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Topic starter
07/09/2026 11:41 am
In 1957, Ford kinda outclassed their more upscaled Mercury division with their Fairlane 500 Sunliner with its world's first retractable hardtop. It was $337 more than the soft top at $2942 and the novelty paid off with 20,766 Skyliners sold that year. Fully optioned the MSRP maxed out at $3500. Ford also used their "Thunderbird Special" as standard with a 4 bbl Holley carburetor that had a base horsepower of 245 HP with 2 options: the E-code 2X4 bbl @ 271 HP and the F-code Paxton supercharged 312 @ 300 HP. There appears to be many Skyliners still around with current auction estimates for high end examples are about $36,000.
Franklin Mint released a model of this Skyliner way back in 1992 so the tech wasn't so good and the first run of the red and white had the wrong paint scheme on the rear fascia (now known as the 'error version'). In 2009, Danbury Mint released a more state-of-the-art replica that is beautifully engineered. It's so well done, I had to display it with the top partially deployed. The top mechanism works flawlessly with up top and down top yielding minimamal panel gaps.
This topic was modified 4 weeks ago 2 times by Rich Sufficool
07/09/2026 11:45 am
A neighbour had one of these full sized in red and white. It certainly got a lot of attention. Great post as usual, Rich.
Regarding world’s first, I think Peugeot beat Ford in the 1930s.
1934 Peugeot 601 Eclipse.
This post was modified 4 weeks ago 2 times by David Green
Topic starter
07/09/2026 11:45 am
David Green: you were too quick. you missed about 15 pics.
07/09/2026 11:48 am
07/09/2026 12:41 pm
Hi Rich, what’s up with the “skirted wheel” on driver side ? Were they removeable ?
steve
07/09/2026 3:00 pm
Thanks. I had the FM and it didn’t have that feature. I thought your DM could have been a prototype or error version.
Topic starter
07/09/2026 4:30 pm
@100ford2003 I photographed these pics for our database so I showed the model w/ and w/o skirts.
07/09/2026 6:06 pm
@david-green David you are correct. I have a 1/18 scale of the Eclipse with the working top mechanism.
07/09/2026 6:10 pm
The details on the DM top mechanism are incredible as your pictures point out Rich.
07/09/2026 6:27 pm
07/09/2026 6:30 pm
Decades ago Maisto had a 1/18 BMW with a working cloth cnvrt top. I thought that was incredible engineering for its $ and technology.@david-green David you are correct. I have a 1/18 scale of the Eclipse with the working top mechanism.
07/09/2026 7:48 pm
Rich, you always give us something great to read and pics to drool over, lol. I do have this one, my favorite color combo of the ones DM or FM done. I do have the red/white FM version as well.😊
Rich Sufficool and David Green reacted
08/09/2026 12:34 pm
I wish Danbury had made this one and, in this color.
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