Newspaper add

[ranchbird]

Going through some stuff and found this old newspaper add that I saved from the Sunday Oregonian January 1980 ( Portland) Joe Fisher Ford was a pretty big Ford dealer at the time along with Marv Tonkin Ford. I wonder if any of the 55 Birds are still out there somewhere..

[ward 57]

Interesting the asking price difference between the two. I wonder what the difference would be now.

[MarkR]

It took me a minute to read the fine print on the 55. They are taking orders on some sort of 25 year anniversary reproduction 55! It’s fuzzy but The picture does not appear to be a Shay. If it’s a repro it’s very good. They may have used a 55 Bird picture for the ad. The only imitations I’ve ever heard of were Shays. They also forgot to say Watch Your Rearview Mirror in the Pinto ad.
Thanks for posting it.

[ward 57]

LOL. Thanks for the insight. Oh I did have a Pinto as a high school driver (tinkered on that and even put in headers LOL) and my brother bought a Vega wagon for his new marriage.

[MarkR]

Oh man. If we all just had our high school rides. I had a Corvair Spyder. Super fun.I got T boned in the high school parking lot. I took off the roof and doors and made a dune buggy out if it. Ralph Nader was dead wrong.

[Alan H. Tast]

Shay was building reproductions of the Model 'A' and the '55 'Bird at the same time in the late '70s. Even as a teenager I paid attention to when they were available at our local Ford dealers around Omaha, Lincoln and Fremont, Nebraska. One dealer has a Model 'A' replica roadster with a Pinto engine in it in their showroom, while the T-bird replica had a 302/C4 automatic.

[Jimntempe]

Oh man. If we all just had our high school rides. I had a Corvair Spyder. Super fun.I got T boned in the high school parking lot. I took off the roof and doors and made a dune buggy out if it. Ralph Nader was dead wrong.

I had a 66 Corvair Monza with the 140 engine and 4-speed and factory air. Was a really fun car. It replaced my 1960 80 hp Corvair coupe. Wish I still had both of them.

[DynoDan’55]

Shay was building reproductions of the Model 'A' and the '55 'Bird at the same time in the late '70s. Even as a teenager I paid attention to when they were available at our local Ford dealers around Omaha, Lincoln and Fremont, Nebraska. One dealer has a Model 'A' replica roadster with a Pinto engine in it in their showroom, while the T-bird replica had a 302/C4 automatic.

When I checked out ordering that repro at a Ford dealer, it had a Pinto chassis and was supposedly only available with the 2.3 four. I bought a new Pinto wagon instead.

[Alan H. Tast]

When I checked out ordering that repro at a Ford dealer, it had a Pinto chassis and was supposedly only available with the 2.3 four. I bought a new Pinto wagon instead.

The obligatory Wikipedia page on Shays only mentions the powertrain available for the Model 'A' replica.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shay_Motors_Corporation

I can be mistaken in my recollections on the '55, since I didn't look too close and assumed it would have had at least a 302 as standard equipment at the time. I didn't bother to pick up a sales brochure, like I did for all the other new cars at the time. Since, then, I did add a copy of the Shay T-bird brochure to my literature collection, but I never studied it real close as to what the powertrain offering was. A subsequent look at literature on-line in the Shay Model A Club's website did find a suggested retail price listing for 1980 showing that the 302 V-8 could be ordered for the Shay replicas to replace the 2.3L I-4, along with a turbocharged 2.3L.
https://www.shaymodelaclub.com/1980-t-bird

Another history from the Shay Model A Club does mention the use of the 4-banger in Shay-built T-birds/Model 'A's and subsequent replacement with 4-cylinders from Fairmonts due to the end of Pinto production. With the acquisition of Shay's assets by Camelot Motors in 1983, a V-8 was offered, along with a '57 body. Around 1986 Camelot Motors went out of business, and Regal Roadsters is assumed to have picked up what was left of the Shay/Camelot parts inventory.
https://www.shaymodelaclub.com/shay-history

A quick Google search turned up info on the Shay replica 'A's and T-birds. The 'Birds I found listed for sale have 302s, but I don't know if they're true Shays, the Camelot 'continuation' cars or actually the Regal Roadster version.

If you go through the brochures that the Shay club has posted on its website you can see the progression from the initial offering of the '55 through '82, when Shay's fortunes were going downhill, then into '83 through '86 during the Camelot Motors years and offering of the '57 body. It sure looks as though the first Shay brochures for '80 and '80-1/2 are showing an original '55 versus the repop version. As you go through them you'll see newer instrumentation hidden under the '57-style dash hood, a Fairmont steering wheel, lack of stainless trim on the windshield frame, etc.

Would I own one today? Maybe if I found one with a turbocharged 4-banger or upgraded to a SBF 302, but then again I still have a '55 Victoria in the pole barn waiting to get finished after 43 years of ownership on my part...and if I really wanted to 'wrap my A... in fiberglass'...I wouldn't be here

[DynoDan’55]

It’s obvious they used an actual ‘55 T-Bird (not a repro) for their promo pamphlet photos.
BTW: I likely have that memory of ‘2.3 L engine only’ availability, since being rather poor back then, I would not have considered any but the bare-bones base model.
ALSO: It was rather amusing reading the 10,000 mile oil change recommendation (right out of the contemporary Ford literature). They had just instituted the ban on leaded fuel, and FoMoCo likely anticipated an extended oil life benefit (didn’t happen). Being rather young (dumb) and naive then, I followed that recommendation in my new ‘78 Pinto. After around 40-50K miles, the cam lobes were so worn, they barely opened the valves!

[55blacktie]

Off topic, but my sister had a Mustang II with the 2.3, as did my mother-in-law's Pinto wagon. On numerous occasions, when upshifting at high rpm, both engines would spit out rocker arms. After experiencing it once or twice, I immediately knew what to look for. I would remove the valve cover, find the rocker arm lying near the cam/valve train, slip the rocker arm back into place, and be on my way again. Both cars were equipped with automatic transmissions.