I’m going to give you a glimpse into the language of us infuriating young people. “Gib” is a horrible slang version of “give” and “Plz” is a lazy way of saying “please”. Why did I choose such a title for a respectable car website? Two reasons. Number one, it catches the eye, and number two, it will serve the article. Read on to find out how…
Like many of our readers, I like to browse Craigslist, just to see what’s out there on the local market. I keep my searches to between $500 and $1500, limiting the year of manufacture to nothing made after 1979. On one of these searches early last year, I found a car very similar to the one pictured (via Google). It was the same dark green color, with a wide “electric razor” grille. At first, I thought I was seeing an early Charger, but upon reading the ad, found out it was a 1968 Thunderbird Tudor Hardtop. Best and most confusing of all, it was being sold running and driving for only one thousand dollars!
I quickly made plans to see it. I didn’t have one thousand dollars, but I needed to see this car before it got sold. There was something inside me drawn to it. It was a generation of Thunderbird I never knew about.
It was a rainy Sunday when I pulled up to a small house in Fort worth. The friend I wanted to bring along wasn’t able to come, so I went alone. The ‘Bird was parked along the curb. I parked behind it and got out, looking it over. The owner had said he would be by shortly to meet me. The car had one black door and one brown fender, one on each side, respectively. There was heavy rust on the rear of the car, and it was even worse underneath. Suddenly, a lifted, white, 1966 F-100 pulled up behind my car and the owner of the Thunderbird got out. He was nice, and explained that he was a construction worker who had recently got done with a job up North. He had found this car on some property they were tearing down and brought it back home with him after buying it from the original owner. He wanted to restore it like he did his truck , but felt it was too much of a project for him at the time.
It was a base model, with no padded top, two doors, and no center console. The seats were black and dusty, and the horn center section was broken off. He handed me the key, and a strange electric feeling rolled up my arm. Excited, I put the key in and turned it over. After some fiddling around with the carb, we had that wonderful big block running smooth. It was at that moment, I knew I loved this car. Well… Maybe not THIS car, but I wanted a 1968 Thunderbird. I wanted it bad.
He got in the passenger seat, and I carefully pulled away from the curb. The blinkers didn’t work, so I had to crank down the window and use my arm to signal. We came to a stop, and that big 429 Thunderjet rumbled away in front of me, the round gauges looked so pretty surrounded by the plastic wood trim. Things felt right. I made the turn and for just an instant, I had a vision…
Suddenly I was sitting alone in the seat of my new Thunderbird. I was wearing dark green slacks and a white shirt. My fedora sat on the seat beside me, and Hank Williams was on the radio. The sun was shining down on the houses around me. In that instant, I knew I was seeing this neighborhood how it must have looked when this car was new. Just as quickly as that vision had come, it was gone. I was back in the car on that cloudy day in 2016 with the strangest feeling… At one point in my life, perhaps another, I had owned a Thunderbird like this.
Unfortunately, I was flying my Hoover Flags and that deal passed me by. Ever since then it has been my mission to one day buy my very own 1968 Thunderbird. A base model, with bench seats, hardtop roof, and two doors. Dark green paint, and a black interior.
That brings us back to the title of this post. To “Gib” is to want. It is a tacit admission that you cannot have everything you want . It is a childlike cry of “but I waaaaant it!”. Maybe one day I’ll find my Bird. Until then, I’ll dream and check Craigslist, hoping to see another, and finally fulfill my dream.
Nice imagery but you got the wrong Williams.
These are more about Andy than Hank. The first buyer of this was a middle aged accountant who sought solace in Andy the crooner on his 8 track while worriedly musing to about the kind of long-hairs his daughter was hanging around with.
Frank Sinatra.
Perhaps Andy Williams?
…One of whom just pulled up in that old green Plymouth.
*(never got my edit time)*
Not as though T-Bird Man would’ve expected a kid to drive something nice, heaven knows it took him long enough to work his way up to a new Thunderbird. No, he just would’ve been happy it wasn’t a VW Bus with curtains on all the windows taking his daughter into the city for the evening…
See, funny thing is, I was driving a 2008 Kia Rio at the time. I had got a promotion to being a warehouse manager, I was SO ready to leave that tin can behind. Now l drive something a little more appropriate: an 87 Gran Fury.
