Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner 1957 images

Ford spent $2.2 million developing a folding hardtop for a Lincoln that got cancelled before it ever reached showrooms — then repurposed the whole system for the 1957 Fairlane 500 Skyliner. Seven motors, 610 feet of wiring, and a 48-second roof transformation later, it became the most expensive Ford you could buy that year.

1957 Ford Fairlane 500 Skyliner 292 CID V8 2 Speed Automatic

MCF thanks Gateway Classic Cars for the images provided here.

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Ford spent $2.2 million developing a folding roof for a car that never got built — and then decided not to waste the engineering. The system had originally been designed for a Lincoln Continental Mark II project so expensive it got cancelled before it reached showrooms, leaving Ford’s engineers with a fully developed retractable hardtop and nowhere to put it. What they chose instead became the most expensive Ford anyone could buy in 1957, and one of the most mechanically ambitious cars Detroit had built up to that point. Getting the roof to disappear took ten limit switches, ten solenoids, seven separate electric motors, and over 600 feet of wiring — and somehow, it actually worked well enough to sell close to 50,000 examples across three model years.

A Roof Designed for a Car That Never Happened

The retractable hardtop concept dates back to 1948, when Ford stylist Gilbert Spear first sketched the idea, and it was formally developed starting in 1953 by engineers Jim Holloway and Ben Smith for William Ford’s pet project: a folding-roof version of the ultra-exclusive Lincoln Continental Mark II. Once the Mark II’s price tag climbed toward $10,000, the retractable-top project got cancelled along with it — but Ford had already sunk $2.2 million into the mechanism and wasn’t about to write it off. Re-engineering it for the full-size Fairlane line gave the company a halo feature for 1957, introduced to the public at the New York Auto Show on December 8, 1956.

600 Feet of Wire and 48 Seconds of Magic

The finished mechanism was genuinely wild for the era: seven reversible electric motors, four lift jacks, a network of relays, ten limit switches, ten solenoids, four roof latches, two trunk latches, and 610 feet of wiring, all coordinated to fold the roof down and tuck it under the decklid in roughly 48 to 50 seconds. Ford built 20,766 Skyliners for 1957 — the model’s best year by far, with production sliding to 14,713 in 1958 and 12,915 in 1959 — at a base price of $2,942, making it Ford’s priciest car that year. Collectors today generally agree 1957 was the Skyliner’s best-looking and most desirable year, which is a reasonable payoff for $2.2 million spent on a car that was never even supposed to happen.

A Mechanism Nicknamed ‘Leak-Liner’ by Its Own Owners

The Skyliner’s retractable hardtop earned an affectionate but pointed nickname among period owners: “leak-liner,” a reference to the water-sealing challenges inherent in any roof built from multiple hinged steel panels rather than a single stamped piece. Keeping the seams watertight required precise adjustment that could drift out of alignment over time, and a Skyliner in less than excellent condition today often needs careful attention to those same seals before an owner can trust it in the rain the way a conventional hardtop never has to be trusted.

Where the Roof Actually Goes

Folding the Skyliner’s roof down meant storing the entire steel structure in the trunk, which cut usable cargo space dramatically compared to a standard Fairlane and meant the trunk lid itself had to hinge from the front rather than the rear to make room for the roof panels sliding in. That packaging compromise was the price of the retractable-roof party trick, and it’s a detail owners had to plan around every time they packed for a trip, roof up or down.

The First of Its Kind, By a Wide Margin

No other American automaker had put a fully automatic retractable hardtop into mass production before Ford’s Skyliner, making the 1957-59 cars a genuine first rather than a follow-on to a competitor’s idea. That distinction is part of why collectors treat the Skyliner as more than just a dressed-up Fairlane: it represents a real engineering milestone, however commercially modest, at a moment when Detroit was still willing to gamble significant money on genuinely novel mechanical ideas.

Keeping the Motors and Relays Working Today

A Skyliner’s seven motors, ten limit switches, and ten solenoids all have to fire in the correct sequence for the roof cycle to complete without jamming partway through, and any single failed relay or misadjusted switch can leave the roof stuck between positions. Specialist restorers who understand the original wiring diagrams are increasingly rare, which is part of why a Skyliner that already has its roof mechanism sorted and functioning commands a real premium over one that needs the system rebuilt from scratch.

Why 1957 Specifically Draws Collector Attention

Collectors generally rate the 1957 Skyliner as the most desirable of the three model years both for its cleaner, less heavily reworked styling and for being the launch year of a genuinely new idea, before Ford began trimming costs and simplifying details on the 1958 and 1959 cars as sales slowed. That combination of being both the freshest design and the rarest surviving example in top condition is exactly why a well-sorted 1957 example, like the one pictured here, tends to draw stronger bidding than its later siblings.

A Feature That Never Quite Caught On Industry-Wide

Despite the Skyliner’s genuine engineering achievement, no other American manufacturer rushed to copy Ford’s fully automatic retractable hardtop during the same era, and Ford itself dropped the feature after 1959 rather than continuing to refine it. That’s a telling detail: the mechanism worked well enough to sell tens of thousands of cars, but its complexity and cost apparently outweighed its novelty value once the initial excitement faded, a common fate for ambitious first-generation engineering ideas across the auto industry.

Why Restorers Treat the Roof Mechanism as a Specialty Skill

Because so few shops still specialize in Skyliner roof systems, owners searching for a qualified restorer often have to look well outside their local area, sometimes shipping a car across state lines to a specialist with genuine hands-on experience with the original wiring and relay logic. That narrow pool of expertise is part of why a Skyliner that already runs its roof cycle correctly commands a real premium over one advertised as a straightforward mechanical project.

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