Thunderbird always a classic

Posted By Jessica Hassard, Central Plains Herald-Leader

Posted 5 months ago

Jessica Hassard/Central Plains Herald-LeaderRusty Rutherford stands next to his classic 1959 Ford Thunderbird. Sporting his Fabulous 50 s letterman jacket representing the automotive club he belongs to.

It’s the car everyone would like to own. The 1959 Ford Thunderbird harks back to a time when things like sock hops were cool. When Bobby Darin’s “Mack the Knife” made the top of the charts and Paul Anka’s “Put Your Head On My Shoulder” could be heard on the jukebox. When the untimely deaths of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper would mean the death of rock n’ roll as the world then knew it.

Although many people might not remember, the second generation T-Bird was marketed as an upscale personal luxury car, but was initially designed with enough sports-like edge to compete against the Corvette. Thunderbird is definitely a step out of the small birds category into the square birds domain, but the body shape maintains the distinctly late ‘50s style.

“I can remember the T-Birds when I was younger, but you could only look at them,” said Portage la Prairie’s Rusty Rutherford, a proud owner.

“They were just — wow!” he said.

Rutherford found his car by chance while living out in Victoria, B.C. Looking at a Classic Auto Trader, he was trying to find a phone number to make a call about another car, in hopes of bartering to a lower cost, but then she was staring at him.

“I’ve had cars over the years, which I wish I could have now,” he said. However, Rutherford said he’s really happy with the one he’s got.

“It’s just fun to drive, really fun to drive,” he said.

Rutherford bought the T-bird in good repair and hasn’t had to do extensive repairs or restoration.

“A lot of the work was already done, the paint and the chrome and all that type of thing had been done, which is a huge project,” he said.

Rutherford purchased the ’59 with a 390 engine swapped with the 352 as well as a C6 transmission, both out of a 1966 Thunderbird.

The paint is Sandstone Metallic Gold, an original colour for that model’s year, and Coker radials, with 1957 hubcaps that came with the car. Rutherford is planning to reupholster the interior to match the paint, hopefully sometime this fall. Although Rutherford isn’t adverse to working on the car himself, contributing factors prevented him from building the car from the ground up.

“I didn’t have a place to work on a car. This is my first vintage car, and I wanted something that I could drive,” he said.

Rutherford and his wife Elaine will take the car out to shows, being members of several different clubs, such as the Portage Vintage Cruisers, the Fabulous ’50s Ford Club and the Thunderbird Club of Manitoba.

Rutherford said he has been a member for about five years, but the Portage Vintage Cruisers have been around since the ’60s, under several names, but with some original faces. He said if he were in a bind fixing his car, there are plenty of resources out there to help him.

“An example would be the police car,” he said. The Fabulous ‘50s Ford Club collectively owns a late ‘50s police car, and when attending a show in Minneapolis, some troubles were identified with the classic car. Rutherford said the group met and set a date to work on the project after they got back.

“We got together and crawled all over that thing like ants, and it was done (within a matter of hours),” he said. “So, it’s like a support unit.”

Even though Rutherford takes really good care of his girl, there are some dangers to driving around in a classic.

“They did drop a fence on my car in Brandon,” he said. While at a car show in Brandon, Rutherford parked his car near a portable gate, that was roughly four sections linked together.

“One section fell right over on my car and just gouged the whole front end of my car,” he said. “I saw it happening. I was in my hotel room, and I ran downstairs to move my car, and I was … running full bent.”

Rutherford admits he had a pout and probably a temper tantrum, but he said that after a little bit, he came around.

“I bought the car to drive,” he said.

“These things happen, otherwise you might as well put the car on the back of a trailer,” he said.