By 1965, the Thunderbird was almost as much Lincoln as it was Ford, and it moves with an effortless ease befitting a top-of-the-line personal luxury car.
Ford worked hard to keep the Thunderbird at the top of the sales charts, steadily improving the cars and giving them extensive restyling every three years. With a fresh face in 1964, Ford set about modernizing the ‘Bird, and in 1965 added power front disc brakes and the famous sequential taillights, as well as numerous detail improvements that make them the best of the ‘60s Thunderbirds.
This fabulous 1965 Landau coupe shows just 16,538 original miles, and offers an incredible glimpse into how good these cars really were in 1965. It has been repainted once in its original Colonial White, but as you can see in the photos, it needed no bodywork or other repairs and the respray was due simply to age and the ravages of the southern sun. You’ll note that door jambs and the trunk area are still original Ford enamel, and the color match is exact, making it difficult to discern where the new paint ends and the original paint begins. Either way, the car looks fantastic, showing off the forward-looking styling that makes these some of Ford’s most attractive ‘60s automobiles. The doors fit well, closing with a precision that only original cars can deliver, and all the panels line up just the way the workers at the Wixom assembly plant installed them. Of note, that’s the original landau top and it’s in fantastic condition with no fading, rips, or popped seams, and as a car that spent its life down south, rust is obviously not an issue. All the chrome is likewise original, still bright and shiny with a patina that works well with the rest of the car. Both bumpers are in excellent condition without even a parking lot ding in their surfaces, and the ornamentation on the ‘65s emphasizes the car’s graceful lines. And yes, the sequential taillights are fully functional.
The all-original interior is just as remarkable as the body, with light blue crinkle vinyl that’s in excellent condition. The driver’s seat may show some minor signs of wear, but the rest of the seats are almost like new, particularly the wrap-around back seat that looks quite inviting. Door panels, carpets, and the headliner are still excellent, showing off the detailing that made these cars the ultimate personal luxury coupe of the time. The door panels and dash are a wonderful combination of brushed stainless and woodgrained surfaces, and the dashboard shows an adventurous look and knobs that were surly inspired by aircraft instrumentation. Factory A/C is a highly desirable option, and the system has been recently serviced and converted to R134a refrigerant, so it works well and is easy and inexpensive to maintain. All four power windows are fully operational, along with manual vent windows that do a nice job of providing draft-free ventilation when the A/C isn’t needed. In the trunk, you’ll find 100% original matting that is still glued down by factory adhesives, along with a full-sized spare and a complete jack assembly stashed in the special compartment in the side. The trunk floor is rust-free, and obviously the quarter panels are original and completely unmarked.
For power, this ‘Bird uses the Z-code 390, which makes a nice, round 300 horsepower and a mountain of torque. By 1965, the Thunderbird was almost as much Lincoln as it was Ford, and it moves with an effortless ease befitting a top-of-the-line personal luxury car. With only 16,500 original miles, the engine has never been opened or removed from the chassis, but starts instantly and idles perfectly thanks to a recent major service by Capaldi Enterprises. All the original details remain under the hood, including factory-applied engine enamel and decals, making this Thunderbird just a weekends’ worth of detailing away from HPOF competition. A reproduction Autolite Sta-Ful battery gives it the right look, and only the hose clamps stand out as non-original equipment. It’s backed by the standard 3-speed automatic transmission and with 3.00 gears in the 9-inch out back, it loafs along at supra-legal speeds with barely a whisper. The chassis wears a layer of dealer-applied undercoating that’s probably as old as the car, but it has nothing to hide as the floors, frame, and other components are unquestionably original and in outstanding condition. Only the exhaust system, which has a fantastic V8 rumble that’s probably a bit more sporting than the original equipment, has been replaced. The big news for 1965 was the addition of disc brakes, which were sorely needed in the increasingly heavy Thunderbird, and it wears the original 15-inch steel wheels that were unique to the disc-brake-equipped cars and do not fit other models. Newer 215/75/15 Bridgestone whitewall radials have been fitted, so the car tracks straight and rides beautifully, making it the ultimate ‘60s highway cruiser.
These cars make fine tour machines thanks to their combination of comfort, performance, and luxury, and with increased interest in affordable fun, this is a great opportunity to get a survivor-class ringer for a very affordable price. Today, as when it was new, the Thunderbird represents outstanding bang for the buck.
