All four were duplicated in the new top-line Fairlane 500 series, which added the traditional Sunliner convertible and, a bit later, the trick-top Skyliner retractable. You could also choose from sedan equivalents selling for about $60 less, with thin, chrome-trimmed pillars that gave them a hardtop look. Two-door Club Victoria and four-door Town Victoria hardtops were carried over from 1956. One step up was a brace of Custom 300 sedans on the same chassis and also measuring 202 inches long overall, successors to the previous Customline.įairlane was next, stretching 208 inches long overall and riding a new 118-inch wheelbase, both dimensions the longest in Ford history.
1957 ford conv plus#
Model offerings began with a trio of Custom sedans - Tudor and Fordor plus a stripped business two-door - replacing the low-end Mainline series of yore and riding a 116-inch wheelbase, half an inch longer than 1955-1956. This Fairlane 500 Sunliner wears dealer-installed hood ornament, front fender gravel guards, and rocker moldings. Much of Ford's 1957 styling was borrowed from the Mystere show car of 1954. In short, Ford didn't just cover the market, but overwhelmed it. There were more colors and two-tone combinations than you'd find in a circus paint shop. Body styles were the expected assortment of two- and four-door sedans, hardtops, and wagons, but you were also offered the first retractable hardtop in American production and the first sedan/pickup from a domestic maker since World War II. Comprising no fewer than 20 different models, it spanned two separate wheelbases for the first time in postwar Ford history (not counting the Thunderbird, of course). If the industry's perennial number-two couldn't beat Chevrolet at its own game, why not change the game? Hit GM at every level below Cadillac - be all things to all people and still be a Ford.Īccordingly, the 1957 standard line was as broad as a Swedish smorgasbord. The most dramatically changed passenger cars since the make-or-break 1949 models heralded a new styling philosophy in Dearborn as well as a much tougher competitive stance against front-running General Motors. Nineteen fifty-seven was a vintage year for Detroit. Here's a handsome example of that year's new Fairlane 500 Club Sedan. The 1957 standards were the most radically changed Fords since the make-or-break 1949s. As we'll see, the answers to this apparent paradox lie where they always do when cars that seem much the same end up being very different. Conversely, the facelifted 1958s mark the low point and the heavily reworked 1959s generate little more interest now, even though both retained much of the 1957 design. The 1957 standard Fords (aside from the classic two-seat T-Birds and the increasingly popular "Squarebirds") represent the high point of the make's 1950s collectibility.
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