Anxious to preserve the Thunderbird ’s popularity , Ford planners warily eye General Motors ’s relocation in the personal - luxury market . If GM ’s elevator car were big , the 1967 - 1971 Ford Thunderbird would be , too .
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In the sixties , the Ford Thunderbird ruled the full - size , personal - luxuriousness segment , consistently outselling the Buick Riviera , Oldsmobile Toronado , and Cadillac Eldorado . In 1967 , the Thunderbird beat the Riviera and Toronado combined ; it even finish onwards of the lower - priced Pontiac Grand Prix every twelvemonth from 1964 to 1968 .
The Riviera snuck past the Thunderbird in 1969 , only to be slammed back in its place in 1970 . Even as late as 1971 , neither the fabulous boattail Riviera nor the new and outlandishly gothic Toronado could out - gun a five - class - old Thunderbird body shell wearing a year - old look rhytidoplasty .
That sound out , it is nonetheless clear that from 1964 on , the intersection planner responsible for the Thunderbird were carefully watching the General Motors " E - eubstance " in their rearview mirror – and perhaps pay a minuscule less attention to the road ahead .
The General Motors coupe were large than the Thunderbird and , begin in 1966 , offered more conventional interior layouts . Veteran Ford designer Gale Halderman , who worked on every generation of Thunderbird from 1958 to 1989 , call back a general feeling that the Thunderbird had to acquire with child , too , to maintain its position in the sale race .
The 1963 Riviera surely must have turned some heads in Dearborn , but Ford looked in particular hard at the first Oldsmobile Toronado , long before it ever appeared in showroom . Its influence is there to see in the 1967 Thunderbird ; in the hide headlamp , in the blade - similar thrusting of the front buffer , in the roofline that fades into the trunk and quarter panel , in the wide - open bike flares .
There ’s a report , hard to confirm , that the Toronado figure had been leaked to Ford around 1964 . sure , Ford designers shaped some very Toronado - like clays around that prison term .
Of course there were other , competing proposal for the 1967 broadcast . In his invaluable memoir , Thunderbird : An Odyssey in Automotive Design , former Thunderbird studio chief William P. Boyer identified at least six , two each from three separate studio apartment . One tried to push the crisply folded , garden rocket - ship theme a little further , only to find that it had already operate as far as it could go in 1964 - 1966 .
Other proposals display a slab - sided Lincoln massiveness . But pattern frailty president Gene Bordinat pair Boyer ’s own " very tranquil [ and ] flow " theme to a bluff , squirt - scoop front end created in the Corporate Projects Studio under Dave Ash .
To learn about the resulting 1967 Ford Thunderbird , continue to the next page .
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1967 Ford Thunderbird Design
A Brobdingnagian bird allegory spread across the eggcrate - textured radiator grille was a clue as to the direction of the 1967 Ford Thunderbird design , although the Thunderbird ’s traditional hood exclusive faded into a mere power extrusion .
Out back , the luggage compartment eyelid gently echo the " dog - off-white " theme of 1964 - 1966 , above a single immense taillight that stretched from buffer to fender . Individual section still perch sequentially to signal a play .
A lustrous modelling along the bottom boundary of the body visually connect the front and rearward bumpers . Vent window vanished , and the rearward quarter crank now retract horizontally into the roof pillar for more rattling - free operation .
Thunderbird fancier would ascertain more design continuity inside . Flow - through ventilation , an innovation in 1964 , was continued in the new generation . The dash house more conventional legal document but still swept into a massive center console , and the rearward seats continued to wrap around at the outboard edges . The swing - away steering bicycle now tilted as well . Optional lights on an overhead console table warned if a door was open , fuel was low , or a seat whang had been give untied .
A renewed interest in safe brought flexible rubber snap handle , recessed sunlight visors , and even shoulder belts , one year ahead of federal mandate . Tiny fins on the front fenders were made of subdued gumshoe too , and then delete totally curtly after the start of production .
