- Reaction score
- 3
- Thunderbird Year
- 1955
My car was built in June 1955. The attached service letter from June 24, 1955 "corrects" the 1955 Owner's Manual operation of the soft top up & down in Fig. 10 Snap Fasteners. This is not in the Owner's Manual. The text states after fastening all the other clamps to "Snap the fasteners on each side above the window opening (fig. 10)". The photo of top in up position in Owner's manual does not show this snap. I have never seen a photo old or new of a 1955 soft top showing these snaps except Justin Minter has them on his personal 1955 black-on-black (see photo). My frame on both sides has a tab on it with a hole drilled and tapped with thread. The channel piece on my car is fastened with a phillips countersunk screw (see photo). Also see photo of same hardware on an unrestored 61 Lincoln.
Do any of you out there have an original photo of such a thing? or installed this on your top? My current soft top is a mid-60's replacement w/o the snap, just this channel hardware underneath. I'm going to replace with new shortly. Should I put on this snap? I have a friend who just rec'd 300 pts for his 55 at the 2024 Convention in Des Moines. He does not have the snaps and didn't know about them. Apparently, neither did the judges.
This is a mystery to me. Thunderbird Forum detectives...thoughts? 
Do any of you out there have an original photo of such a thing? or installed this on your top? My current soft top is a mid-60's replacement w/o the snap, just this channel hardware underneath. I'm going to replace with new shortly. Should I put on this snap? I have a friend who just rec'd 300 pts for his 55 at the 2024 Convention in Des Moines. He does not have the snaps and didn't know about them. Apparently, neither did the judges.
This is a mystery to me. Thunderbird Forum detectives...thoughts? 
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