Some cryptozoologists have theorized the thunderbird myth to be based on sightings of a real animal that has of late dwindled in population.

Consider this account: July 25, 1977 Lawndale, Illinois. About 9 p.m. a group of three boys were at play in a residential back yard. Two large birds approached, and chased the boys. Two escaped unharmed, but the third boy, ten-year-old Marlon Lowe, did not. One of the birds reportedly clamped his shoulder with its claws, then lifted Lowe about two feet off the ground, carrying him some distance. Lowe fought against the bird, which released him.

However this may be, I can report to you the the big Thunderbird is alive and well in Spokane, Washington. In May of 1999, the big bird swooped down and captured Barry and Kayse Lyn Iverson. To date they have been unable to escape from the clutches of the bird. It is reported to be a bright Viper Red in color The big bird has been seen flying from car show to car show.

I recently caught up with the big bird at the Inland Empire Car Club Council car show in downtown Spokane, Washington July 20th, 2006. Here’s the story as related to me by Barry.

Barry and Kayse were not planning to acquire a Thunderbird, but through a mutual friend discovered the 1965 convertible with the roadster tonneau gathering dust in a barn near Chewelah, Washington. What do you do when you find your dream car lurking in a barn only a modest distance from your home? You buy it! The owner wanted $14,000 for the old bird. That seemed a bit much to the Iversons, but after some dickering a deal was struck and the bird found a new home with the Iversons in Spokane.

No one seemd to know the history of the car, but the T-bird started life as a white car with white interior. Sometime in the past the previous owners had changed the color to red. They must have really liked the red color as they had painted the car with so many layers of red paint that it was crazing and cracking from being too thick. In an attempt to shape the car up to be presentable the Iversons had a relatively inexpensive repaint job done on the bird. The result was that the car looked very good, but on closer inspection you could see the crazing and cracking coming back again. So, after a few years of being less that satisfied with the appearance of the thunderbird, there was nothing to do but run the car into the shop for a quality restoration job, and do it right. That was about a year and a half ago.

Scott Kennedy was the man at Watson’s Body shop who was commissioned to do the restoration work. In order that the costs be kept as low as possible for a quality job, it was agreed that the T-bird would be fill-in work when the shop was not preoccupied with time-sensitive production work.

Many folks who set out to restore a classic discover that the work needed is much more extensive and expensive than they had planned or hoped would be thecase. Indeed, that was the case here. Rust repair was much more extensive than anticipated. They even found a dent that had been filled with bondo instead of proper repair. But, when you have a collectible car that you love, it is like dealing with the expense of a sick child. You simply find the money to do it right. As will happen, the months rolled by and the work required steadily increasedas new problems were found that needed correction.

As you will see in the photos, replacement panels were installed on the lower rear quarters, the lower doors and rocker panels. The rear wheel well liners needed to be completely rebuilt. One front fender was replaced and the other repaired.

Quality body work is neither cheap nor fast. Finally, the day arrived when the body was ready to be refinished. Viper Red was chosen. Although not a stock Thunderbird color, Kayse decided that the bright Viper Red did not have the “tomato soup” look of the stock Rangoon Red Thunderbird color.

With the body work completed the search was on for perfect door panels and the seats were due for a complete rebuild by Jacob’s Upholstery. After 18 months in the auto hospital the big bird roadster was home again for final assembly.

Take a look at the photos of the completed job. Who wouldn’t want a gorgeous red Thunderbird convertible such as this in their collection? Congratulations to Barry and Kayse for job well done on a magnificent example of 1960’s automobile style.

When asked, “If you had it to do over again, what would you do differently?”Barry replied: 1. He would not have started off with the inexpensive refinish job that eventually needed to be completely redone. And, 2. Figure out as best you can what the restoration work is going to cost and how long it will take… then double those figures, and you will be about right.

For a listing of some of the suppliers and resources utilized in the restoration of this fabulous Ford Thunderbird, see the web site of the Inland Northwest Thunderbird Club and check their resources list:http://www.inwthunderbird.org -WDM

How do you find that collector car of your dreams? Well, there are many ways, but first you need to put some serious thought into what exactly it is that you want to find.