As before , the Thunderbird lineup commence with a paint - ceiling hardtop and progressed up to a " Landau " with vinyl radical top and substitute Lev Davidovich Landau irons . The latter give up the unique , blind - one-quarter roofline it had wear thin in 1966 and now honestly attend a petty inept , as the smooth new soundbox lines left no legitimate break point for the vinyl masking .
Still , Landaus outsold hardtops more than two - to - one . The convertible , whose sales had faded more or less steadily since 1960 , was discontinued . Ford had developed another very different Thunderbird variant to replace it .
A four - door Thunderbird was n’t an entirely new idea . As early as September 1955 , Ford designers had modeled a 1958 " Squarebird " as a close - couple four - door hardtop . In May 1964 , still ahead of time in the 1967 program , Boyer ’s crew work up a full - sizing rendering of " their " Thunderbird as a four - door hardtop , with short rearward doors , wide rearward cap pillars and " black cherry " paintwork .
One day Bordinat brought Lee Iacocca ( then ecumenical manager of Ford Division ) in to see it . Wrote Boyer : " Iacocca ’s cigar glowed brightly as he take it all in and , of course , we were not incognizant that black cherry or candy apple red were Lee ’s favorite people of colour . … [ He tell , ] ' Let ’s get that one nailed down . That ’s our convertible replacement . ' Gene see back at us with a circumspect wink . … "
The four - door sold 24,967 copy in 1967 , or 32 pct of Thunderbird production . The convertible had n’t bankrupt 10 percent since 1963 .
In the original drawing , the rear doors were hinged conventionally , at the B - pillar . Ford engineer James K. Wagner call in " some fiscal case jest " that the four - door Thunderbird could be a Lincoln if the designers would just " flip the door treat around . " The production version did feature rear - hinge door like the Continental ’s .
But on the Thunderbird , a section of the roof ’s broad sail control panel extended into what would have been window area and opened with the door , creating an even more close - coupled appearance . The standard vinyl radical top and landau bars serve camouflage the cutting line . And the Thunderbird ’s frameless room access glass close against a slight center column . The Continental ’s combination of verso - hinge door and pillarless construction had been " nothing but hassle , " aver Halderman , and Ford engineers had no desire to repeat the experience .
For more on the 1967 Ford Thunderbird , continue to the next page .
1967 Ford Thunderbird
The 1967 Ford Thunderbird was as thoroughly re - engineered as it was redesigned . Body - on - anatomy construction , based on the full - sizing Ford platform , replaced the whole - body transcription that the 1958 - 1966 Thunderbirds had share with the big Lincolns .
The new Thunderbird borrow nearly all of the big Ford ’s running geared wheel , let in its all - coil suspension and even the front and rearward sections of its frame . Side rails were shortened to give the Thunderbird a gaudy 114.7 - column inch wheelbase in two - threshold figure , and 117.2 inch for the four - room access . This was a snatch longer than the approximately 113 - inch wheelbase of the 1958 - 1966 model , but still conveniently compact alongside the 119 - inch Toronado and Riviera .
Incredibly , the bigger , body - on - frame Thunderbird still weighed 138 pounds less ( in two - room access shape ) than its unit - bodied herald . The only items carried over from its previous incarnation were its stock 315 - horsepower , 390 - three-dimensional - inch V-8 and optional 345 - horsepower 428 - cubic - inch engine . The changeover to trunk - on - frame construction must have complicated operations at the Wixom , Michigan , plant life where Ford assembled the fresh Thunderbirds on the same lines that still built the whole - body Lincoln . Thunderbird frames bulge upside - down along an all - new frame phone line ; dangling parts were lowered onto them . Then a hoist lifted the frames , plough them over , and fed them to a suspended conveyor that transported them to last forum , where they were lowered to floor level and mixed with Lincoln unit - bodies riding on special fixedness .
elevator car Lifecalled the 1967 Thunderbird " glib , quieter , and smoother than any Bird that come before it . " But the more skeptical editor program ofCar and Drivercomplained that the bigger Thunderbird had become " a sharp style , slightly smaller Galaxie with all the trimming … . " They liked the more functional new interior , but criticise their four - room access test car for poor visibleness . " Once underway , " they append , " the Thunderbird is just another big domesticated railroad car , with a wonderful penchant for silent 70 - miles per hour cruising speeds and handling with a heavy dose of understeer . "
For more on Ford ’s decision not to practice whole - body construction in the 1967 Thunderbird , see the next varlet .
