Tony Frenn’s 1947 Ford Convertible

Recently, I’ve been attempting to get my kids caught up on the classic 1980’s era movies that I grew up on. Last week, we watched the Back To The Future trilogy and before that, we watched as many of the Karate Kid movies as I could stomach. Any real car guy knows where I’m headed here… Both Karate Kid (Part I) and Back To the Future (Parts I & II) feature rag top 1946-48 Fords. The little yellow number that appears in Karate Kid warmed me up while the black ’46 in Back To The Future just stole my heart. Seriously, it’s a bitchin car and one that looks fantastic in action scenes. Here’s a quick example:

Still, I think my favorite scene is one that I couldn’t find online. It’s a scene where Biff parks the car in his mother’s garage while Marty hides in the backseat. As the camera pans, the audience is treated to some great shots of the interior as well decent full bodied shots of the ‘vert with a rich background consisting of old tool boxes and other paraphernalia that you would typically find in a teenager’s shop in 1955. It’s enough to make a man want a ’46-48 Ford convertible – a Ford body style that I’ve never really had much love for.

Anyway, that whole movie experience got me thinking about these cars and which in history I should file as my favorite. In turn, that tripped my memory of a 1957 issue of “Restyle Your Car” and a ’47 Ford owned by Tony Frenn. A quick look through my library and I found the car in question. It didn’t take long for me to decide that they don’t get much better than this one. Biff didn’t have shit on Tony. Check it out:

Gorgeous, right? In my opinion, three things make this car:

1. The conservative body work highlighted by the frenched headlights, filled seams, and maybe the best taillights I’ve ever seen on a Ford of this era.

2. The well placed Kaiser grille bars.

3. The ridiculous, but perfectly raked stance.

Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find any other shots of the car. It seems as though the previously mentioned Trend Book was the only publication that this car ever appeared publicly. A shame really… Judging from the photos we do have, this one was really special.