In 1972 I was teaching a class in business at Eastern Washington State in Cheney, Washington and sharing an office with another graduate student. The car of my dreams at that time was a 1934 Ford roadster. I had been over to the library making Xerox copies of ‘34 Ford advertisements that I had found in magazines of that era and had left the stack of copies on my desk. My office collegue, Ed Zemler spotted the ads and mentioned that there was an old car just like that behind a horse barn near where he lived. Following his directions, I went out to find the car that evening.

Sure enough, it was a putty colored 1934 Ford 5-window coupe. The car was under a little roof near a horse barn… all very original and very respectible. It looked very much like the water color painting by Randy Giovenale below. (Note the water color is print #239 of a limited edition of 975 by this artist.)

I inquired about the car at the farm and found that the owner was working at a bowling alley in Spokane. We tracked him down, bought the car, and immediately set forth to inflate the tires, and tow it home. So, there you have tip number 1:

1. Let your friends and relatives know what you are looking for, and they will help you find it.



2. Let your mind dwell on picturing exactly what it is that you want to find. I know, this sounds very “new age” but there is a good reason that you need to do this. Thoughtfully meditating upon and visualizing the car you want to find will que your sub conscious mind to see things out of the corner of your eye that you would otherwise miss entirely.

Example: In 1974 my brother Delmar and I made a150 mile drive to look at a black and white 1955 Ford Crown Victoria. The car was a horrible pile of junk and we didn’t buy it… but on the return trip I was driving down the I-90 freeway at about sixty miles per when he let out a whoop and said that he had just spotted a black and white Ford Crown Victoria. He had just gotten a glimps for a fraction of a second of the “V” swoop of the side chrome on the Crown Vic out of the corner of his eye.

We got off of the freeway and started searching. The car was in fact a 1956 Ford Crown Victoria, black and white. It was parked in an alley where he could only have seen the drivers door for a brief moment from the freeway. The car looked very good except that someone had just smashed the windshield by throwing a beer bottle at the car. The owner wanted to sell. We made a reasonable offer which he accepted, and the car was the buy of the year for us.
Another example: In 1978 my wife Barbara had purchased a white1963 Studebaker Avante. The car was originally an “R-2″ with the supercharger, but that had been taken off and was not available to us.

I was on a business trip to Pullman, Washington one day when driving through the town of Colfax, Washington at the posted speed of 25 mph, out of the corner of my eye a got a brief glimpse of an oval headlight that to my mind said “Avanti.” I flipped a “U” turn and found a wrecked 1963 Studebaker Avanti lurking behind a service station that had just been towed in.

The car had been rolled end-over-end in a wheat field. Except for the right rear quarter pannel and a piece of the left front fender with the oval headlight, the rest of the fiberglass body was a basket full of pieces. The firewall and the built in Studebaker roll bar had saved the drunken owners life. But most important of all was that the car was an “R-2″ with the supercharger intact. I and a friend from the Studebaker club bought the wreck. I got the supercharger and he got everything else.

The point is that my sub-conscious mind was qued to see that oval Avante headlight when no one else would have spotted it.

3. Think about where a person might be that has a 20 to 30 year old car that is still in good shape. Check out the parking lots and leave a note on the bulletin board at retirement homes and assisted living facilities in your area.
4. Attend the Collector Car Auctions in your area. Take particular note of the “Little Old Lady” cars that are low mileage original but have been brought to the auction by someone who is settling the estate and just wants to liquidate the property.
5. Check your local picture car publication immediately after printing. If you have a weekly or bi-monthly free picture publication of automobiles. Check it out regularly when it is hot off of the press. Look for the new listings that you know were not in the previous edition. If you find something particularly interesting follow up on it immediately. Your goal is to get to the seller before someone else does. I have missed some wonderful opportunities by failing to do this. I have also made some very good buys for our collection by catching the new ads before someone else got to the seller. Here is an important tip: If you know what it is that you are looking for, and if you find it, be prepared to pay cash. If you have a little safe at home, keep some cash on hand for dealing on nights or weekends when a check won’t work but you cannot get to your bank.
6. Do a GOOGLE Search. See: http://www.google.com. If you are not familiar with Google, you will be amazed. You may spend the rest of the day playing with Google.
7. Faithfully follow-up leads… do not pre-judge what you will find. Example: I found a classified ad in our local newspaper for a low mileage 12 year old Chevrolet 3/4 ton pick-up with 10 ft. Camper on it. The ad gave an address but no phone number. The address was in a particularly shabby part of the city. I drove to the address but almost did not get out of my car.

