For $25, this 1963 Thunderbird was a great starter car
Everyone remembers their first car. This was mine.
In the 1970s, I was mostly a motorcycle guy, but in 1975, a friend told me he’d found a car I needed to buy. “C’mon,” he said. “Let’s go see it.” On an L.A. side street, neglected beside a stucco house, sat a toothy-grilled ’63 Thunderbird Landau. Last of the “Bullet Birds,” it wore a textured vinyl roof bearing elegant “landau bars” (recalling ancient carriage hinges) on the rear pillars, and inside featured simulated walnut interior trim. Intended for 1960s social climbers, the Ford cost $4548 when new.
A middle-aged man answered the doorbell, and my friend demonstrated how to buy old cars for cheap. “Hello, we’re students,” he said respectfully. “It looks like your Thunderbird has been sitting for a while. We were wondering if it might be for sale.”
“What do those boys want?” a woman’s voice called from elsewhere in the house.
“They want to buy the Thunderbird,” the man said to her over his shoulder.
“Give them the car, Harold,” commanded the woman.
Just like in The Devil Went Down to Georgia, Harold knew that he’d been beat. All that remained was the price. “I just put in a new battery,” he protested, weakly. “It cost $25, so if you’ll give me that you can have the car.” I had $25. He had the pink slip. We traded paper, I walked over to the Thunderbird, climbed in, fired it up with some effort, and drove away. Shockingly, this magnificent, 4354-pound luxury hardtop that Ford advertising had called “a bold thrust into tomorrow,” had depreciated to nothing in just 12 years.
Harold swore the T-Bird had had gone only 25,000 miles, but it ran on seven cylinders and the tailpipes were sooty, making 125,000 miles far more plausible. And that once-elegant vinyl roof? Ripped to smithereens. The Heritage Burgundy paint and chrome were dull as well.
No matter, though. We dove into polishing the brightwork and muscling rubbing compound and Turtle Wax into the paint. After fitting new ignition parts and setting the timing, it ran better.
Installing a new vinyl top, purchased along with a quart of contact cement, was harder. The demanding and exacting process ideally required two people, but I somehow managed it alone on a nearby vacant lot, finishing the T-Bird off beautifully.
Later, as I squired to junior college in my first car, I felt proud, successful even, and on the way up. Ford got the Thunderbird Landau right—even the $25 ones.
How cheap was your first car?
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First car 66 Impala, tired 283 2 door hard top butternut yellow black interior 3 on the tree. 400 bucks I saved up working on a farm all summer 1979. 96k miles.slapped in a rebuilt 283, served me well till I went to college ,then got a 63 SS impala.wish I had em back, now I’m driving a Cruze.
One of my first and cheapest cars was an old AMC ambassador. $35 and needed brakes. This was probably one of my first brake jobs. Fixed the brakes and got a few miles from home. Tried to take off from a stop light and the car wouldn’t move. I didn’t have one of the self adjusters on rear drums installed correctly so the brake adjuster went all the way out and locked the wheel up. Left a skid mark going around the corner to park it. Found a pay phone and my brother came with a screwdriver to back off adjuster. Drove the car for a year or so and sold it to a friend. He delivered pizzas in it for a couple years. The drivers side seat back broke on him so he had a 2×4 holding that up. He sold the car after a couple of years to another poor soul. That car was so dependable
In 1986 my first car was a1975 fiat 125 special. I never knew that it had a 5 speed gearbox, until my uncle told me.
My first car was a 1971 Saab 99. Bought it during my junior year of high school in 1987 for $500. I learned how to do everything on that car, from repairing rust and paint to replacing alternators and engine work. Learned a lot during my ownership of it. Good times…
My first car was a 1959 Renault 4CV. I bought it for a few hundred dollars in the mid ’60’s. It ran well, except it would stop after about 20 minutes of driving. After it sat for a while it would start and run again for a while. It came with a crank which was handy when the starter broke. In the winter I would call the closest gas station from a pay phone at school, to schedule them to come after school to give it a “charge”. The six volt battery couldn’t handle starting it in below zero weather. If you used the heater you had to open the windows to keep the interior from filling with exhaust smell. Of course at the time, it was great fun.
