driveReport 1964 Ford Thunderbird

spotlight ford classics

(Re)Taking to Wing

Fond memories and crystal goblets lead a nostalgic owner back to a 1964 Ford Thunderbird convertible

WORDS AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY JEFF KOCH

If you ’ ve owned a car for a while—any car—you invariably amass related items. Whether it’ s spare parts to keep it running or endless collectible tchotchkes that recall the vehicle in question, and whether those parts live in basements, attics, rafters, or on display shelves, often those leftover items remain with us long after the car itself has disappeared from our lives.

Which helps explain the set of wine glasses that are in Ken Nowicki’s possession. It’s not usual old-car fare, particularly not these days, when any possible combination of drinking and driving (stated or implied) is firmly out of fashion. Even so, these six crystal goblets — each with a Thunderbird logo etched into the glass, placed carefully in a red-velvet-lined hardback case about half the size of a briefcase — are indirectly responsible for the 1964 Ford Thunderbird convertible you see before you on these pages. They served as long-standing reminders of an age long

considered to be gone forever in Ken’s life, and as inspiration to get us to the point where we are now.

To be fair, the glasses, with their sand-blasted bird-in-flight logo, are slightly out-of-time with the car. The stemware, a promotion from earlier in the 1960s (collectibles site Worthpoint suggests they arrived sometime between 1959’62), were made by Fostoria — the makers of decorative “elegant glass” from the 1870s through that company’s demise in 1986. Per Ken, his parents John and Leona were allowed to choose between tumblers and wine glasses when they bought a new ’64 Thunderbird ragtop, and they went with the more social choice. The glasses weren’t dated and were received in the spirit in which they were intended: a fun bonus from the Rochester, New York-area dealer, who probably had a gross more taking up space in a back room somewhere.

But in the Nowicki household, these glasses were cherished from the get-go: John, who owned a piece of the family’s box-making factory in Rochester, made a sturdy, bespoke case for the newly acquired quarry, and lined the container with red felt to cushion the fragile glass. For nearly half a century, these glasses were the only tangible memory of the car that helped originally drive Ken’s own nascent four-wheeled enthusiasm.

Ken was one of the many tens of thousands who appreciated the newfor-1964 Thunderbird models. The 1964 restyle drove the fourth-generation ’Bird toward more luxurious territory; Ford also sought to build some visual distance between T-bird and Mustang by formalizing the big ’Bird’s styling. Thunderbird’s base engine was a 300-hp, 390-cu.in. version of Ford’s FE V-8, paired to the FMX three-speed automatic transmission. Standard features like the Swing-Away steering wheel (functional only in park, the steering wheel could slide toward the center of the cabin for simpler ingress/ egress) only cemented Thunderbird’s exalted status, despite the increasing numbers of competitive models from crosstown rivals.

Ford’s new-style Thunderbird was a success: against year-to-year sales gains of 46 percent for the new generation, soft-top sales jumped an even greater 55 percent. Yet Thunderbird convertibles were barely 10 percent of overall production for the year— just 9,198 soft-tops were built, out 92,465 total Thunderbirds for the year. It kicked off an unprecedented run for Thunderbird; with more than 236,000 built from 1964’66, it became the best-selling generation yet.

And the ads whispered of jet-age elegance. Thunderbirds didn’t have interiors, they had cockpits. They didn’t have dashboards or instrument panels; T-Birds had flight decks. The trunk was “touring size. ” To feel the ride, you needed to be “in flight. ” Shell seats in front, cove seats in back. Silent-Flo ventilation, which frankly mattered more on coupes than on convertibles

Thunderbird’s only engine choice for 1964 was the 300-horsepower, FE-family 390-cubicinch V-8. The mandatory four-barrel carburetor ensured ample power, despite the big ’Bird’s considerable heft.

that offered unlimited headroom with the top down. The standard automatic transmission, christened Cruise-O-Matic. Pick out a runway. Prepare to soar! The copy even tried to turn Thunderbird into a verb, which didn’t quite stick. (As the great prophet Calvin famously decreed to Hobbes, “Verbing weirds language. ”)

But when you’re six, all the ad copy in the world is no substitute for that seat-of-the-pants feeling, and Ken fondly remembers the Thunderbird his parents bought. “Dad was just a hardworking guy, but he loved getting a new car. In 1964, that one stood out. It looked like a jet plane. What he bought was pretty much exactly the same car I’m driving now — color, options, everything jibes with my dad’s car. The only option I remember his car having was the rear speaker. Funny how that was an option!” It was a big deal to have a convertible too, as convertibles only had limited appeal in a town like Rochester, where the average snowfall is a hundred inches or more per year. “Nice-weather days weren’t that common at home, ” Ken recalls. He now makes his home in Gilbert, Arizona.