What I found in the back yard at the address was amazing. The truck was virtually perfect in every way. The camper looked like new and was clean as a pin. The elderly couple that lived there had bought a new little motor home and were disposing of the pick-up camper and truck.

The owner allowed as how he was going to sell the rig to the first person who showed up with the cash. It was a Sunday and I had approximately $2,000 in cash. He somewhat reluctantly agreed to declare the rig sold and wait until Monday for me to bring the rest of the purchase price. On the following Monday he told me that he had three or four people who had showed up with cash, but they were too late. Gosh, I hate to see a grown man cry. The truck alone was worth the price he was asking. The like new camper was practically a “freebee.”

When I was a teenager in the early 1950’s my brother and I would get the new issue of Mechanix Illustrated every month and read it cover to cover. I particularly liked to read the automobile reviews written by Tom McCahill. Every month he had some choice words and he didn’t hold back in telling the reader exactly what he thought about the new cars. I will never forget the review he wrote about a new car that he rolled when he took it to the test track. I miss him.

Today we have the Automotive Section in the local newspaper every Saturday morning with equal length articles written by Don Adair and Teresa McCallion so that we can have balance of both the male and female opinions of the new car reviews. Baloney, few women know diddlysquat about new cars… and care even less. These inane reviews without exception are complimentary to the manufacturer. No matter what a steaming pile of crap the car may be, it gets a rave review that leaves you wondering just how much these people are being paid by the car manufacturers to write this drivel. The next step, of course, is to have equal length reviews written by a black and a Hispanic reviewer, so that we can have diversity of opinion.

So, I think that you understand that I owe nothing to the auto manufacturers. But I have been a car nut for the past sixty-eight years. Currently my brother and I own some 30 cars, and we are rather picky about what we like.

The obvious question is “What is good automobile design?” Let’s start with the dictionary definition of the word, “design: “1. To plan out in systematic, usually graphic form. 2. To create or execute in an artistic or highly skilled manner. (Emphasis is mine)
For the purpose of this writing I will focus upon the “graphic form,” and “artistic manner” of automobile design.

No question about it, from a design standpoint, an automobile is a rolling work of sculptural art. Just recently one of the top brass at General Motors (I believe that it was Bob Lutz) stated that, “We are in the art business.” Now that’s a breath of fresh air… that someone with authority to call the shots has finally figured out that what an automobile looks like has a huge impact upon sales.

It is encouraging that someone at GM has finally figured out that, Harley Earl, Bill Mitchell and other automobile designers at GM were drawing what the public wanted. Yes, they were called “stylists,” and perhaps not enough emphasis was put on engineering… but the cars looked great. They designed automobiles that the public would beg, borrow or steal money to buy. Why? Because they looked great.

There is a fair analogy between a great looking automobile and a great looking human. How do we define a beautiful woman or a handsome man? That’s not an easy question to answer, yet everyone has their standards in mind and they will respond with almost instantaneous “first impression” judgements as to whether a person is “good looking” or not. You do this, I am sure.

Consider the face. Note that currently Chevron is running television ads that have talking cars with the design elements of the car becoming the faces that are cartoon articulated. Importantly, the headlights are the eyes, and the grille or bumper the mouth. I believe that it was Harley Earl that said, and I paraphrase here, that the design of the cars is made or broken by the “face.” The Edsel by Ford was certainly proof that he was correct. Compare the good looks of the “face” of a 1955 Chevrolet with the ugliness of the “face” of a 2002 Pontiac Aztec, or a 2003 Chevrolet Avalanche, and you will see exactly what I mean.