1967 Ford Thunderbird and Unit-Body Construction
Forward - face auto designers recognized the inherent and inevitable logic of giving the 1967 Ford Thunderbird building block - body construction . Nash and Hudson had already proven its viability , and Chrysler launched a massive effort to unitize most of its Cartesian product line for 1960 .
At Ford , body engineering director Henry Grebe believed that all Fords , Mercurys , and Lincolns would eventually change over to an integral body / skeleton . Not everyone in Dearborn agreed , however , and the company approached the unit body conservatively , converting one or two product at a time . of course , they began with the cars they thought could benefit most from the change .
Unit construction made sense for the first four - seat Thunderbird in 1958 , earmark it to squeeze more upcountry room into a lower visibility . Lincoln also switched over to unit of measurement construction for 1958 , hoping that a technical edge over Cadillac might boost languishing sales .
Ford opened a newfangled plant in Wixom , Michigan , as the exclusive meeting place head for Thunderbirds and Lincolns , which share cowls , windshield , and some other body computer hardware .
A unit body made signified for a little gondola as well , and so the heavyset Falcon of 1960 and mid - size Fairlane of 1962 were Ford ’s next two unitized products . But for the vitally significant full - size line of merchandise , Ford management hedged and prescribe a conventionally constructed car to be developed in parallel with a unit - body version .
According to technologist Jim Wagner , these programs were well under path when the 1961 Pontiac appeared , with its comparatively rigid body " nodal - breaker point mounted " on a slightly flexible perimeter frame . The Pontiac design promise unit - body military posture with skinny - idealistic level-headed isolation , so Ford sky-high adopted this best - of - both - worlds approach for the all - new 1965 full - size Ford and Mercury .
One could almost think of the 1965 Ford as a unitized ( Ford used the term " rigidized " ) body with a full - distance subframe to isolate the hiatus and driveline . All 14 body mounts were locate either in front of or behind the rider compartment , which helped minimize disturbance , vibration , and harshness .
" grant that success , it was a foregone conclusion that the company ’s bombastic railroad car would follow the same course in the future , " explained Wagner . Similar building was applied to the Thunderbird for 1967 , the Continental in 1970 , and even the Torino in 1972 .
See the next page to follow the Ford Thunderbird story into 1968 - 1969 .
1968-1969 Ford Thunderbird
Improvements and refinements followed for the 1968 - 1969 Ford Thunderbird . Ford ’s heavier - duty 429 - three-dimensional - inch V-8 exchange the 428 as the top - carrying into action option ; by the first of the year , the 390 was gone , too .
A preheated carburetor melodic line system and some ignition modification cleansed the exhaust system to government criterion . The standard front disc brake now featured floating caliper , the windscreen windshield wiper swept parallel to each other , and Ford replumbed the vacuum headlight system so that a failure would leave the door exposed , rather than closed . Squeeze - type inside door handles added condom and convenience .
For the first time , emptor could pick out a workbench stern in a Thunderbird . Again Ford was succeed General Motors ’s lead , as Riviera had offered standard three - across seating area since 1966 and the Toronado just added bucketful seats as an option in 1967 . Fifty - seven percentage of two - door Thunderbird emptor still prefer bucketful , although 79 percent of four - room access customer choose for the workbench .
Otherwise , little had changed that the reality could see , the most obvious exterior difference being the federally mandated side - marker lights . To keep the side of the car as neat as possible , the designers mix the identifying " Thunderbird " script into the rear marker - twinkle bezel and assigned the front spark two-fold duty as an optional cornering lighthouse .
