Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and

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CamaroMan
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Joined: Sun Apr 08, 2018 11:13 pm

Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and

Post by CamaroMan »

Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and what the build date would be. 1957 Thunderbird D7FH197915
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Alan H. Tast
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Re: Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and

Post by Alan H. Tast »

CamaroMan wrote: Sun Apr 08, 2018 11:21 pm Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and what the build date would be. 1957 Thunderbird D7FH197915
Need more info, i.e. all the codes on the data plate that's riveted to the firewall in the engine bay.
Alan H. Tast, AIA
Technical Director/Past President,
Vintage Thunderbird Club Int'l.
Author, "Thunderbird 1955-1966" & "Thunderbird 50 Years"
1963 Hardtop & 1963 Sports Roadster
David Tulowitzky
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Re: Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and

Post by David Tulowitzky »

This `57 (D7FH197915) was scheduled to be built on January 21, 1957. I would not consider this an early production although some owners may.
1957Birdman
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Re: Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and

Post by 1957Birdman »

I agree with Dave. In the world of 1957 T-Birds any car built after the first two or three months of production would not be an early car, in my opinion. Later cars such has mine (D7fH323483) had a change in the data plate. Starting in September of 1957 some of the colors changed to the same colors on 1958 Fords (for example Azure Blue for Starmist Blue, Torch Red for Flame Red, etc).
Regards,
Lew Bachman
1957 Colonial White
Firstandtenth
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Re: Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and

Post by Firstandtenth »

Not sure if it holds true, but several references cite early 57 birds as having the medallion stamped into the vinyl in the middle of the seat back. Later models did not have the medallion.
1957 Raven Black E-code, manual (second owner)
1990 Super Coupe, auto. (original owner)
tnswt12
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Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:31 am

Re: Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and

Post by tnswt12 »

I wish David had gone a little further regarding his understanding of an early 57 TBird.

I thought I had an early production 57 TBird--it has the 17M code for Dec 1956. Is this production date considered an early date for a 1957 TBird?
CSavaglio
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Re: Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and

Post by CSavaglio »

Curious what difference it makes? Is it about value, what components would have been fitted, etc? I know in 55, certain colors became available later on in production. As for value, it only seems to matter if you have the first built or one of the first.

When I had Corvettes (in my misguided younger days), my 69 led me down a crazy road, where there were dozens of changes made to the production line as the long year (because of the strike, the model year went long, like the 57 tbird line, but for different reasons). This led to early, mid, late 69s, but what components were installed depended on when that component was available and when the old component stocks ran out. Have a late or early build date gave a starting point, but it was possible to have a late car with a mix of early and later components.
tnswt12
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Re: Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and

Post by tnswt12 »

Value is not part of the picture as far as I am concerned. Other than having an answer to the question the other reason is when sourcing parts. I've noted part houses will list a part based on whether the 57 TBird is an early or late production.
seany-boy
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Location: Melbourne, Australia

Re: Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and

Post by seany-boy »

I have always assumed this to be a simple translation of the dataplate style which changed in April 1957. see https://www.ctci.org/decoder.php
The plate that was used in 55-April 57 is considered 'early' and the smaller late consider 'late.

That's how I understand it from the suppliers I have used.
Red 57 Thunderbird 312 3spd O/D
Location: Melbourne, Australia
tnswt12
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Joined: Sun Jan 07, 2018 11:31 am

Re: Trying to find out if this car is considered an early car, and

Post by tnswt12 »

Seany-Boy I totally hear what you are saying about the data plate change in 1957. Continuing, I looked through the CTCI Restoration Manual this weekend and it makes many references to early and late '57s so I'm pretty sure where my car is in relation to this early/late identity.

Perhaps there will be more input regarding this subject from other forum members.
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