How ugly can they get? The headlights are the “eyes” of the face. The huge slurred headlight shapes with the chromed plastic inside look like someone wearing a garish pair of sunglasses with “mirrored” lenses. The eyes are the most important part of the face. That is where your attention is drawn immediately upon meeting someone. Notice that the pig has a huge head with little bitsy eyes that are far apart. Little bitsy headlights look just like little pig eyes. God, but this does visual damage to the appearance of new Corvette. Worse yet, the darker inner lights give the front of the Corvette a cross-eyed look whereas the rest of the car is beautiful.
The headlight is a visual element of the design. If the headlights are not to be concealed such as that on previous Corvettes, for heavens sake, lets make the headlight look like it is intentionally there.

It is particularly uglifying to draw a hood, fender, grille, bumper, and let the headlight just fill an otherwise leftover vacant space in the design. The Ford Focus is an example of this that speaks for itself.

Another important aspect of the face of the car is the shape of the face, including hood, grille and bumper. Most people find that the human face with receding chin line, or buck teeth, to be less than good looking. A sloping forehead may look good on a chimpanzee or gorilla, but it detracts from the beauty of the human visage.

Most folks find that the car with a bold, forward thrusting face just looks more attractive than a soft slumping face that reminds them of Mr. Wimp on a bad day. Example: When Ford came out with the new F-150 pick-up in 1997 it had that slumping wimpy look that just shouted, “weak and puny.” This did not appeal to buyers that wanted to buy a truck that had guts and stamina. Dodge had it right with the big, bold face on their pick-up truck. The Dodge sent a message that said,”Get outta my way or you’re gonna get crushed.”

Where did Ford get the goofy designers that did this to their popular truck? It didn’t take long for the sales people to figure it out and demand that the Ford look more like a copy of the Dodge.

I am convinced that a slumping hood on the Lowey Classic 1953 Studebaker Coupe was the stumbling block for Studebaker. The coupe was a classic that brought rave reviews from design and style critics, but Studebaker needed a lot more sales to the public. This car is truly beautiful, but it has the beauty of a 14-year-old female gymnast or ballerina. Look at the “face” on the 1953 Ford, Chevy or Plymouth, and you will see what the public wanted. All three have that graceful yet solid look, similar to a 26-year-old woman that would make a great wife and mother.

Much of what was said above applies to the rear of the car as well. The taillights are an element of the design that needs to be integrated into the overall design such that the observer senses that shape, size and placement all meld into the overall coherent design.

Consider the ugliness of the Pontiac tail lights that are too big and bulging, giving you the feeling that you had been caught up in the horror movie, “The Fly.” Some recent Chevrolet Impala models had a rear end with swollen tail light lenses that appeared to be under some sort of pressure and about to burst.

What really looks goofy is the placement of the taillights up on the roof. The Ford Focus is a good example of this. In my opinion, The Ford Focus is one of the most UGLY vehicles to be foisted on the market since the disaster of the “All New” Ford Taurus in 1996.

Another design element that “looks like tits on a boar…” as my dad would say if here were still living…. is a huge wing on the trunk. This thing does nothing from an aerodynamic standpoint if you are traveling at less than 100 miles per hour. But it does look as fake as fake wire wheel hubcaps.

The ugliest rear end on the new cars today is what I would call the, “bustle butt.” The rear of the car looks like an egg shape with the rear window slumping down into the hatch or tailgate. The overall effect is a fat or bloated look that leaves you wanting to stick it with something sharp to see if it will deflate. My selection as the new car with the ugliest rear end would be the 1998 Lincoln Town Car. God, it’s awful. I get the same reaction when riding up an escalator behind an obese woman with a huge rump and fat sagging from her upper arms.

