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1959 FORD GALAXIE SKYLINER
IF YOU want to gather a crowd at a car show, fire up the folding roof on your Ford Galaxie Skyliner. Relying on what was cutting-edge technology at the time, it’s a fascinating thing to watch, with the huge roof panel apparently defying physics.
In one of our features on the car we note: “The vanishing hardtop design used on the Skyliner — the brainchild of Ford designer Gil Spear — was intended to be a technical showpiece for the company’s top-of-the-line Continental Mark II (released in 1955), but with escalating costs on the Continental project, Ford pulled the plug and instead gifted the technology to the 1957 Skyliner, the first mass-produced US ‘folder’.”
Aside from the roof, the cars were typical luxury spec for the day, generally with a V8 and auto. Production numbers were relatively modest in American terms (a little under 50,000), as the design had a production life of three years and was never a huge seller. The survival rate seems fairly low.
This example is from the final year, 1959. It claims a 352 FE block V8 with three-speed Ford-O-Matic transmission.
Unusually, it also claims low miles (12,900) and to be in original unrestored trim. It’s being offered from Coolum in
