When it comes to Fifties kitsch, Sunstar’s
got a knack for mildly unsettling interior
colors. Funny thing is, it works.
a pleasant-sounding contraction
of the “Fair Lane” appellation
given to the Ford family estate.
Like that home, it was stylish
and comfortable without being
ostentatious. ;ough relatively
bare-boned at its base price, in
top Fairlane 500 trim, circa 1958,
the car was a powerful, classy
transport that tagged at well
under three grand.
Options could jack up a
Fairlane’s price by a ton. A nine-tube, signal-seeking radio was
$99; the Ford-O-Matic auto trans,
($180), Cruise-O-Matic ($197),
and the one-year-only Ford-Aire suspension ($156) were on
the docket, too. So were power
brakes and steering ($37, and
$69, respectively). A heater and
defroster cost $85; even safety
items mandated today were
options back then. Tinted glass
was $20, backup lights cost $10,
and factory-installed “Lifeguard”
packages—including padded
dashboards, seat belts, and
sun visors—started at $19 and
went up to $33. If sunny climes
were an issue, air conditioning
was a heavy hit: dash-mounted
“PolarAire” cost $271, and built-in “SelectAire” was a full $395.
Either package represented at
least a couple weeks’ salary for
the average guy in 1958.
;e good news for that same
guy, if he happened to have a
heavy right foot, was the choices
in engines for the Fairlane 500.
;ough the 156-horse 223-
cube six cylinder was Ford’s
entry-level workhorse, and the
205-horsepower two-barrel 292
was the base V8, upgrade motors
included three new big-block
“Interceptor” V8s from Ford’s FE
series—a 9.5:1 compression 332,
making 240 horses with its two-barrel Holley, a 9.5:1 332 making
265-horsepower with four
barrels, or the top dog, the 10.2:1
compression, 300-horsepower
352cid “;underbird Special.”
Big Sky
;e “Skyliner” variant of the
Fairlane had a fully retractable
metal roof that used multiple
pumps and motors and yards of
wire to do its trick: completely
disappearing under the trunk
lid. ;at added around 400
pounds of weight—at an additional cost of around a buck a
pound—over the fabric-topped
convertible.
TOP THIS
;at T-Bird mill is what’s tucked
under the hood of this nicely
loaded 1: 18 ’ 58 Club Victoria
(Fordspeak for “pillarless
hardtop”), the follow-up model
to the top-down ’ 58 Fairlane
500 Sunliner that Sunstar
delivered last year. ;is follows
Sunstar’s usual MO of releasing
converts, then hardtops, from
each new mold set; as part of
the maker’s full-featured, high-
detail “Platinum Collection,”
this latest image also tallies up
alongside the rest of that line as a
lot of model car for a reasonable
price, with opening doors, hood,
and trunk, a hidden-spring
suspension, steerable wheels,
poseable sun visors and tilting
front seat backs.