+1 You could also get a 4-door ’68 T-Bird and have suicide doors to play with. 😀 You needn’t limit yourself to a coupe. +Plus+, your ’87 Gran Fury might want some company.
Yep, exactly. I think this piece by Mr. Williams (which was the coolest thing he ever did by FAR) evokes the Swinging ’60s much in the same way that this T-Bird does:
https://youtu.be/cOK6YJmT5_w
According to Greg Adams, writing for All Music Guide, the song “exemplified the groovy state of instrumental music at that time.” In the writer of the song, Bob Crewe’s version, a trumpet plays the whole song the first time around sounding like Herb Alpert’s Tijuana Brass style. Man does it ever and what is more 1968 than the Tiuana Brass except maybe Up, Up and Away sung by the 5th Dimension.
BTW, here is Andy Williams’ cover of that song:
Another BTW, today is the 95th anniversary of HANK Williams’ birth. Andy Williams would have turned 91 this December.
fantastic. I like both kinds; Hank and Frank
I would’ve bought it in a second. I’d have gotten a loan or whatever. I’ve always on the lookout for something like that and never come across it. I love the look of these!
From the sound of the condition you made a wise choice to walk away. That said, I hope someone does take it on.
“Gib plz” seems like the sort of aggressive contraction that was popularized by pre-smartphone texting and itself indicative of a bygone era, if not as bygone as that of 1968 and particularly 1968 as seen through the eyes of someone in the market for a new T-bird that year.
I understand why you feel that way. In 1967 friends of my parents bought a brand new 67 tbird four door.
I was four. When they took us for a ride and opened those suicide doors I thought I’d died and gone to heaven.
I am actually not a tbird fan as a rule but one of the cars on my lottery win, buy a warehouse and fill it car list is a silver 67 four door with black interior and top.
Nice pix, nice article. The dashboard surprised me. I’ve been in a lot of Fords and Lincolns of that era but never a T-bird. The instruments don’t look Fordian at all… more like Studebaker in those years.
It looks quite like this Ford dashboard:
https://farm1.static.flickr.com/884/40764644135_df6ca7694d_b.jpg
but that’s Ford of Britain (’67 Zephyr)
I’m not big on this gen of TBird … aside from everything else, a TBird should be a 2 door luxury coupe, not a wierd mashup of a Continental and an LTD .. and almost skipped this posting. Glad I didn’t; a nice experience and great story. And to top it off, I learned TWO new terms: gib plz and Hoover pants. Though I too think of Hank Williams as more of a “hot rod Chevy that can’t be beat” guy, than a TBird guy.
I will join dman in his appreciation of the new slang terms. Perhaps I will try them out on my 20-something kids to see what kind of reaction I get. It will probably be an eye-roll.
I’m assuming “Hoover pants” is more from our parents’ – in fact grandparents’ – generation, than our kids’. If it were current slang, it probably wouldn’t reference Hoover, and it certainly would be “pantz”.
Hoover pants isn’t a way I’ve heard it said. It’s normally called “Flying your Hoover Flags”. The term is from the 1930’s. I picked it up from my history teacher
I fell in love with these cars – at 7 years of age. They looked completely cool and unique. I bought a ’68 Landau coupe when I was 24. I repaired a rusty frame, replaced 2 rear quarters and rebuilt the front end. It’s a wonderful driving beast, as fast as a muscle car but quieter and with greater comfort. I still own it, 29 years later. I’ve owned about 40 vehicles since I bought it, but the T-bird is the only one I’d never sell.
I’m happy to see a positive article on these wonderful cars. I was pretty miffed last winter when Paul wrote an article on these of such undeserved hostility, I wondered what terrible misfortune a T-bird had ever bestowed upon him.
It is good that there is someone here to counterbalance the hitpiece I wrote on one of these early in my CC CC (CC Contributing Career).
I am still not a fan of the way these look but this dark green one is a lot nicer than that awful red one I found. And once inside, I could see the appeal. Don’t get me wrong – this is still a crappy Thunderbird. But it is a very nice Comfy Cruiser Made By The Ford Motor Company That Is Not A Lincoln Or An LTD. But that name was much too long for a chrome nameplate, so I guess Thunderbird was as good as any.
If there was ever a car I would be tempted to give the early Hot Wheels treatment to it would be one of these. I had a bright electric blue version in my original Hot Wheels collection.
