In October of 2002, Don Guisleman went to the Volo Auto Museum in Volo, Illinois near Lake Geneva, to buy a 1955 Buick Convertible. Instead he found himself purchasing a very rare bird. The car had just arrived at the museum the day before and the owners had every intention of keeping it for themselves, that is until Guisleman spotted it and fell in love.

As with all affairs of the heart there is often no rhyme or reason as to why someone (or something) causes our heart to speed up, our palms to perspire, our appetites to wane. In this case, however, one look at this very rare 1955 Fairlane-Thunderbird and you can see why Guisleman was a goner.

Back in February, 1954, at the Detroit Automobile show, the Thunderbird prototype pretty much resembled the one that went into production in September of that year. There were a few minor differences in appearance such as the use of the "flat" headlamp bezel, but in general, there was an unusually strong resemblance between that prototype and the final production Thunderbirds.

During the spring and summer of 1954, the design of the standard Ford line, having already been firmed up, became a mirror against which to play the new Thunderbird for appearance as well as performance. Not surprisingly, since the Thunderbird was initially to be marketed as a variant of the Fairlane series, there were those who contended that the familiar resemblance would be enhanced by the application of the already-accepted chrome stripe down the side.

Sketches were prepared to illustrate that effect, and a full-size cardboard cut-out prepared which included the stripe, yet to become known as the "Fairlane stripe" due to it's exclusive application to that luxury line of Ford's cars. Various locations for the stripe were considered. By summer, location of the stripe above the door lock gave way to a less garish placement below the lock.
There are those who contend that the insistence on the stripe, thought to be far less attractive on the smaller proportioned Thunderbird, was that of the top Management of the Company in whose mind was the apparent need to tie the standard line and the T-Bird more closely together. In any event, tooling was prepared.

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