The first car I bought with my own money was in 1977. I bought a 70 Cuda body with no engine for $350. Had new shag carpet in it and recovered seats. I then purchased a 440 6pack with the 4speed tranny for $500 from a guy working in a gas station. I spent my eighteenth birthday in my uncle’s chicken house working on that jewel. I asked my mom for a battery for my birthday and I was all set. I had only changed oil on cars before I did that. Thank goodness my uncle was a mechanic. I’ve been obsessed with cars ever since. And yes, it was a pistol grip!
My first car was a white 1967 Chrysler 300 4dr with a 440 and a 4 barrel. Paid $100.00 for it and could easily pack 7 friends in it for a ride to Niagra Falls.
My first car, in 1966, was a 53 Buick Special, 2 door hardtop. Green, painted with a brush. The guy had just paid $40 for 4 recaps, so I gave him $40 and drove it home. Man, did it smoke. So what, it ran. I started to drive it to Colorado from Connecticut, but in Ohio, after burning 17 gallons of reprocessed oil, the engine made a really loud boom at a traffic light and kept running, but badly. A mechanic tested and told me I had 2 holed pistons, no compression there. I found a backyard, rented a box of tools, and replaced the two pistons with junkyard finds, and drove that thing to Colorado, where I sold it for $50.
Mine was a 1959 Mercedes 180A purchased in 1972 at age 15. It had sat under a pine tree and had a lot of sap spots, but was original paint and had red leather upholstery (and a knock). I got it cosmetically looking good, my dad, an engineer with a machine shop in the backyard, was in charge of the motor and tore it down and did a rebuild. Still knocked! Turned out to be an obscure problem with the valvetrain. I have Super 8 footage of me driving it the 200 foot distance of our residential lot.
…Left out the price- a mere $95!
First car was a (poorly) rebuilt wreck of a 1959 VW beetle. Bad tires (one blew sitting in my driveway) and the rear end was far from straight, so it ate rears like peanuts. Couldn’t shut off the heat and it was black in California, so you cooked in the car, even with the windows down.
Took it to Tijuana for upholstery (nice job), and addded an EMPI uni-vent to help with cabin temp. Loved that car, but my sister didn’t pay attention to the tire situation and wrecked it while I was in the Army.
Loved that car.
My first car was a $200 1962 Corvair Greenbrier van I bought from a Long Beach Ford dealership in 1970 or ’71. I was 16 or 17 at the time. It was advertised in the Sunday paper as a mechanic’s special. Driving back to Huntington Beach a guy yelled at me at a stop light that the thing was leaking oil. I got out and oil was pouring from the engine. I managed to get it home, opened up the top and pulled out part of a piston arm. So I found a place that would rebuild the engine, took it out and down there and another $300 later put the engine back in and had a running, rather ugly van.
My first was a Blue Datsun 510 4 speed. I bought it in Calgary Alberta for $200 in 1974, I was likely 15 year old and just about to get my drivers licence. The next one was also a Datsun 510 and both had lapping time with the Southern Alberta Sports Car club.
A ’65 Austin-Healey Sprite for $50 !!
First car was a ’59 Corvette, 283, cast iron Powerglide. Bought in ’66 for $1,400. Steered like a lumber wagon but it was MY lumber wagon.
My first car was a 1968 Dodge Coronet 500 2 door hardtop. It had the black surround tail lamp assemblies with the chrome trim. Front bucket seats with an arm rest that raised up to make a bench seat.
It was my moms car , bought at Claude Short Dodge in Santa Monica Ca. She bought it new off the showroom floor Back then it was about 3500.00 plus tax and license. I got it in 1975 had 24,000 miles on it. Sadly it was parked on the street outside my house and was hit by a drunk driver , and he left the seen. totaled, no insurance by the drunk. I found him the next day . I followed the oil and coolant stains to his front door. Claimed the car was stolen. (BS) Police said there was nothing they could do. So I got screwed. I know better now. The irony to this story is that drunk lives down the street from me know some 40 years later, and yes he has had some cars of his parked in front of his house with the right front corner all smashed in. One time I a put a note on one of his wrecks and said was this car stolen too?