Ford had one of the best selling cars in America with the Taurus. What did they do to screw it up? They put some mad man to work designing one of the ugliest cars in America; the 1997 Taurus with oval shapes everywhere. Worst of all, they turned the negative space of the windows into ovals that made the rest of the car body appear to be no more than a frame for the windows.
This thing was truly a designer’s nightmare. With a little nostril hole up front to serve as a grille, The front looked like some sort of strange catfish that had just been pulled out of the slough.

The side view of the car is equally important to good design. Where did this idea come from that a “wedge” shape with the ass end of the car hiked up into the air and the front bumper scraping the ground looks good? You begin to wonder if some teenager has torched the front springs or hiked up the rear end with some sort of shackles. Lee Iacoca had it right when he demanded that his designers make the car sit level.

The first time that I saw the “wedge” shape was in 1976 when I spotted the first Fiat X1 9 sports car. I thought it looked goofy then, and my opinion has not changed.

The worst part of this “wedgie” shape is the belt line rising higher and higher until we have nothing but little gun-port slits for windows and just the driver’s head seen above the door. The result is interior claustrophobia. It is as if one were sitting in the bottom of a huge bathtub. This was a design element that was not good for the “bathtub” Hudsons in the early 1950’s, and it is not good today. Oh, sure, you got this bathtub effect when riding in an old Porsche with your bottom side sitting about 4 inches above the pavement…. But this is NOT want I want in my daily driver car.

I want to sit high enough to see out over the hood and rest my left arm on the door… with the windows down and no air conditioning, thank you. This is the reason that those Chevy Belairs and Ford Victorias in the 1950’s were always seen driving around with all of the windows rolled down.

I distinctly remember the first time that I discovered that the rear windows on a new sedan would not roll down all the way. What? We can’t roll the windows down? I would have taken the thing directly back to the dealer and demanded a refund. We just can’t live with a car that has to have the air conditioning on to ride in it.

I can remember during World War II when I was a little kid, seeing pictures of the “Car of the Future.” Without exception the car of the future was always depicted as a teardrop shape that looked like a blob of honey. I thought that they looked ugly then, and they still look ugly. I remember thinking during the 1950’s, through the 80’s that the new cars looked pretty good when compared to those “blob” dream car designs from the 30’s and 40’s. Well, the ugly things are here today!.

For this writing I have been referring primarily to GM and Ford. Both have come to market in recent years with cars that I would describe as weak and ugly in design. Some examples that come to mind include the Buick Rendezvous, Chevy Impala, and Pontiac Aztec. Ford has also brought us some new cars that look like the design nightmare of a team of incompetents. The worst of the lot was the Mercury Cougar. Hey, in past years I have purchased a new Cougar (1978) and I own one now. But the silly substitute that they brought to market as the 1998 Cougar was the most butt ugly thing that I have seen in years.

So what, you may ask, do I like that has come from Ford and GM recently? First, the new (retro) Mustang is a winner, no question about it. Similarly the leaked photos of the Camaro and the Challenger show cars look fabulous. The new Ford Fusion is pretty good except for those ugly slurred headlights. The new Pontiac Soltice is a knockout. Now, if they would just give us the Ford Forty-Nine, and if GM would give us an updated version of the 1956 Nomad, I would back off and be a happy camper.

By comparison, the recent designs from Chrysler have been a cut above the rest. The new Chrysler 300 has a belt line that is too high and the side windows are too small for me, but overall I very much like the looks of the car. It has a mean and businesslike look to it that is consistent from one end to the other. Yeah, I would buy one and be proud to own it.

In the US, I look to GM, Ford and Chrysler to lead the way. Recently they have not done that. Yes, I know that Honda, Toyota and a raft of other makes are made in the US…. But not really. They are still the product of foreign entities. Sorry, but I still have not recovered from WWII. The one car that they have come up with that is currently commanding so much attention is the Prius.

The Prius looks like it was designed by a complete Dufus. Lordy… I could get a group of Third Graders to paste up a car made from sheets of cardboard that would look more attractive. Take a good look at it. Is this the sort of dust-bin that you would like to be seen driving around in? If so, I suggest that you have some yummy tofu and sprouts before you drink the kool-aid.