A svelte lower - body molding no longer execute the full length of the car . Finer - blackguard wheel covers incline to look as if they were spin , even when they were n’t .
The grille got considerably fussier , however , divided now into 32 loge - alike segments , with a little boo - in - a - box logotype centered over each headlight door . At the bum , the hopeful panel across the taillights was turned black , and a wide hoot - mold badge replaced the Thunderbird inscription . Landaus frisk pretend alligator skin on the roof . A four - door " townspeople sedan " with a paint top was supposed to have appeared in January , but did n’t .
The blind - draw and quarter Thunderbird Landau coupe returned for 1969 . Hardtop models retained their 1967 - 1968 roofline with humble quarter windows . An electric sunshine-roof , still a novelty on an American car , joined the options listing . For the first time , bench tail end outsold bucket on all three body styles .
The big bird emblem retrovert , too , to a clean - up grille , now disunite into only eight segment . In the rear , individual taillights , separated by a single large backup light , fit into the nacelles formed by contour of the trunk lid ( shade of 1964 ) . The rearward side - marker light shrank down to comparative inconspicuousness and the rocking chair molding uprise ribs .
Somewhere around this sentence , suspension alteration pulled all Thunderbirds closer to the ground , while two - threshold models only garnered fuddled outflow , large - diam shocks , and a fatter anti - roll bar . ( BothCar LifeandMotor Trendreported these changes for 1969 , although the Ford Master Parts Catalog for 1965 - 1972 show the raw part numbers arriving in 1968 . )
Car Lifetested a T - Bird in February , and found its treatment still predominate by understeer – although its braking performance from 80 mph was respectable " than all but a handful of auto sold in the U.S. "
That same month , Motor Trendpitted a two - door Landau against a Mercury Marauder X-100 , Buick Riviera , Oldsmobile Toronado , and Pontiac Grand Prix . Motor Trendjudged the Thunderbird ’s handling " immensely improved " if not quite up to the standard of the Toronado and Grand Prix .
Yet , even with its blotto underpinnings , the Thunderbird still beat up all of its GM competitors for smooth ride and interior quiet . It out - brake them all ( and the Marauder , too ) , offer the most complete orchestration , and finished mid - pack in acceleration . " In our judgement , " the editors concluded , " the best all - around car is the Thunderbird . "
To learn about the 1970 Ford Thunderbird , continue to the next page .
1970 Ford Thunderbird
According to Wagner , Ford ’s grand plan for the 1970 Ford Thunderbird include an all - newfangled Fairlane / Torino with a ego - supporting body and compliant frame similar to the full - size Ford ’s . Dearborn come out to have also considered a novel Thunderbird based on this mid - size of it platform . That idea certainly would have appeal to Semon E. " Bunkie " Knudsen , whom Henry Ford II hired as Ford Motor Company CEO in early 1968 .
Having served as general handler of Pontiac and then Chevrolet , Bunkie was easily lured away from General Motors when he felt his career there had stalled . At Ford , he wonder the contradiction in terms that the Thunderbird had become : a big but sporty prestigiousness car offer through the company ’s aggregated - grocery variance .
He knew that Pontiac was move the slow - selling Grand Prix to a mid - size platform for 1969 , and guess the Thunderbird might do good from a similar variety . Although no house decorator himself , he kibitzed liberally in the studio apartment , pushing for his trademark " bluff nose " front ends ( the designers called them " Bunkie Beaks " ) and massive rearward quarter .
He twisted engineering implements of war to allow stationary sheet metallic element ahead of the railway locomotive hood – an idea favored at General Motors for design flexibility but antecedently ban by Ford engineer , who saw only extra seams to go awry during assembly .
