1957 Factory Air...? | Ford Thunderbird forum club group 1955-2005 models

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1957 Factory Air...?

  • Thread starter Thread starter itsmeinthelbc
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itsmeinthelbc

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1957
Just purchased this nice little nugget at RM Sotheby's auction last Friday. My question here is per the attached picture, is this how factory air came in the 1957 birds...? Your thoughts are appreciated...!

rmsothebys.com

1957 Ford Thunderbird | Hershey 2021 | RM Sotheby's

1957 Ford Thunderbird for sale at RM Sotheby's Hershey
rmsothebys.com

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Yes the air conditioning unit is an after market unit but looks like it was well excecuted. Not a knock as they are well supported and often added in hot climates.
 
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I would have to agree with ward it’s a nice option to have you will itappreciate it on hot days one either top is on the car
 
no argument on the added comfort air conditioning adds. My comments were for the record that there was no Ford kit to add the air conditioner to the Thunderbird and there was no factory installed unit. Any A/C unit on those cars is either a later model unit that was made to fit that car. or a period correct unit that was made to be added to the car. None of the last two options were ford kits and were likely made by ARA or one of the several other aftermarket producers of add on air.
 
itsmeinthelbc said:
Just purchased this nice little nugget at RM Sotheby's auction last Friday. My question here is per the attached picture, is this how factory air came in the 1957 birds...? Your thoughts are appreciated...!

rmsothebys.com

1957 Ford Thunderbird | Hershey 2021 | RM Sotheby's

1957 Ford Thunderbird for sale at RM Sotheby's Hershey
rmsothebys.com

View attachment 19258
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I have the same unit I installed in 1997. If you look under the hood it will likely have a Sankyo style rotary compressor. that Compressor did not exist in the 1950s or 1960s. As other have told you there was no factory air for Thunder birds in 1957. Only passenger cars had that option in 1957. Not until the square Birds of '58 - '60 did AC become an option and it doesn't look anything like this.
 
jack-in-sac said:
I have the same unit I installed in 1997. If you look under the hood it will likely have a Sankyo style rotary compressor. that Compressor did not exist in the 1950s or 1960s. As other have told you there was no factory air for Thunder birds in 1957. Only passenger cars had that option in 1957. Not until the square Birds of '58 - '60 did AC become an option and it doesn't look anything like this.
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Never knew A/C was available in any of the cars at that time. Interesting info for those who have Fairlaines or other cars at that time. The day is not waisted when you can learn something new.
 
Ward 57 said:
Never knew A/C was available in any of the cars at that time. Interesting info for those who have Fairlaines or other cars at that time. The day is not waisted when you can learn something new.
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I was surprised myself as My parents had a new '57 Fairlane fordor hardtop with added AC as we lived in Phoenix AZ at the time. I had a friend in High shool that had a '57 Chevrolet with factory AC. That is the only one I recall actually seeing as OEM. I have seen a '57 Ford Ranchero with factory AC. That is the only one I have seen in person. The ducts went to the windshield base, not the best location.
 
Ward 57 said:
Well I think there was a good reason. The brake booster had to be moved to the fender and I think the engineers told the sales dept. 'there is no more room in these little cars'.
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There's room. If there wasn't people couldn't do it now. I've even seen AC installed in one using one of those big old square york compressors in the same spot as people put the Sanden's today.
 
jimntempe said:
There's room. If there wasn't people couldn't do it now. I've even seen AC installed in one using one of those big old square york compressors in the same spot as people put the Sanden's today.
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That may be true. How they shoehorn those in there is beyond me. Apparently the engineers had the ability but I also wonder if the design team had something to do with it.
I have a feeling they were not keen on the idea of square registers under their smoothly flowing dash and that they could incorporate this newer technology into the new designs. Plus the argument 'It's a convertible, who needs A/C?' Just speculation but nobody really knows why they did the things they did as it was business privacy.
 
It is my understanding that you had an option to have air conditioning installed by the dealer.
All the ones that I have seen resemble the one in the picture.
Perhaps someone can confirm this?
 
There were some AC systems in 1957 where the unit in the passenger compartment looked similar to that, the Mark IV comes to mind. Any original system from 1957 that was a dealer installed ford system would have the square style compressor under the hood originally although it could easily have been replaced with a modern rotary style in the intervening years. I don't think Ford made any systems back then which looked like the Mark IV though, the ford systems usually had four round vents in front.

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80-air_conditioner_7cbbac688ff3df9248d7ff9ddccc9295fc17bb5f.jpg
 
They offer factory air conditioning on all fords starting in 1955 and it did include the 1955 Thunderbird too it was an underdash unit made by polaraire which was a Fomco product and the larger fords used the selectaire brand
 
Nice dash! I have this exact underdash ac unit on my original 57. I just had it rechromed. Can somebody tell me on the compressor which is the Lo fitting to put in freon.
There are a S and D. Fittings
 
Here is some facts regarding the A/C in Ford automobiles. The 1955-1957 Ford Selectaire could be factory installed OR dealer installed. There was a kit to install the Selectaire in the early passenger cars. The Polar Air was always dealer installed, and to the best of my knowledge, there was no kit to add it to the Thunderbird. In 1958 and later Ford vehicles through 1964, the Selectaire for the Ford passenger car used an under dash register that looked like an add on air unit. This was not true of the Thunderbird vehicles from 1958 forward which had an integrated A/C in the dash for those years. In 1965, the
 
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