If you know anything about collector cars, you know that auction prices have been going through the roof for fine quality original or restored collector cars, special interest cars and hot rods. Some people attribute this to the large number of affluent “baby boomers,” who are seeking to relive their youthful automotive dreams. Others see the collectibles market as a safe investment opportunity which will allow you the play with your toys while seeing them appreciate. It’s the old “supply and demand” curves from economics 101. The supply is shrinking and the demand is growing daily for desirable collector cars.

If you can only find that rare car that you always wanted, you had better buy it now before you are priced out of the market.

Another factor in the equation is that today, financing and insurance are easily obtained for these vehicles. Many people are taping into the increased value of their home or other real estate to pay cash for the collectible car of their dreams.

Rohrer’s Select Cars is a good example of a reputable dealer of collectible cars that has recently expanded to meet the market demand for quality collector cars. Don Rohrer entered the used car business some forty years ago when he bought 50 cars for $10,000 and started his own business in downtown Spokane, Washington. From the very beginning Don had an eye for the exceptional cars that would appeal to young people such as the airmen coming to town from Fairchild Air Force Base.

A few years later he purchased his own building on North Division street, added a glass showroom, and became widely known as the source in this area for collector cars. Don’s interests covered the automotive spectrum from pristine Model T Fords to late model Corvettes and foreign sports cars. Although his building was limited in space, the rolling stock was always meticulously detailed and worth a special trip just to gawk through the windows.

Today, Rohrer’s Select Cars has acquired a large downtown building that years ago housed the Stoddard-Wendle Ford Dealership. The building has been extensively remodeled into a huge 13,000 sq. ft. showroom. Don’s rolling stock of street rods, classic cars, collector cars and automobile memorabilia will leave your head spinning and adrenaline pumping. Everything in the store is for sale, including the vintage advertising displays, period signage and hard-to-find accessories.

The business is owned by Don and his daughter Nicole Morse. Over the past thirty years or so, I and my brother have purchase from and sold several cars to Don. We know that his business is one that has the highest integrity and reputation for fair dealing.

Today, a major part of Rohrer’s Select Car business comes from the World Wide Web. Their web site http://www.rohrersselectcars.com is the basis for serving the national market. But, if you are lucky enough to live in the Spokane area, you know that Don Rohrer’ showroom is the place to see a free car show, trade stories and get up to date on what’s happening in the collector car market.

1934 Ford Roadster with a 327 4 speed manual, Hurst shifter, 3 gauge dash, bucket seats with working rumble seat, black with black interior, and chrome running gear. $49,999.00

1958 Chevrolet Impala. Two Door Hard Top, 348 Cubic Inch Motor, Power Glide Automatic Transmission, Power Steering, All Original Interior, New Arctic White Paint, (Base Coat Clear Coat) 1st Year Impala, 1st Year For 348, Only 63,000 Original Miles on the Car. $35,500.00

1935 Chevy 3 Window Coupe, 235 Straight 6, 350 Turbo Automatic, Aluminum Radiator, Dual Exhaust, Nova Rear End, Front Disc Brakes, Chrome Wire Wheels. $30,900.00

1989 Cadillac Allante, 4.5 Liter V-8, Automatic Transmission, Power Steering, Power Brakes, Power Door Locks, Power Windows, Power Seats, Power Mirrors,AM/FM Cassette Player, Tilt Steering Wheel, Cruise, Air Conditioning, Manual Black Top, Original 95,000 Miles, Car Drives and Runs Wonderful. $14,900.00

At this time, this beautiful little 34 Ford Three Window Coupe is not for sale.

