1958 2 seater thunderbird

[Guest]

hi
Ok, when i was in the army back in the day i saw a article / picture taken illegally at a ford test ground of a 1958 2 seater thunderbird. As i understand it at the time of development of the 2 seater they were toying with the idea of building both but decided to go with the 4 seater for maxium impack on the market. does anyone have any information / pics / specs on this? as i remember the photo the hood area was the same with the trunk and cabin area being a little shorter. the pic was a side shot and being a draftsman / illustrator in the army i did some plemenary scaling of the pic with hopes of recreating it sometime in the future but of course have no idea where that magizne got to. i belive the pic i saw was with a hardtop in place.
thanks
mark

[Alexander]

RE: 1958 2 seater thunderbird

They had toyed with making both a two-seater and four-seater 1958 Thunderbird until Robert McNamara nixed the idea. A mock up of the 1958 style was done on a 1957 Thunderbird. It never got past that. I can't tell you if they planned to make the two-seater on the same chassis as the 1955-57 Thunderbird (body on frame), or make a shortened 1958 Thunderbird (unibody). Either way it would not have been cheap to make two lines of cars. The two-seater would probably have had lower sales even with a fresh body style, since there was the competition of the new Thunderbird four-seater.

Alexander
1959 Hardtop
1960 Golde Top

[Guest]

RE: 1958 2 seater thunderbird

I have a picture of the 2 seater 58. It is a clay mock-up.......painted........but still has the 57 porthole top. The front end looks like a 58 except the inner headlights are smaller than the outside ones.........The sides and rear are just like the final design without the 5 door hashmarks. It looks like a little toy..........and if I can ever get my scanner working Ill try to post them in the future.

[Alexander]

RE: 1958 2 seater thunderbird

Please post the picture if you can.

Alexander
1959 Hardtop
1960 Golde Top

[Guest]

RE: 1958 2 seater thunderbird

To All Bird Freaks !!!

The picture I have is in a book called " The Thunderbird Story" by Richard Langworth. If you are into older Thunderbirds its a must have. It has alot of pictures of ideas that Ford tinkered with back in the old days......including a 58 with a swing away wheel (dont I wish)........a fastback 61 that looks like a 65 Barracuda.........a 58 T-top......the infamous stainless steel 60....and many many more. It also has some "specs" and many stories of how these cars came to be. What is fascinating is how many ideas for these cars (mainly 58-66) were pioneered for the Thunderbirds .........and are still around.

[Alexander]

RE: 1958 2 seater thunderbird

I wish I had that book. It is long out of print.

Alexander
1959 Hardtop
1960 Golde Top

[Alexander]

RE: 1958 2 seater thunderbird

58tdactyl submitted a picture form the book showing a sketch of a 1958 Thunderbird two-seater. I do also recall seeing somewhere a mock-up of two-seater that had a rear end that was close to a production 1958 Thunderbird.

http://www.squarebirds.org/images_prototypes/58-t-bird-two-seat-sketch.jpg

Alexander
1959 Hardtop
1960 Golde Top

[Guest]

RE: 1958 2 seater thunderbird

If you look very closely at the area behind the front wheel you can see the "cut out" indention taking form