24 cars blue sky: Junkyard Find: 1979 Ford Thunderbird

10 - 1979 Ford Thunderbird Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Sajeev no doubt wept bitter tears when he saw the near-showroom-condition '76 Continental Junkyard Find last week, and I'm going to keep those Malaise Era Ford tears flowing with another 1970s luxury FoMoCo product from the same California self-serve yard. This one isn't quite as nice as the Lincoln, but just check out the metallic-green-and-white two-tone paint job!
07 - 1979 Ford Thunderbird Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin I could look up the horsepower numbers on the '79 Thunderbird's 351M engine, but the figures would just make us all depressed. Let's just say that this car had enough torque to get moving fairly well for its era (i.e., it would get smoked by a 3-cylinder Mirage today).
16 - 1979 Ford Thunderbird Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin This can't possibly be a factory paint job, can it?
13 - 1979 Ford Thunderbird Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin Of course it has a landau vinyl roof!
04 - 1979 Ford Thunderbird Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin 85 MPH speedometer, according to 1979 regulations.
05 - 1979 Ford Thunderbird Down On the Junkyard - Picture courtesy of Murilee Martin The velour buckets are no longer as luxurious as they once were.

This ad for the similar '77 Thunderbird shows the 85mph speedo in full effect, plus a very cocaineophile-looking driver. Radio comes as standard equipment!