Spotted: 1956 Thunderbird convertible in downtown Menlo Park

We spotted this mint condition 1956 Thunderbird convertible last week on Crane Street. It was parked in front of Sky Nails and we popped in in the hopes that the owner might be there, but no luck.

Here’s some background about the early Ford Thunderbird models, thank to Wikipedia:

Ford unveiled the Thunderbird at the Detroit Auto Show on February 20, 1954. The first production car came off the line on September 9, 1954, and went on sale on October 22, 1954 as a 1955 model, and sold briskly; 3,500 orders were placed in the first ten days of sale. While only 10,000 were planned, 16,155 cars were sold in 1955… A rare domestic two-seater for the era, it was designed to be a brisk luxury tourer and not a sports car, capable of attaining speeds of 100 to 115 mph depending on the transmission ordered.

For the 1956 model year, more trunk space was added, the spare wheel was mounted outside (which helped free up trunk space), the exhaust tips were moved to the ends of the bumper, and air vents were added behind the front wheels to improve cabin ventilation…Production total for 1956 was 15,631 units, the lowest of all three 2-seater Thunderbird model years.

The 1957 Thunderbird was the last two-seater Ford sold until the 1982 Ford EXP sport compact car.

Photo by Linda Hubbard (c) 2021