He clashed bitterly with Lee Iacocca , who no doubt believed that he merit Knudsen ’s job . After one peculiarly acid conflict in September 1969 , Henry Ford II dispatched Knudsen to the unemployment line . But by then , Bunkie had left his mark on the Thunderbird .
operate on legion other projects ( the Maverick and 1969 full - size cars , the 1970 body - on - frame Continental , and the 1971 Pinto and Mustang ) retard the new Torino until 1972 . For 1970 , the Thunderbird retain its full - size program and 1967 - 1969 body shell , even the same extraneous cutis for its room access and rear quarters .
But the designers gave it an all - new front ending , with the pointed lattice and queer headlights that Knudsen wanted for the all - Modern car . Two - door modelling rode even lower now – 1.4 inches lower – thanks to a cut - down windshield and a liquid , semi - fastback roofline that did give a bit of clearance . The break was retuned for standard Goodrich radial tires , meliorate both ride and handling .
The radio transmitting aerial was immerse in the windshield , the wipers disappeared beneath the shack bound of the tough , electrical and vacuum cleaner systems were simplified , and the thunderbird now partake in a sound insulation package with Lincoln ’s Continental Mark III personal coupe . Inside , both front and rear place were reportedly improved , and the optional buckets gained integrated promontory restraint .
In keeping with the Thunderbird ’s sleeker , sportier appearance , the three - windowpane body dash was again shelved . Ford sales lit still referred to a two - threshold Landau , but this was just a two - door hardtop with a vinyl radical roof ; it did n’t even have landau bar . ( Some beginning do list a freestanding body codification for the 1970 Landau , which would evoke some unique sheet metal , but no such roof – or correspondingly shorter pack of cards palpebra – is name in the Master Parts Catalog . )
Along with the new aim , Ford instituted new testing process at Wixom . The 12 - mile road test was eliminated , replaced by mechanised test stations within the works . It lack love affair , but Ford said it wipe out driver judgment and bring through time by keeping the motorcar closer to the mend post while checking for defects .
right on off the assembly line , a water exam enclosure fit for leaks , then a Merrill Aligner dynamically assess camber , caster , and toe - in with the car head for the hills on rollers at a simulated 50 miles per hour . Seven Clayton chassis dynos fit both torsion at the rear wheels and brake performance . Exhaust emissions were also measure on the dynos , and the infection checked for smoothness . quizzer even ran the air conditioning .
From there the newfangled Thunderbirds proceeded to eight wind - randomness cells , where a fixture sealed the trunklid and the interior was pressurise . Operators with stethoscope contain around windowpane and threshold for leakage . Then lights were checked in a " subdued lighting station " and the car driven over a pit for leak inspection . operator still selected 20 cars each day for road testing , and five of those were founder a " shake - rattle " audited account .
To take about change for the 1971 Ford Thunderbird , continue to the next page .
1971 Ford Thunderbird
The blind - quarter Landau pass for 1971 , and three bright horizontal bars across the lattice distinguished 1971 Ford Thunderbird hard - tops and four - doors from the old year ’s models .
Against this aging Thunderbird , General Motors deployed a totally restyled and re - engineered Toronado and Riviera . Both had softened considerably in the frame , leaving the Thunderbird , for the first prison term , with a strong drive than its General Motors challenger .
Motor Trendstill found torso roll better controlled in the General Motors intersection , and the Riviera out - sprint the Thunderbird to 60 mph . But then the Ford gathered hurrying and pass the Riviera to turn the fastest one-fourth mi at 16.25 arcsecond and 86 mph .
The Thunderbird also delivered the quickest , straightest stops . Motor Trendeven like the Thunderbird ’s " Cave of Love cockpit … with push button - tufted brocade cloth upholstery … . " The Toronado was " Spartan " by comparing .
" One gets the impression that T - bird is about to move off in a raw direction,“Motor Trendsuggested coyly , " and has n’t yet made up its idea as to the intended path . " Of of course , the path had already been opt , and allot to Halderman , it was Bunkie who had chosen it . " Every time we made it bigger , " Halderman recalled , " it seemed it sold a lilliputian easily and broadened its appeal a little more . "
When the new mid - size elevator car arrived for 1972 , the new Thunderbird and Continental Mark IV shared a stretch interlingual rendition of their mechanical program . But with a wheelbase of 120.4 inches and a shipping weight of 4,420 pounds , the " mid - sizing " Thunderbird was actually longer and a trivial intemperate than its " full - size " predecessor .
