Dan Ward invited his B.C. Corvette Club friends to gather for the unveiling of the classic car he recently purchased. It was not a Corvette as he already has one. It was a first edition ‘baby’ Thunderbird.
He had searched for two years to find the right car. The 1956 Thunderbird, complete with a removable porthole hardtop, was found in Bakersfield, California. It was red and white and in nice condition. Money changed hands and the car was shipped to Vancouver.
Dan is well known for owning his 1959 Corvette for more than half a century and driving it 450,000 miles on trips all over North America. He keeps the car in top condition and it will never leave him. The Corvette means a lot to him because his mother was hoping he would buy an early two-seat Thunderbird – the car she always wanted.
“I was serious about a light blue 1957 Thunderbird before I bought the Corvette,” Dan recalls. “The owner and I were one hundred dollars apart and no one would give way. I called back two days later to discover the car was sold.”
Both Dan’s parents passed away in the last two years and fulfilment of his mother’s dream became a cause for Dan. The acquisition of the Thunderbird would be dedicated to her memory. To make sure his new purchase would be ready for road trips, Dan took the car to Jellybean Autocrafters for service and improvements. Once the work was completed, he called his friends together for a great unveiling. It would be done in style. But, when the cover came off, what was under the cover was a shock. It was a two-seater Thunderbird, but it was completely stripped down to bare metal and looked like the hulk of a car.
Dan and his two-dozen friends were pranked. Jellybean owners Ewald and Kurt Penner had unveiled a stripped-out Thunderbird owned by another customer. Everyone had a good laugh. Dan’s Thunderbird was stored under cover in an adjoining area of the shop.
Once the cover was off, the gleaming 1956 ‘Bird’ was everything it could be. Red and white inside and out, the classic is a standout. The restorers added some extra chrome under the hood and novel red clearance lights in the exhaust ports that go through the corners of the rear bumper. The whole package is amazing. It matches the red and white 1959 Corvette that has been Dan’s pride and joy for more than half a century.
I know mom would be pleased.
The Thunderbird is very much a tribute to his mother. “She had later model Thunderbirds but never the baby bird she always wanted. This car is the colours my mother loved,” he says. “
What will he do with the Thunderbird? “I plan to drive it a lot and take it on trips. That’s why I had the extra work done so it would be completely reliable,” he says. “It’s taken 51 years to make this happen. But I know mom would be pleased.”
Alyn Edwards is a classic car enthusiast and partner in Peak Communicators, a Vancouver-based public relations company. aedwards@peakco.com
