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[emmanate]

I saw a Thunderbird for sale with small landau bars on it. I thought that was just a hearse thing. What's up with that?

Comments

[tommyhawk13]

landau irons are a coach thing. Horse drawn coaches had folding tops, and the landau irons were like hinge brackets. The same thing can be seen on older baby carriages.
The vinyl top and the landau irons are a throwback to the horse drawn buggies, and give a prestigious look to them, and make them look like a convertible.
The T-birds aren't the only fords with landaus. Model A's had them too. Early Cadillacs sported small landaus. http://www.gmphotostore.com/prodinfo.asp?number=53217537

[emmanate]

What is considered to be a "coach"? I didn't expect to see them on such small cars. Silly me....http://www.curbsite.com/archive/2002/thunderbird/thunderbird.html

[tommyhawk13]

"a carriage pulled by four horses with one driver"
I'm not saying that a T-Bird is like a coach, but that's where the landau bars came from. It's like portholes on a Roadmaster, or nipples on men: Purely for decoration.

[emmanate]

ah. thanks. :)

t-birds

[coffinitup]

we used to have a '67, '68 and '69 Thunderbird, and all 3 years had landau bars AND suicide doors.
Beautiful cars! i actually wish we still had them, but having the five hearses is a lot nicer :)

Re: t-birds

[emmanate]

i guess i didn't notice that they had landau bars. wow, 5 hearses! dreeeaaam.

[emmanate]

neat-o! thanks for the tidbit!