History A.J. Lanier's '55 Thunderbird

If roles were reversed - if this body was a stocker and then customized to look like what the stock version actually looks like, I'd be very approving. In other words, I think the stock version looks better than this. It seems as though they made modifications just for the sake of making modifications.

 

The headlights look great, the grill and taillights not so much. I don't know what to do about the taillights, but if it had a 55 Chevy grill it would look like a Ferrari.

 

Sorry Ryan the fins are just friggin' hideous! However, I do like the headlight treatment. But, God help me, those fins just gotta go...

 

This is a 57 Ferrari 250 GT, now if he had copied these fins, maybe with MG tail lights, the T-Bird would have totally made the mark

 

I think they were going for a 53 Vette front end kind of look... The back end I could live without and I have to agree that for me the original looked better.

 

The front is OK, but that ass is god awful.When I first saw the pic, I thought it was a Sunbeam Tiger with a grille treatment. I'll take the original, all that car did was create a job for Mr. Bad Torch at Monarc Motors

 

The headlights are Hella units. They were aalso used on VW's from '47 through '67. Hella was a large company in Europe that made auto electric components.

 

Being an open minded artist type myself I thinks its a beautiful Custom. One mans vision of perfection and it caught your eye. I always look at these vintage creations and see things that were influencers as you said Ferrari for instance. I think of the 57 Chev with its Hood spears that my buddy smoothed over are reminiscent of those on this car.

The person who created this may have had roots in Europe with a love of North American design and went for the best of both worlds because he could.

Two pics and where is the car now...evolving is full of dead end streets. Hopefully a bit more history may pop up but as we have seen life is short for many of these shining examples of the Custom/Hotrod past.

Thanks for sharing this.

 

The biggest problem with T-Birds is that 99.999% of them are bone stock (boring). I'm finally seeing one that isn't and it's as ugly as a mud rail fence.

 

if he had rounded the quarters down, sort of a mirror image of the front fender it might finish the look off. i like it better than the original, it makes me think of the car in "get smart".

 

The front looks like an eight year old kids version of a '53 Corvette.

 

Those headlights are defiantly VW Bug. I'd like to see the BMW that they supposedly came on.

 

You forgot a pic:

 

1954-64 BMW 501 and 502


As to the car at hand, I actually really like the front end, although I think it would be better if they lost the center hood scoop and left just the bulges. The back is a train wreck, as has been stated plenty.

 

Agreed. Not feeling it.

 

I agree on the grill, open and molded would have been better in my minds eye.

That said if someone did that today would call him a gold chainer wouldn't we.

Cool car generally speaking.

 

well. it is a t-bird
cool headlights
although the remind me of all the 90s benz headlights that ended up in cars
I gave tons of those things away when i worked in a benz shop

 

I don't like any part of this car. Could have been better based on
the car they used.

 

Not the same headlights, but close. The T bird definitely has VW headlights. I like the front regardless of what headlights are in it., but maybe not the back.

 

Headlights. BMW 502 had a similar one, but not the same. These are VW, pre-1967.
I always thought they looked slick, especially the ones in my rare '52 Porsche Cabriolet.
(6th of 35 mfd.)
I wouldn't have grafted them into a T-bird, but if the 'masters' that did the rear had already had their way...Screw it, anything'll do.

 

Thanks for injecting some information into this discussion of this classic vintage Custom @DrSamurai...Your new here...welcome.

I was a bit confused as you've typed your response in the quoted text area and I thought it was @Ryan. In future type below the area where it say's Quote]...

That's great information...perhaps you have an reliable connection to this and verification of the origins is all good. Ryan is quite knowledgeable in this stuff and your info is contradictory but we only go with what we can find. Did Emil have an affiliation with Monarc Motors Body Shop in Monrovia, California? Do you own this beauty......Oh re reading your info it was totaled so that would be an impossibility...

Regardless welcome to the Hamb and bring on your expertise and enjoy...we will.

 

Sorry for not knowing how to post correctly. Col. Lanier was my grandfather and I wish I owned the car. Unfortunately it was totaled.
There seems to be a debate on the headlights, they were Porsche headlights. The project was called Lanier's Wild Dream and the finished project was registered as a Lanier. It was never a Ford.

 

This is one of the great things about the Hamb is The Appreciation of that distant past and the sharing and verification of the history. The pictures accompanying this post and the information may be from a magazine or book and perhaps not completely factually correct. So its really cool to have that added to.

I suspect your grandfather is not with us anymore...condolences. Is that him in the post above by @davidvillajr?

We look forward to any more info and pics of any related material and if you have additional historical Hotrod/Custom/Race we live and breathe it around here.

Thanks again @DrSamurai...and as for posting your doing fine...it takes a little getting used too...

 

Front looks good. Back, well.....

 

@Ryan

 

Cool. Emil Deidt was quite the Indy car constructor, he was responsible for the Blue Crown front drives of late '40's fame, among others. I wonder what the car might have looked like with Ferrari styled tail lamps, like some of the Superamerica models.