I never had that one as a kid, though I always loved these cars. So a few years ago I treated myself to Modelhaus resin kit, and…
Nice model!
Fortunately (or unfortunately) my driveway will only accommodate 2 cars.
That’s why I have passed on so many wonderful cars like the T-bird above. Really taken with the 4 door versions with the flat fronts. Well, I can keep dreaming🙂🙂🙂🙂
Good grief, do I love these! Especially the supposed abomination that is the four-door version. I was all of 6 when these came out, and while you can argue all day that they are NOT a real Thunderbird, to my mind, they are just as real as any version ever was. I never really see the Baby Birds as sporty, they were just smaller Fords with removable hardtops. The 4 seaters were always luxury over sport, and style always the point. One did not carve corners in a TBird, one cruised. This was just the late 60s vision of a huge comfortable cruiser, running just below a Lincoln in the pecking order. The blasphemy of the suicide door treatment was genius in my eyes, and that is the model I lust for. Compare this to a 1982 version, or a 1996 one, and really, which would you park in your driveway?
Since these are basically a Galaxie engineering -wise, I can picture taking one and throwing the police interceptor package parts book at it.
That might be interesting.
I like these and don’t think they are “crappy”.
“Gibb plz” is a term used by The Bee Gees Fan Club.
+1 Even ANDY GIBB, even though he wasn’t part of the Bee Gees, had a decent career going. And then he died at age 30 in 1988.
When I see the term ‘plz’ it’s easy for me to figure it means ‘please’, but when I see ‘gib’ I don’t think of ‘give’. Why not just have it as ‘giv’ if someone has to shorten the word ‘give’ by 1 letter? That’s rather silly in actuality shortening 4-letter words . . . to 3 letters.
Also, for some reason or other I’ve thought of PGA Tour golfer GIBBY GILBERT when ‘gib’ pops up. Remember him? He finished T-2 at the 1980 Masters. Gibby had gotten to within 2 shots of Seve Ballesteros but bogeyed the 18th and Seve added a birdie coming home and won four over Gibby and Australian golfer Jack Newton (who later lost an arm due to an airplane propeller accident).
This generation has taken a long time to find acceptance with me. They were kind of nondescript looking when new. Compared to the average vehicle of Today they look quite unique. I didn’t care for the coupe model without the quarter windows. I was a Riviera fan (Had a few) and these just didn’t appeal to me as much. I see these as driven by a Matt Helm wannabe. Matt Helm being a private eye role starring Dean Martin in the late 60s.
I see a great CC topic here:
What was your favorite car driven by a ’60 spy character??
For me, Sunbeam Tiger by Maxwell Smart🕵🕵🕵🕵
‘55 Chevy by Herbert Filbrick in “I led three lives”
I’m pretty sure that Maxwell Smart drove a Sunbeam Alpine (the original 4cylinder basis for the Tiger) and not a Tiger.
Tiger.
As is usually the case for TV-Movie vehicles, several Tiger-Alpines were used in the series. Most action shots used an actual Tiger. However, there was a prop involving a machine gun coming out of a hatch in the hood. The Alpine was used in these cases since the V8 didn’t have the underhood space.
For the sake of continuity, all Maxwell Smart’s cars looked like Tigers. But, yeah, at least one of them was really an Alpine with Tiger badging. He drove a Ferrari in the pilot, and in later episodes, a Karmann Ghia. Then, finally, an Opel GT.
But in most episodes, he had a Tiger, or an Alpine that looked like a Tiger.
Lets not forget that another 60’s spy drove a Sunbeam in the movie Dr. No.
Not sure if it was a Alpine or a Tiger
Bond’s was an Alpine. Dr. No predates the Tiger by a couple of years.
I’m a sucker for suicide doors. I’ve always liked them. When I first saw the 68 Thunderbird 4-door I swooned. I was all of 15 years old at the time. I think between 1965 and 1968 FoMoCo made some astonishingly pretty cars. Unfortunately, by this time Ford was into the “clone everything and put a different top hat on it” mode. This meant that the cars were cheap to develop but other than the looks, the cars were nothing special. I think this lack of differentiation was reflected in the sales of this generation of ‘bird. Not a bad car, understand. But the smart shoppers were beginning to realize you could get the same thing in an LTD for a lot less money.
