1974 Ford Thunderbird: Red, White and Brougham!

Yep, another land yacht that sucks gas and has approximately 32 lbs. of chrome, not including the bumpers. I spotted this one today, and immediately latched onto the listing.

For sale in Richmond, it would look great on the 4th of July with its red, white and blue color scheme. The color combo shouldn’t work, but it kind of does, probably because it’s on such an obnoxiously luxurious ’70s land cruiser, the vaunted 1972-76 “Thunder Thighs” Thunderbird, bwahaha!

I’ve done a couple posts on this era of Thunderbrougham, so I’ll keep it short. Per the listing: “’74 Ford Thunderbird with Ford 460 motor. Very clean 61k original miles, I am the 2nd owner as of Jan 2021 have clean & clear title. Vehicle runs and drives as it should and cruises down the road with no issues at all.”

“Trim pieces are all there, nothings missing including original wheel covers. Within the last 30 days I have already done a tune up on the vehicle. I changed exhaust, spark plugs, cap and rotor, spark plug wires, oil change, cooling system flushed and carburetor rebuild with all new gaskets, float, check balls and needle valves.”

“Float was adjusted to factory specs of 15/16 all electric windows mirrors, power seats, etc. all work as they should. The car is a cruiser, not a muscle car however it has plenty of power, truly a classic, asking 9500 obo. Willing to trade for other classic cars in need of work i.e ’70s Dodge, Ford, Chevy however cash is king!”

Anyway, check it out here ifin you’re so inclined. Keep calm, Brougham on, and always tip your bartender! And to the new owner: re-dye that carpeting, posthaste!

18 Replies to “1974 Ford Thunderbird: Red, White and Brougham!”

  1. John C.

    Imagine the first owner of this car taking it in to trade in 1982 and being shown one of those chromey Fairmont Tbirds with an unreliable and unbalanced 90 degree 232 V6s. No wonder he decided to keep the 74 and wait for “Morning in America”. Too bad it never really came.

    Reply
    • LynnG

      John C, I had a neighbor growing up in the 1960’s that purchased a new T-Bird every year and did it for 30 years. Your commenty made me think back to all the great cars he had: Square Birds, Bunkie Birds, Lincoln Mark Birds, LTD II Birds, and not so great cars as you say Fairmont Birds, and Taurus Birds…. As the decades passed they went down hill….. πŸ™‚

      Reply
      • John C.

        A guy who can trade annually obviously can have any car he wants. If they knew his history, one can imagine the salesman amazed at the loyalty, greedy for the sale, and embarrassed at what he had to demonstrate in the late years. Imagine having to talk up a fake 6 Series built down to a Taurus price to people who remember how it used to be. Oh my, a fat Corvair with the engine in the front. IRS you say, well yea…

        Reply
        • LynnG

          John C, well said “embarrassed at what he had to demonstrate”. One point though, it was not to hard to trade every year back in the 1960’s and 1970’s because relative to todays new car prices they were attainable. Also remember new cars had 12month/12K mile warranties. If you owned the car when you drove out of the dealership, then next year $500-$750 dollers and your trade in would get you a new one. Granted during the Carter years prices doubled and then some. For example my first new Trans Am was $4,200 in 1975 by 1981 the same car was +/- $10,000. That was the point where people could not take a $1,000 or $1,200 dollars and last years model and get a new one.
          As a foot note, in my example of the neighbor who purchased a new T-Bird, I am sure the dealer called him every August and asked what color he wanted. That was the case of the Jennifer Blue Cadillac I purchased, the original owner had a standing order for at new SDV every fall and the dealer just called to ask what color he wanted. πŸ™‚

          Reply
          • John C.

            Gosh, I miss people like that. Seems like they, in addition to their economic windfalls, would have been such a great resource to the designers whose job was really just to keep a great model on track.

            On the Tbird owner, I wonder which was his favorite? I am partial to the Glamour Bird, two door please. However they had some wild trim packs in the 70s, I can see how one of those would be most memorable.

  2. -Nate

    ?? you said ’32 pounds of chrome’ like that’s a bad thing…….

    Why is there a spin on oil filter on the air cleaner ? .

    Some sort of P.C.V. filter perhaps ? .

    This old boat looks glorious .

    -Nate

    Reply
    • Sigivald

      Eh, at that price and age, does it really matter?

      A thousand bucks and change will fix it up with new R134, as a guess.

      (And having had that done on a same-era Mercedes, the R134 version worked *fine* and was ice cold, so it’s not a step down.)

      Reply
      • -Nate

        Sigvald ;

        I converted on of my W123’s to R134a and can’t get it colder than 50 * F at the vents .

        Thoughts on what to check next ? .

        TIA,

        -Nate

        Reply
  3. Bill

    All that hard plastic on the dash and touch surfaces. Exposed screws and mold lines. Compare with mid-60’s Bird. I was in high school when it was new, and the quality differences were depressing.

    Reply
    • stingray65

      I suspect they had to de-content the Bird to allow for differentiating luxurious fake wood on the otherwise identical Lincoln Mark IV. It appears Ford used Maverick or Pinto designers to do the de-contenting and went about 10 steps too far, because I’ve seen fancy Mavericks and Pintos that had nicer dashboards than this Bird.

      Reply

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