1967 Chevrolet Nova Original California Car, Butter Nut Yellow, rebuilt 327 Engine,202 Fuelie Heads. Edelbrock Performer Manifold. GM 4 bbl. Q-Jet Carb., electronic ignition, bowtie rams horn manifolds with flowmaster dual exhaust, turbo 350 transmission with shift kit, 3:55 Posi rears, power steering, front disc brakes, Chrome Rally Wheels. Original RUST FREE doors, Quarters, and Floor Boards. Cowl Induction Hood with new interior and headliner, and an am/fm cd player. $25,900.00

1964 Chrysler 300K. Absolutely beautiful! The color of this beauty is rose mist with white interior. Has a 413 motor and 727 transmission. $29,995

1927 Model T RoadsterCute Little Roadster, Burgundy with Tan Interior, 1933 Ford Model C Engine, 210 Cubic Inch Displacement, 150 horse Power, 32 Ford Chassis, 39 Transmission with 1940 Gears, Riley F Heads with Price Camshaft, Interchangable 32 Ford Grill and Hood. $35,000

1965 Cadillac DeVille Convertible, Original 69,000 miles, with Tan leather interior, telescopic tilt wheel, power steering, power brakes, original top with original real glass rear window. $19,995.00

1932 Ford 5 Window Coupe, Oldsmobile 4 Speed Hydro-Automatic, Tilt Steering Wheel, Steel Body, Glass Fenders, Wire Wheels. $39,900.00

1977 Lincoln Mark V, 82,000 miles. This is an Arizona car, a little old lady from Scottsdale, one owner. 460 automatic, loaded. $8,995.00

1929 Ford Model A Roadster Pickup, 350/350 Automatic, Front disc brakes, Tilt Wheel, Dual Exhaust, Wood Bed, 5 Point Weld Racing Wheels. $39,900.00

1962 Studebaker Hawk, Gran Turismo, 289 4bbl, Automatic Transmission, 62,000 Original Miles, Power Steering, White Interior, Straight Body, Excellent Paint. Looks and drives like new! $19,900.00

1957 Oldsmobile Super 88, Two Door Hard Top, 371 Cubic Inches Displacement, 9.5 to 1 Compression Ratio, 277 Horsepower, 400 Torque, Hydramatic, Power Steering, Power Brakes, Tri-power not installed, 74,000 miles, Beautiful Mirror Finished White Paint, New Interior, All Front End Chrome Is New, Runs Strong, and Drives Wonderful. $29,900.00

1992 Cadillac Eldorado Touring Coupe, 4.9 liter V8, gray leather interior, sun roof, digital odometer, Air, Cruise, power everything; windows, seats, etc., Vogue tires with after market Cadillac chrome wheels, and a very unique yet beautiful Canyon yellow paint. $9,995.00

1968 Pontiac GTO. Has a 400 automatic, power steering and dual gate shifter. Has nice bright blue paint with original white interior. This is a second owner car. Very nice! $15,900

1950 Mercury CustomBeautifully done custom of the 50’s. Frenched headlights, 305 V-8 engine, power steering, yellow and white Naugahyde interior, Pontiac rear end, Power disc brakes, 2 1/2" Chopped Carson top, Power tilt steering, 350 Auto Transmission, Electric Doors and Windows, Desoto grill-bumper. Beautiful Car! $48,000

1994 Pontiac Trans Am, 5.7 liter V-8 LT-1, 4L60-E automatic transmission, PW, PDL, AM-FM CD Player, red with gray leather interior, with only 44,000 miles this car is loaded. As of 2/3/04 American Racing Torque Thrust Wheels have been added to this car. 2 16×7 and 2 16×8, with new rubbers 2 Kumho front at 205/60R16 and 2 Kumho rear at 245/50R16 $14,900.00

Rohrer’s Select Cars featured above is a good example of one of many emerging collector car dealerships that are serving our national market. A well established and reputable dealer such as this is a good choice if you are looking to find that dream car on the world wide web of the internet.

WDM

Successful collector car marques such as the Ford Thunderbird are all about style. True style flows from the nature of the design project and evokes a visual emotion that is consistent with the design objectives of the project. Albeit, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, yet quality design and lasting style is recognized by the masses of people who may not be able to articulate their reasons for applauding a particular style.

