1959 Ford Galaxie Skyliner Ford dealer owned for over 50 years

1959 Ford Galaxie Description

TheFord Fairlane 500 Skyliner (Retractable)is a two-door Americanfull-size carwith aretractable hardtopwhich was produced byFordin the United States for the model years 1957, 1958 and 1959. In 1959 the model name changed to Ford Galaxie Skyliner very shortly after the production of 1959 models had started. The retractable roof mechanism - also known as "Hide-Away Hardtop" -[1]was unique to Ford branded products, and was not offered onContinental,Lincoln,Mercury, orEdselbranded vehicles during this time period.

The Ford Skyliner Retractable was only the second car in history to be series produced with a retractable hardtop; the first to reach four and five digit production numbers, and the first series producedcoupé convertibleto feature a roof composed of more than one segment.

Part of theFord Fairlane500 range, the Skyliner had a complex mechanism which folded the front of the roof and retracted it under the rear decklid. No hydraulic mechanisms were used as in regular convertibles of the era.Production totaled 20,766 units in 1957, declining to 14,713 in 1958 and to 12,915 in 1959.An electric clock was standard.Fuel consumption was around 14mpg‑US(17L/100km; 17mpg‑imp) overall.The fuel tank was placed vertically in back of the rear seat, which inadvertently added safety in rear collisions.

Thewheelbaseof the Skyliner was 118in (3,000mm) and the overall length was 210.8in (5,350mm).

During the 1959 model year theGalaxieseries was added to Ford’s full-size range and the Skyliner model was absorbed into that series.Although the 1959 Galaxie was designated as a separate series,Galaxies carried both “Fairlane 500” and “Galaxie” badging, on the rear and sides respectively.It came with the standard 292CID 2-barrel 200hp V8.

At the time of its introduction, the Skyliner was the only true hardtop convertible in the world,]Today, it has become a collectible car.

The design attracted more attention than sales; the option was expensive, suspected to be unreliable, and took up almost all the trunk space when retracted. It required the roof to be made shorter than the other Fords, and the trunk to be larger. This was because the design was originally to be aContinental coupe]Projected losses of the retractable roof Continental resulted in a decision to restyle the vehicle, from the bottom of the windows down, as a member of the Fairlane 500 family because it could attract more buyers as a Ford with more reasonable retail price compared to adding extra costs to the already expensive retail price of a Lincoln Continental.[15]The solid roof pillar of the Skyliner is the similar to the appearance of2nd generation Ford Thunderbirdsof 1958-1960.