This world we inhabit is replete with stories about people whose first cars were from the past, and which they relished, drove happily and sometimes, forgot quickly when a more desirable car rolled into sight. “My first car was …” is a frequent quotation in stories like this one. Here, however, we’ve got a decidedly different outcome.
It’s a case study of a guy whose entrée into the world of old cars was spectacular. Not everybody finds an ironclad automotive icon on his first shopping trip. Yet this piece of history–a 1955 Ford Thunderbird, with nearly every factory option, and one of just 16,155 produced in the glowing classic’s inaugural year–is still in the hands of the man who bought it 55 years ago, when it was being cast aside.
And unlike some collectors who didn’t hang onto their first, dowdy cars, this one has been a lifetime keeper. It took Dave Berkey close to 13 years to restore his Thunderbird, working with a professional in his spare time, taking the long drive weekly from his home in Maryland to the restorer’s distant shop, McComsey’s Classical Auto Works, located in the Pennsylvania Amish country. The restoration is meticulous, enough so that the Thunderbird has since won major awards while being shown. But