“Dad used to put me up on his lap and drive up the driveway. The instrument panel had all the levers like a jet, and when I was six, that round seat in back was huge. ” Rochester was several hours up the New York Thruway from Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, home of the 1964 World’s Fair. Though he didn’t attend, Ken was particularly enamored reading about the Disney-engineered Ford Magic Skyway. The ride took guests from the ancient past to the far future — all from the comfort of a Falcon, Mustang, or Thunderbird convertible. The World’s Fair hype only cemented his dad’s choice of car as a memorable one.

By the time 1970 rolled around, Ken was on the cusp of high school, and the ’64 Thunderbird had gotten the family through half a dozen harsh Rochester winters; it was traded in for another T-Bird. The glasses remained on a closet shelf in John and Leona’s home, with a “Property of Ken Nowicki” tag taped to the box lid, lest anyone mistake it for junk and accidentally discard it. “They knew that car meant a lot to me; eventually they gave me the glasses and told me to go find the car to match ’em. ”

Ken did exactly this, but it took a little longer than he had anticipated. Like, half a century between the original ’64’s departure and the arrival of the new one. “My wife Marie and I were watching the Scottsdale car auctions on TV, ” Ken recalls. “I watched as a tan ’64 Thunderbird convertible sold. I started to talk about my childhood memories of the ’64 my parents owned, and she suggested I go look online to see if any were for sale. The first one to come up in my search was this Brittany Blue convertible — just like the one my parents had. ” It was located in Boston, but a cross-country plane flight and a test drive later, and Ken had his name on the title of a Thunderbird that was a virtual twin to the one his parents owned five and a half decades previously.

“I haven’t traced the history, but I know the previous owner had a paintand-body shop and had driven it 6,000 miles in the 23 years he owned it, ” Ken says. “I’ve put that many miles on in the two years that I’ve owned it!” And while the car itself isn’t the very one that his parents had in his impressionable youth, it’s close enough to it that Ken can close his eyes (not while he’s driving, mind you) and feel the torque of the mighty

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11:1-compression FE engine, the smoothness of the ride, the stopping power of the vacuum-boosted four-wheel drum brakes (no front discs till ’65), and the retro-futuristic vibe Thunderbird exuded when it was new in 1964. He’s planning a thorough mechanical refurbishment for later this year, and when it’s done, it will feel even more like the original that fills his memories.

Those original wine goblets are now proudly displayed with the car whenever Ken shows at a local car meet. How could they not be? That sextet of etched Fostoria glass, combined with Ken’s experience growing up in a ’64 Thunderbird, led him to seek out and possess another just like it. The glasses are far more than hand-medown memories of a -gone car, kept in a dusty box in the closet for safe keeping: They are a tangible link to Ken Nowicki’s current and forever ride.

ILLUSTRATION BY ROBERTA CONROY

SPECIFICATIONS

WHAT TO PAY

LOW AVERAGE HIGH

PRICE

BASE PRICE OPTIONS $25,000 $58,000 $89,000

$4,953 Whitewall tires

ENGINE

TYPE Ford FE-series OHV V-8; cast-iron block and cylinder heads DISPLACEMENT 390-cu.in. BORE X STROKE 4.05 x 3.78 inches COMPRESSION RATIO 11:1 HORSEPOWER @ RPM 300 @ 4,500 TORQUE @ RPM 427 lb-ft @ 2,700 VALVETRAIN Hydraulic lifters MAIN BEARINGS Five FUEL SYSTEM Single Autolite 4100 four-barrel carburetor, mechanical pump LUBRICATION SYSTEM Pressure, gear-type pump ELECTRICAL SYSTEM 12-volt EXHAUST SYSTEM Dual exhausts

TRANSMISSION

TYPE

RATIOS Ford Cruise-O-Matic three-speed automatic with torque converter 1st/2.40:1 2nd/1.47:1 3rd/1.00:1 Reverse/2.00:1 DIFFERENTIAL

TYPE GEAR RATIO Ford 9-inch, hypoid, open 3.00:1

STEERING

TYPE

Recirculating ball, power assist RATIO 17:1 TURNING CIRCLE 42.7 feet

BRAKES

TYPE FRONT/REAR Hydraulic, four-wheel manual drum 10-inch drum

CHASSIS & BODY

CONSTRUCTION All steel, unitized construction BODY STYLE Two-door convertible LAYOUT Front engine, rear-wheel drive

SUSPENSION

FRONT

REAR Independent; coil springs, ball joints, telescoping shock absorbers, anti-roll bar Live axle; parallel leaf springs, telescoping shock absorbers

WHEELS & TIRES

WHEELS TIRES 15 x 6.5-inch pressed steel, drop center 8.15 x 15 four-ply (original), white side walls

WEIGHTS & MEASURES

WHEELBASE 113.2 inches OVERALL LENGTH 205.4 inches OVERALL WIDTH 77.1 inches OVERALL HEIGHT 52.5 inches