For example, the Ford "Baby Bird" Thunderbird of 1955 - 57 was originally well received by the public as a design and style Classic. In fact after the 55 T-Bird was only four years old it was being referred to on TV as a "Classic" car. Why was this? The car was basically a 1955 Ford cut down in height and length to become a two passenger "Personal" car with sporty and luxury characteristics. It was never sold or promoted as a sports car. The style of the car visually whispered the words, "personal, sporty, luxury, powerful and exciting," to the mind of the viewer.

The wrap-around windshield made the front fenders seem even longer than they really were. It also gave the driver and passenger a "fishbowl" sort of view that at the time seemed very empowering.

The thrusting headlight rims and hood ornament combined with the slight taper of the body down and in to the rear was right in line with the early 1950’s custom car craze to lower the rear of the car. This simulated the power surge causing the front of the car to rear up upon acceleration. This of course is in exact contradiction to the current fashion of having the rear end of the car hiked up into the air like a sprinter waiting for the starting gun.

The wrap-around windshield really started with the very limited production 1953 Cadillac Eldorado and the 1953 Oldsmobile Fiesta. For the year 1954 the wrap-around windshield appeared on all of the GM Cadillac, Buick and Oldsmobile models. It was so striking and novel in appearance that it became a fashion requirement. The eloquently designed and styled Lowey 1953 Studebaker coupe looked like it had been molested when it appeared in 1955 with a wrap-around windshield and a big heavy and chunky chrome grille. Even worse, the similar model Studebaker/Packard Hawk looked horrid with four headlights cobbled on to the front fenders which were designed for two headlights. This is a notable example of true style being corrupted by uncontrolled fashion.

The "Baby Bird" Thunderbirds of 1955 - 1957 were a design success for Ford but yet a sales question mark as the car found a home primarily with the affluent who could afford multiple cars in the upscale price range. Some 50,000 or so small Thunderbirds were built and it is projected that some 30% of that number survive today, whereas the survival rate for less collectible cars is usually below 10%. Today, the baby birds tend to be found in one of two states, either carefully pampered low mileage original cars and totally restored show cars, or deteriorated project cars that need big bucks spent on them to be restored. Quality cars typically sell in the thirty to seventy thousand dollar range. If you want a nice one, perhaps you have already waited too long to buy.

The 1958 Thunderbird represented a completely new approach to personal luxury. The new bird was now a unibody companion to the Lincoln and built on the Lincoln production line. The car was surprisingly not much bigger than the 1957 model, but it had ample room for four passengers to ride in style. The design and style were superb with one notable exception. The "Square Bird" (1958 through 1960) had a massive slack-jawed bumper/grille combination that looked like a huge fish mouth with two bumper guards jutting up like big fangs. The side view, the rear view and the interior were all wonderful, but the car had a face on it that only a mother could love. Collectors have snapped up these cars. If you want one you had better buy it now as they are becoming increasingly unavailable and the price is going nowhere but up.

The next generation T-Bird was what collectors call the "Bullet Bird." For 1961 through 1963 the bird shared the production line with Lincoln. Like the 1961 Lincoln, the design and styling of the 61-63 models is top-notch. From an esthetic standpoint the appearance of these models is near perfection. I particularly like the wrap-around dash that continues into the door panels. Buy a convertible and you can easily convert it into a "Roadster" clone by adding the tonneau cover for the back seat and replica Kelsey Hays wire wheels. You should be able to find a solid car needing only minor restoration money for a reasonable price. Again, buy it now because prices are going up up up.

The fourth series of Thunderbird production, 1964 through 1966 has been referred to by collectors as the "Sculpture Bird," or the "Flair Bird." Still sharing a unibody understructure with Lincoln, the car was a little more square and beefy looking than the previous series. The interior of the car was about as luxurious as you can imagine. In 1966 you could have ordered the optional 428 cubic inch engine for massive power. The 1966 is the most collectible of the three years as it has the more conventional bumper and grille on the face instead of the massive combination grille/bumper of the 64 and 65 models. If you can find a nice one, buy it. Any price under ten thousand is a good buy.