Oooh, I LOVE these! I have never been a “Ford Guy” but this model T-Bird was my first automotive love. This Gen. T-Bird and the 67-68 Cougar are not only my favorite Ford/Mercury products, but among my favorite automobile designs of all time. I had (and still have) the Hot Wheel that J P posted, but green with a black top, as well as the Hot Wheels Custom Cougar issued as part of their Original 16 lineup. I agree that this model was a bit awkward from some angles, but that nose and tail make up for it in IMHO and whatever it’s performance limitations, has there ever been a more awesome name for a motor than “Thunder Jet”?
Actually, the 70-71 body shell with the less formal roof line, but the 67-69 nose and dash/console with bucket seats would be the perfect mash-up…..
….It COULD be done. I’ve done my homework.
If nothing else, I hope the 429 at least found a good home.
The late 60s “whaleshark” Thunderbirds are the Rodney Dangerfield of the whole series. They get no respect. Both its predecessors and its descendants seem to get more attention even in the enthusiast community. This is somewhat undeserved in my opinion. I will admit that the Whalesharks did pile on the luxury at the expense of horsepower and it may be nothing terribly special under the skin. However, that precedent started with the Bullet Bird. It was needed in order to be competitive as the only proper grand tourer the U.S. produced. I for one would prefer luxury over outright performance any day, as my ownership of a 1962 GT Hawk can attest.
My gosh, you’re great writer. Looking forward to reading more from you.
I also like this generation of Thunderbird… I remember being so intrigued by them the first time I had ever seen one – the full-width grille and taillamps (which are sequential!). The memory of those sensations you felt while test-driving your example will probably stay with you for as long as you live. I hope so, anyway.
I bought a used 1968 4 door in 1973 for $500 from a dealer friend. I think it had around 60K on the odometer. Other than a cracked exhaust manifold it was in pretty good shape. Unfortunately it had the cheap interior but had the center fold down arm rest and electric windows. It was “Wimbledon White II” with a blue padded top and matching interior. I grew to love it, though I would rather have had a loaded ’67 four door.
It had the standard 429-4V engine. Not fast off the line, but it would pull a building off its foundation. No problem burying the speedometer, did it many times. It definitely got better mileage going 70 than 55. And I must say when the windshield wiper was on speed 8 of 8, you couldn’t see them (they were hydraulically driven).
I drove it until 1980 when I parked it in the garage. I hoped one or both of my two boys would be interested in restoring it as a father-son project, but neither cared one bit.
I sold it in 1992, happy that someone was interested in getting it running it again.
I hope he did.
Nice article! I totally understand being smitten by an old car you just discovered or just realized is really cool. You were wise, though, to have passed on buying it. Old car purchases are best done with a lot of forethought and research. Many have ultimately had good experiences buying cars without those, but many more have not.
I had a friend (female but not a girlfriend) who impulsively bought a 68 Thunderbird. It was the 4 door, white with vinyl top, white bench interior. No rust and reasonably priced. I was surprised by the purchase because I not only didn’t know she liked T-birds, I didn’t even know she liked classic cars. In fact, I wasn’t aware she was a car person at all. Turns out she still wasn’t really a car girl, she just thought it was cool. She had a lot of problems with the car and it spent a lot of time in the shop and a lot of her money before she finally sold it. I considered that a cautionary tale!
I’ve enjoyed ownership of a few classics courtesy of this very price range. Stick at it; even when you’re rich and famous you’ll still have the bug to pick up an opportunity like this. Great read.
For a Ford nameplate that is only surpassed in recognition by Mustang, the Thunderbird sure had a roller coaster ride. The original two-seaters made a big splash, then the 1958 ‘Squarebird’ which, while not much of a looker, is generally recognized as the first Personal Luxury Car.
Bulletbirds and Flarebirds were pretty cool, and even the Bunkie-Beak was distinctive. But later seventies’ bloated Brougham Birds were a bit much.
The basket-handle cars were alright, but the Fox-chassis cars are usually derided as the rock-bottom, Then there are the Aero-Birds, finally ending with the lackluster, overpriced, retro-birds.
So, in between all that, there’s the Hoover-Bird, suicide door cars. I’m not much of a fan of the sedans, but the two-doors are okay, falling somewhere in the middle of the great Thunderbird pantheon.