Ford-loving family not shy about putting miles on two extreme classics

If you believe the cars of 1957, 1958, and 1959 were the styling highlight of the decade, then there’s a good case to be made that the 1958 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner retractable hardtop is the most glorious example of that era.

After all, it has everything exemplified during the age: bright colors (in this case, red, white and a bold splash of gold), great fins, fender skirts, a bright, dazzling interior, a big V-8 engine, a one-year design and the wow factor of a retractable hardtop.

Oh sure, Chevy hit it out of the park that year with the ’58 Impala coupe and convertible, but the three-year run of Ford retractables was viewed as an engineering feat.

Think about it. To make the big hard top raise, fold, and lower, Ford engineered a system of seven reversible electric motors, four lift jacks, who knows how many relays, 10 limit switches, 10 solenoids, four locking mechanisms and the number everybody likes to use - 610 feet of wiring. And this was in 1958.

What could go wrong, you say? The answer is, there may have been issues here and there, but the system was remarkably trouble free. When the hard top folds into what was the trunk it eliminates the trunk space, but who cares?

Wayne and Gail Chase, of Cicero, don’t care. Heck, they’ve had two ’58 retractables, the red and white one they’ve owned since 1981, and an all-white one they bought during 1967 and kept until 1972.

Ford-loving family not shy about putting miles on extreme classics — Gail and Wayne Chase, of Cicero, N.Y., with their 1958 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner retractable hardtop.Kenn Peters

Owners: Gail and Wayne Chase, Cicero, N.Y

1958 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner retractable hardtop

Cost new: $3,059

Production: 14,713

Colors: Torch Red/Colonial White/gold

Wheelbase: 118 inches

Length: 210.8 inches

Weight: 4,069 pounds

Engine: Optional 332 C.I., 265-HP V-8 Ford Interceptor

Transmission: Cruise-O-Matic

This old commercial shows how the roof works:

And how about this - you know how people with collector cars often take pride in reciting how few miles they drive their cars? You won’t hear the Chases say that.

The ’58 has 106,000 on the odometer, the engine has been rebuilt twice, the Cruise-O-Matic was rebuilt once, and the authentic combination of Torch Red and Colonial White, has been applied twice.

They’ve driven the Ford “all over Central and the Eastern United States,” Wayne Chase said. Indeed, the car has been driven to Rhode Island, Minnesota, and South Carolina.

It did two laps around the high-banked track at Ford’s proving grounds in Michigan, and it did two laps at the famed Charlotte Motor Speedway, in North Carolina.

Chase recounts the story of being a 10-year-old paperboy in his hometown of Ogdensburg in St. Lawrence County, a job that gave him ample opportunity to see what everybody was driving.

There were two Skyliners in town, a ’57 and a ’58. During 1966, while Chase was in college, the ’58 was parked on the owner’s front lawn with a for sale sign in the window.

“I was in shock. He was going to sell the car of my dreams right out from under me,” he said. He and Gail pooled their money to come up with $650 and bought the car in 1967. They drove it to Gail’s parent’s home and stored it in their garage until they could save enough money for insurance.

They kept the car until 1972, when monetary reality struck and they decided the Skyliner had to go.

But, by 1980 the Skyliner bug re-emerged and they began a search for another. The car they bought was for sale and owned by a man who lived 35 miles away.

Chase recalls that when they got the car home it was far from a dream machine. It needed new paint (20 coats of lacquer were applied). The engine had to be pulled and be rebuilt, and the transmission was rebuilt too. The following year they focused on the interior.

Gail and Wayne Chase love Fords, and over the years they’ve owned several, including Mustangs and Thunderbirds, but two cars have been their focus, the ’58 Skyliner and a 1961 Thunderbird.

The ’61 is significant because it was the first year of the third generation of T-Birds, plus the first year of what was then a daring design that is sleek, aerodynamic and precedent setting.

Not only that, but the ‘61 T-Birds were available with the so-called ‘swing-away’ steering wheel. With the transmission selector in park, the steering wheel and column moves 18 inches to the right, to ease entry and exit for the driver.

Finished in rare Honey Beige, they bought the car from a friend in Kirkville, who bought it in 1995 from the original owner.

Wayne Chase and his friend are members of the Syracuse Shelby Mustang Club, and both saw the car were advertised in “the newspaper,” he said.

Wayne Chase believes he beat his friend to the draw by calling the owner first, but there was no answer. Later that same day his friend called, someone answered, and the call led to his friend becoming only the second owner of the Thunderbird.

Fast forward to the spring of 2016, his friend had owned the ’61 for 11 years, but called to say he was ready to sell the car, and would Wayne Chase like to buy it?

“I jumped at the chance to finally own the all-original ’61 Thunderbird,” he said. The car came to him in excellent condition because his friend had rebuilt the engine and transmission, installed a new battery, new brakes, and four new radial whitewalls.

Since then both cars see regular use, the T-Bird has almost 120,000 on the odometer, while the ’58 retractable has about 106,000 miles showing on the odometer.