The front view of the car is pretty good. A change of color to a dark pearl burnt cinnamon color also helped to recast the car. The slotted chrome wheels helped reform the image of the car. The cleaned up rear grille area was an improvement. The opened up wheel wells were a major coup, but deleting the fins wasn't a great idea. The back of the car was also restyled, but results were mixed. While the horizontal grille was an improvement, the execution isn't all that it might have been. Note, also, that the hood scoop was entirely removed. In fact, the headlights were further recessed into the body, and placed behind a thin-ribbed panel. First, the front grille was cleaned up by widening the grille opening, and deleting the turn light and headlight pods. The bubble top was retained, but much additional work was undertaken as well as a name change to X-Cel. Gustavson photo archives.Īfter the Starbird era, the owner took the car to Dave Sculley in Chicago for yet another restyling. Show car presentations weren't always kind to cars. Note the paint damage to the "trunk" area, left and right. The taillight panel was formed with round tubing. ![]() Oddly, though, the grille between the left and right bumper ends is horizontal, creating a bit of esthetic dissonance. ![]() Gustavson photo archives.įrom the rear, the rear taillight grille area is the same as the front grille. The fins have also been modestly extended. Darryl like using headlight pods from Thirties' cars to form panel ends, and he did so here when he discarded the rear bumper. The basic architecture of the body (other than the roof, of course) is essentially factory in configuration. The inset shape on the trunk has been paneled over. Yet another view of the interior, looking rearward, shows that the factory door jamb was preserved, though the body was heavily modified in the rear to accommodate the half-round upholstery panel behind the rear seats. Still another view of the interior shows the Galaxie XL-500 gas pedal, the factory hood release (extreme left), and the excellent upholstery job. The center console anticipates the console used in Ford's new "Forty Nine" concept car. Gustavson photo archives.Ī closer look at the interior shows the placement of the instrument, the console between the legs of the driver. Heavy duty door hinges were used to support the weight of the roof and the surround. Of interest is the metal surround that sweeps around both sides of the bubble and concludes with the movable cowl piece. Note the four articulated seats (metal frame work painted the same light pearl/candy blue as the exterior), the high-mounted center console, the tiller steering, and the bank over the top to conceal the "opening break" line. The interior was as dramatic and the bodywork. The 352-big block was pulled and painted, and a truck load of parts ended up at the platers. This high-angle shot shows how the basic T-Bird heritage was preserved which still presenting a radical appearance. The factory front bumper was trimmed in the original turn light area and then molded to the body (remember, this is a unibody car!), the headlight eyebrows were extended forwarded and then rolled down to meet the front grille area, special headlight pods were fashioned (concealing round sealed beam highlights), and the factory hood scoop was paneled over. In the future, we'll take a look at the pre-Electra version of this car, one of which was truly ugly!ĭarryl created the third version of this car by molding the bumpers front and rear, and crafting another of the bubble tops for which he was so famous. Starbird was big into bubble tops, having pioneered the same on custom cars when he built his Predicta. While featured in its initial iterations (check out the bibliography below), the car gained fame and notoriety after it emerged by Darryl Starbird's shop. ![]() The Electra was restyled several times, and not always successfully.
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