Early Vettes and T-Birds
First let me say, I have no intention to start a thread that is in anyway about T-Birds, other than to compare the early years of the two makes and voice some of my preliminary conclusions. I recently spent some time at a couple of cruise-ins parked next to T-Birds whose owners had restored them and were quite familiar with their history (one 56 and one 57).
It goes without saying that the real early C-1's were a little rough, and they were kind of put together out of the GM parts bins. I believe it safe to say that the use of fiberglass material for the bodies was originally in the vein of "prototyping", or the limited production of a concept vehicle. Lucky for us the Corvette blossomed through the years into what it is today.
It seems that the early appeal of the Vette caught Ford by surprise and they rushed the T-Bird into production in 1955. They too went heavily to their parts bin. The body production was jobbed out which, I understand, was the first time they went outside for a body. Ironically, the quality of their steel body was no better than the early Vettes. In fact, when they are judged today, if an owner has spent time trying to perfect the body (straighten the panels and block sand, etc.), they too would get heavy points deducts as rough "bondo" looking body panels is the original norm.
The fiasco they had about the spare tire is very interesting as well; Apparently, their Engineers didn't give it much thought until the car went into production. When they put a full size spare into that low trunk, they practically had no room for any luggage, and owners complained. So that led to the famous "Continental Kit". Here too, they first mounted it in a fixed position, and that also brought complaints as it was hard to get around to access the trunk. Finally, in 1957, they grafted on the back of a Galaxy which extended the back some 11" (?) and allowed for a Corvette type tire tub behind the axle.
Their convertible top is a nightmare to behold, and then there was the famous rear quarter Port Hole windows in the hardtop to address the bad blind spot.
I think the item that interested me the most was the reports of extreme engine heat in the T-Bird passenger compartment, so much in fact that it would make any BB owner Happy that Chevrolet at least made attempts to overcome the problem for their Vettes. Ford, apparently never did.
The owner I was parked next to last night has a real nice 57 T-Bird that he fully restored. Being an aerospace worker at the Cape, he managed to come by a supply of discarded heat shield tiles from the space shuttles and has glued them into his transmission tunnel to deal with the heat, said it worked very well.
Seems Ford gave up trying to compete with the Vette after 1957 and went to a four passenger version in 58 - and why not; the 57 sold only some 15, 000 while their 58 sold about 46, 000.
One last observation, this 57 T-Bird had the 312 cu.in engine with solid lifters. The owner warned me before he started it up that the Ford engine doesn't have the nice tappet "Power Purr" of the Corvette solid lifter engines, rather it just has a rattling sound like it's in bad need of a valve adjustment.
Stu Fox
It goes without saying that the real early C-1's were a little rough, and they were kind of put together out of the GM parts bins. I believe it safe to say that the use of fiberglass material for the bodies was originally in the vein of "prototyping", or the limited production of a concept vehicle. Lucky for us the Corvette blossomed through the years into what it is today.
It seems that the early appeal of the Vette caught Ford by surprise and they rushed the T-Bird into production in 1955. They too went heavily to their parts bin. The body production was jobbed out which, I understand, was the first time they went outside for a body. Ironically, the quality of their steel body was no better than the early Vettes. In fact, when they are judged today, if an owner has spent time trying to perfect the body (straighten the panels and block sand, etc.), they too would get heavy points deducts as rough "bondo" looking body panels is the original norm.
The fiasco they had about the spare tire is very interesting as well; Apparently, their Engineers didn't give it much thought until the car went into production. When they put a full size spare into that low trunk, they practically had no room for any luggage, and owners complained. So that led to the famous "Continental Kit". Here too, they first mounted it in a fixed position, and that also brought complaints as it was hard to get around to access the trunk. Finally, in 1957, they grafted on the back of a Galaxy which extended the back some 11" (?) and allowed for a Corvette type tire tub behind the axle.
Their convertible top is a nightmare to behold, and then there was the famous rear quarter Port Hole windows in the hardtop to address the bad blind spot.
I think the item that interested me the most was the reports of extreme engine heat in the T-Bird passenger compartment, so much in fact that it would make any BB owner Happy that Chevrolet at least made attempts to overcome the problem for their Vettes. Ford, apparently never did.
The owner I was parked next to last night has a real nice 57 T-Bird that he fully restored. Being an aerospace worker at the Cape, he managed to come by a supply of discarded heat shield tiles from the space shuttles and has glued them into his transmission tunnel to deal with the heat, said it worked very well.
Seems Ford gave up trying to compete with the Vette after 1957 and went to a four passenger version in 58 - and why not; the 57 sold only some 15, 000 while their 58 sold about 46, 000.
One last observation, this 57 T-Bird had the 312 cu.in engine with solid lifters. The owner warned me before he started it up that the Ford engine doesn't have the nice tappet "Power Purr" of the Corvette solid lifter engines, rather it just has a rattling sound like it's in bad need of a valve adjustment.
Stu Fox
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