Retrieving a 59 Fairlane 500 convertible

Thank you.

I was wondering if anyone would pick up on that. Good eye.

 

There's a member on Fullsizebronco who's restoring a '63 Fairlane (it's in the painting stage now) who lives on the North side of the Columbia River. I thought you and the other members would be interested in a link to his thread there:

http://www.fullsizebronco.com/forum...-hate-mice-i-do-fairlane-interior-thread.html

 

That is a neat thread on the fullsize bronco forum. Thanks for posting it.

We ran into a snag with the interior when the upholstery guy took the seats apart. Originally we were told by the seller that the little old lady he bought it from was short, so blocks were installed to raise the seat. This made it hard for a grown man to get behind the wheel. We figured we would just remove the blocks and be on our way. The back seat wasn't right either. The seat base was propped up at a crazy angle, like it was popping a wheelie. Turns out the seat frames were a cobbled together mess of different components from different cars. They aren't even close to the right thing. Some enterprising soul decided to use sockets (yeah, like the kind you use on a wrench to remove stuff from old cars...) as spacers.

We discussed our options for the seats, using what we have, modifying what we have or finding and buying the right stuff. We decided that since we don't even know where to begin with the frames we have, since there is no real reference points, our best bet was to find original frames and restore them. This task turned out to be a little more challenging than you would expect. The rear seat itself is specific to convertibles.

We ended up finding a pair of front and rear seats on eBay, and hopefully they will be here soon. Once they arrive they will be reworked and the slow progress will continue.

Hopefully this thing will be on the road before it snows.

 

Naughty socket seats!

 

I sooooo bet the 'little old lady' took it to her shop, and they saw dollar signs.

 

You are probly right Andrew. Of course, in the end it is ending up costing us dollar signs.
The seats we found are in New York, which is a bit of a jaunt from where we (and the car) are located. Amazing how a "quick freshening up" can turn into a full blown restoration.
All things considered we're having fun.

 

I remember '59 Fords from my childhood, as do a lot of the other members. I always wanted at least a scale model of one, I still remember one I wanted, never got it. I thought I could have ended up with a real sedan I saw within the last five years, but it disappeared fast. I like how you're looking and getting the right seats, instead of throwing something else in. I can't wait to see the finished product.

 

Hear, hear!

 

Hey all, progress has been slow on this project recently. It turns out that despite the popularity of this vintage Ford convertible, reproduction parts are still very limited. And when you do find a supplier, it can be months before you get what you need since they are generally only made once an order has been placed.

That is the case with our interior situation. The door panels, kick panels and rear-seat panels are offered aftermarket, but they are months out. We ordered them two months ago and they tell us it could take another two months before we get them. That's frustrating.

So, in the meantime the interior guys are working on what they can.
We got our seats in from New York. They were rough. I took photos of them, but I must have deleted them since I can't find them anywhere. They weren't that interesting. It looks like they sat out in the weather for a long time. The upholstery guys removed the old vinyl and padding etc, then we took them to get sand blasted.

The convertible top mech has been painted and is awaiting installation.

Here's what things look like at the moment with the old seat frame still sitting in it.



It sounds like once we get the seat frames back from the sand blasters and to the Upholster it should only take a few weeks for them to get it all put together, minus the new door panels etc. Once that's done it will be ready for final exterior assembly.

We will probably have the old door panels installed for the time being so we can hopefully drive it a little bit before the weather turns.

 

Finally got the seat frames back from the sandblasters. They also powder coated them at the same place.
I dropped them off with the upholstery guy yesterday afternoon.
He has the top about finished and the trunk kit is done.
Hopefully the seats don't take too long.

 

Man, last update was October 6th.

That's no good.

Things moved pretty slow with the upholstery guys. We weren't in a huge rush over the winter, but now that Spring in on it's way the convertible has once again become a hot topic.

We picked it up from the upholstery shop today. It doesn't look like much was done, but they have installed new carpet (both interior and trunk) and the new top. The seats and door panel/rear seat panel/kick panel will go in after final assembly.

We dropped it off at the same shop that it went to when this whole snowball started rolling down hill...

He said it should take a couple of weeks to put it back together and then we'll get the seats and panels installed.



There are still a number of details left to attend to, but we'll sort those out as it's going back together.

We are definitely looking forward to wrapping this project up and enjoying it this summer.

 

Nice U.S. Maypop you got there.

 

Looks like its moving along nicely. Look forward to seeing it complete.
Am I correct in believing its an early production convertible since its a Fairlane rather than a Galaxie? If I have figured it out correctly the convertibles (Sunliner and Skyliner) were moved from the Fairlane 500 line to the Galaxie line around the first of the 1959 calendar year. I am wondering if there were any changes besides the name. Did the upholstery material and pattern stay the same before and after the name change, for example? Was any additional standard equipment or trim added after the convertibles were moved to the Galaxie line?

 

That's new information for me, Jim. I had not realized that the Galaxie was a mid-year introduction. Must have missed that in my 9-year old youth.
From what I can gather, it looks like the Sunliner and Skyliner were switched to being Galaxies.

Here's the original Ford brochure dated 9/1958, and a Galaxie/Thunderbird brochure dated 10/1958:
http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/ford/59ford/59ford.html
http://www.lov2xlr8.no/brochures/ford/59gal1/59gal1.html

Seems that Ford wanted to get the Galaxie out when the new models were introduced in September, but didn't quite make the deadline. Big item was the new roofline for the 2-door and 4-door hardtops and sedans (wide Thunderbird-ish C pillars).

 

Thanks Jim, it is moving along.
Not as quickly as we would like, but it is moving...

The question you raise was brought up earlier:

So, it is a Failane Galaxie 500 Sunliner.

Crazy huh?