Gone was the slowly - sell four - doorway ; there was just a single soundbox style now , a bulky , direct - march two - door hardtop wear a few wispy styling cues from its silklike 1970 - 1971 ancestors . Sales edged back up to 57,814 – the T - Bird ’s honorable performance since 1968 – then rocket to 87,269 in 1973 . The one - one-millionth Thunderbird , a Cu hardtop with unique commemorative badges on its Lev Davidovich Landau bars , rolled out of Wixom in 1972 .
Ironically , no one was happier with Bunkie ’s last Thunderbird than Lee Iacocca himself . " The bigger [ the Thunderbird ] got , the well he care it , " recall Halderman . " I really do n’t opine Lee would ever take this , but I think he learned a pot from Bunkie . "
See the next Thomas Nelson Page to find out how the 1967 - 1971 Ford Thunderbirds pile up in the payable market .
1967-1971 Ford Thunderbirds as Collectibles
It was not until 1995 that the Vintage Thunderbird Club International ( VTCI ) take over the 1967 - 1971 Ford Thunderbird as collectibles as worthy as the 1958 - 1966 modelling . In the meanwhile , owner of later Thunderbirds had formed their own clubs , including the Heartland Thunderbird Club and the International Thunderbird Club .
" The 1967s had much - improve engineering , much better styling , and trick dainty like hideaway headlight that were all the rage at the time , " said John Ryan , VTCI ’s expert consultant for the 1967 - 1971 generation . " But dropping the convertible seemed to click off the diehard Thunderbird fans . They were still mourning the loss of the [ 1955 - 1957 ] two - seater . "
VTCI President Alan H. Tast sees it differently . " The Thunderbirds in that time period , 1967 - 1971 , were hear to be a luxury automobile and a better - proportioned family car , essay to contend against the Rivieras and the Eldorados , and just could n’t bring forth the ebullience that the GM product could . " Yet , this very " conservatism of the Thunderbird pattern " drove its commercial-grade succeeder . " They recognise that going way out on the deep end with construct styling was not the way to go . They learned that in 1961 . "
Yet as the 1967 - 1971 cars have aged , Thunderbird fancier have soften on them . " In late year , " tally Ryan , " pursuit surrounding these cars has increased a lot . But guess what ? There are n’t any left . The 1958 - sixties were being gather in as early as 1968 by the founders of VTCI . These were eight- to 10 - year - old used cable car then , and many could be had in nice shape , whereas the 1967 - 1971s were big road cars and led hard lives as a outcome . Owners literally drove them into the burial ground . "
Ryan reported that 899 of the 1967 two - doorway hardtops are known to survive and judge like numbers for the 1968 - 1971 models . Four - doors , he observe , " seem harder to bump . " His own 1967 hardtop was late appraised at $ 8,500 , and other Thunderbirds from this geological era have appeared inHemmings Motor Newswith asking prices as high as $ 10,000 .
To chance modeling , Mary Leontyne Price , and yield numbers for the 1967 - 1971 Ford Thunderbird , proceed to the next pageboy .
1967-1971 Ford Thunderbird Models, Prices, Production
When Ford couturier begin planning for the 1967 Thunderbird , rival General Motors had a couple of competing personal - luxury coupe on the food market , with more on the way , all of them big . It was settle the Thunderbird should keep tempo . With human face - lifts , the resulting railroad car ran through 1971 . Here are the specifications for the 1967 - 1971 Ford Thunderbird :
1967 Ford Thunderbird Models , Prices , product
1968 Ford Thunderbird Models , damage , Production
1969 Ford Thunderbird Models , Prices , Production
1970 Ford Thunderbird Models , Prices , output
1971 Ford Thunderbird Models , Prices , Production
