase as the Corvette and sexy Jaguar XK-140 but echoed the styling theme of full-size 1955 Fords. In contrast, the 1955 Thunderbird had a tight steel body with smooth, clean, youthful lines and rakish long-hood/short-deck proportions. Actually, the new Corvette wasn’t all that bad despite its drawbacks, being fairly nimble and reasonably fast for its era. It had a hard time giving away the first Corvettes for promotional reasons to VIPs and celebrities, many of whom disliked the car. GM tried to make the Corvette both American and foreign - and failed on both counts. And it had a lazy, power-soaking two-speed automatic transmission, when foreign sports cars usually had manual transmissions. The Corvette had few comfort or convenience features for comfort-minded Americans, and wasn’t inexpensive. It also lacked outside door handles and had a then-odd creaky fiberglass body and ill-fitting soft top.
The Corvette was racy looking but had clumsy side curtains - accepted on British sports cars - instead of roll-up windows expected on a GM sports car. GM knew nothing about building sports cars. It arrived late in 1953 and GM didn’t hesitate to call it a sports car, although the first-generation (1953-55) ‘Vette was all wrong for most sports car buyers in America. The Chevy Corvette from General Motors was the only sports car from a big domestic automaker in the early 1950s. Ford had been working on a two-seater, but wasn’t serious about it because sports cars accounted for a tiny percentage of the U.S. He then telephoned Ford headquarters in Michigan and told it to get to work fast on a two-seater so Crusoe would have something to see after returning from Europe. “Oh, but we do,” the quick-witted Walked fibbed. “Why can’t we have something like that? ” Crusoe asked Walker after examining a sporty European two-seater. The story goes the Thunderbird two-seater was built because Ford division general manager Lewis Crusoe was admiring European autos at the 1951 Paris auto show with Ford designer George Walker. sports cars were sold, largely because their producers lacked resources to compete with big automakers. They saw that British sports cars, like the MG and Jaguar, drew lots of attention and sold relatively well here. car producers, such as Nash and Kaiser, built a limited number of sports cars in the early 1950s to enhance their image. The 1955-57 “T-Bird” was America’s second mass-produced sports car from a large domestic automaker, behind the Chevrolet Corvette. The mass media often has mistakenly called any sporty looking car, like the Ford Mustang, a “sports car.” It’s given the 1955-57 Thunderbird the same description, although Ford stressed from the get-go its “new baby” was a “personal car.”įord knew the sports cars market was very limited and calling the Thunderbird a “personal car” would give it broader appeal. It’s been in television shows, movies and print advertisements and pictured on a U.S. The 1955-57 two-seat Ford Thunderbird is among the most iconic American cars.
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