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Topic: In a Flurry of Feathers and Blood (Read 1819 times) previous topic - next topic

In a Flurry of Feathers and Blood

Reply #15 –
Quote from: 20thanniver-ls;333809
A lot of those pictures kinda remind me of a fairmont


In the early stages of design, they intended the downsized Thunderbird to actually be a disguised Fairmont using the doors, rooline and front glass but having a uniquely styled front end clip, rear quarters and rear end. It ended up with pretty much it's own exterior sheet metal skins all around. To buttstuffyze the actual Box Bird there are a few exterior things that might possibly have been shared with the Fairmont such as the windshield glass and door shell with possibly a new outer skin attached. The Fox platform wheelbase was stretched towards the rear to 108" for the Box Birds.

If you look at the white 1980 Thunderbird 4-door proposal it actually uses the Fairmont body right in the mid section from the A pillar to the rear doors. This really ended up being the production 1981 Granada 4-door.

The production 1978 Fairmont Futura coupe was actually a downsized Tbird proposal as evidenced in the one 1976 prototype side view. Like I have said before Ford should have held out the Futura Coupe until 1980 when it would have made IMO a nicer Tbird which tied in better with the outgoing 1979 model.

If you look at the 1981 Ford Granada, it makes use of the Fairmont body. If you look through some of these Tbird design proposals, bits of the production Granada can be seen in some of them. Notice the use of the notched formal roofline and the horizontal faux rear quarter pillar vent. Also notice the quad headlamp front end with a traditional radiator grille and powerdome hood which matches the side profile of the Thunderbird "Futura" proposal.





Then later after the Granada was restyled into the 1983 midsized LTD, they made use of the wedgy shoveled nose look seen in some Tbird proposals.



The front end clips of all the Fairmont body based cars are so interchangable that you could custom make any number of interesting looks.

Forgive me for ranting on but I love to study and talk about design!