No ConvertibleĪ convertible was not part of the range in '67 for the first time since Thunderbird construction began. In fact, though it was indubitably a little (though not a lot) larger, weight actually decreased from 1966 to 1967! Buyer opinion, of course, mattered more than fact, here. The 1967 Thunderbird seemed much larger than the previous model. That the same frame was to be used for the Lincoln Continental may have been the last straw for them. In the eyes of the Thunderbird enthusiast, the unibody construction was part of what made the birds sports cars, and the loss of it seemed to spell the end of an era. Body on frame construction is more suited to a large car, and the Thunderbird was now becoming a large car indeed, though not quite a full size automobile. The reasons for this were twofold, the first being that the unibody construction made the older Thunderbirds expensive to repair after collision damage and meant that rusting affected the structural integrity of the car, and secondly that as the Thunderbird became bigger it became less and less suited for building that way. That changed in 1967, when the Thunderbird took the seeming retrograde step of reverting to the classic body on frame style, like most American cars of the period. Body on Frame constructionĪll previous Thunderbirds had unibody (or monocoque) construction, in which the body structure itself is the load-bearing member, rather than a seperate, rigid chassis frame. It was this very difference, the change from an inoffensive but attractive style to one that's aggressive, fast, uncompromising and polarizing, that I think played the largest part in the rejection of the 1967 models and later by the Thunderbird aficionado. The tail-lights were full width, and featured sequential turn signals.Ĭertainly the 1967 to 1969 Thunderbirds, that shared the same basic styling, have a look that is unique. The body lines were sleekly curved, humped over the rear wheels in what was becoming the fashion, and the tail was swept back, the outer edges being behind the center in a shallow vee. In reality, the outboard parts of this were retractable covers over the headlights, the Thunderbird being one of the first cars with this feature. A large oval air intake was the major front-end feature, taking up almost the whole width of the car and filled with a seemingly full-width grille. The Ford stylists took their inspiration from jet aircraft for the front end, particularly USAF fighter jets with great gaping nose intakes such as the F-100 Super Sabre. In many respects, the '67 look was a forerunner of 1970s muscle car style, with no small amount of aggression. It has a somewhat European look to it from certain angles, particularly from the front, and it was no bad looker from the back, either.ġ967's Thunderbird, on the other hand, looked like nothing else at the time, and its very striking looks are definitely in the ' love it or hate it' category. Attractive and sporty looking, and with a knack for seeming a much smaller, nimbler car than it really was, it's really hard to hate the '66 styling. The 1966 model, while not the most striking Thunderbird ever, certainly drew few detractors in the looks department. Let's examine the changes in the 1967 model year compared to the 1966 Ford Thunderbird. I must admit to substantial bias up front I own a '67 myself. So what happened in the 1967 model year that was so awful? Is the opinion of the vast majority of car enthusiasts and Thunderbird fans a valid one? In fact, you'd be forgiven for believing there were no Thunderbirds between '66 and a few 1990s ones you still see kicking around. Save for the few ultra-purists who would rather forget about any Thunderbird produced after 1957 and the ending of two-seater production, the opinion is nigh-on universal. A web site about Thunderbird history produced at the time of the 2002 model year T-Bird relaunch mentions nothing between that year and the modern day, and it's the same with many unofficial web sites, parts dealers, catalogs, clubs and events. Even the Ford Motor Company, it seems, likes to pretend these days that the Ford Thunderbird line ended in 1966.
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