Ford Thunderbird 1964 Convertible

This 1964 Ford Thunderbird convertible sits at the exact hinge point between two eras of the Thunderbird nameplate — the swoopy Bullet Bird was gone, and the boxier, gadget-laden fourth generation had just arrived. It carries a 390 V8, a power-folding top, and a swing-away steering wheel most drivers today have never touched. Read on to find out what made 1964 the year the Thunderbird reinvented itself.

Ford had a problem in 1964: how do you follow up one of the most beautifully proportioned cars of the early 1960s without simply copying it? The answer wasn’t a gentle refresh. It was a near-total reinvention, wrapped around gadgets that felt like they belonged in a spy film more than a Ford showroom. This convertible carries the results of that gamble, from a steering wheel that swings sideways at the push of a button to a formal new roofline nobody had seen on a Thunderbird before. Whether the gamble paid off is still argued at car shows six decades later, and this car makes the case better than most.

A Clean Break From the Bullet Bird

The third-generation Thunderbird of 1961-63 is remembered for its rocket-like “Bullet Bird” flanks, but Ford walked away from that shape entirely for 1964. The fourth generation introduced a longer, more formal body with a creased beltline and a distinct trunk lid treatment that borrowed styling cues from the Lincoln Continental parked a few showrooms over. It was a deliberate move upmarket, positioning the Thunderbird as a genuine personal luxury car rather than a sporty two-plus-two, and it worked well enough that Ford kept refining the formula for the rest of the decade.

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The 390 Under the Hood

Every 1964 Thunderbird left the factory with a 390 cubic inch FE-series V8 as standard equipment, rated at 300 horsepower and paired exclusively with a Cruise-O-Matic three-speed automatic. There was no manual gearbox offered and no smaller engine option — Ford wanted every Thunderbird buyer to have effortless power on tap, and the 390 delivered a relaxed, torque-heavy driving character suited to boulevard cruising rather than stoplight racing. That same 390 architecture would go on to power everything from Galaxies to early Mustangs, giving it a long and well-documented service history.

A Steering Wheel That Moves Out of Your Way

One of the fourth generation’s signature party tricks was the swing-away steering wheel, standard on the convertible. At the push of a button, or simply by shifting into park, the entire column would pivot roughly ten inches toward the passenger door, opening a wide gap for the driver to slide out without contorting around the wheel. It sounds like a novelty today, but in 1964 it was marketed as a genuine convenience feature worth showing off to neighbors, and Ford printed dedicated brochure pages explaining exactly how it worked to skeptical buyers.

Sequential Taillights Were Still a Year Away

Ford’s famous sequential rear turn signals — the ripple of lights that became a Thunderbird trademark — did not actually arrive until the 1965 model year. The 1964 convertible instead uses conventional single-bulb signals, which makes it easy for enthusiasts to date a Thunderbird at a glance: sequential taillights mean 1965 or later, static ones mean this earlier, arguably purer expression of the fourth-generation design before Ford started layering on the feature the nameplate is best remembered for today.

Convertible Complexity, Convertible Rarity

Convertible Thunderbirds were always the rarest and most mechanically involved body style in the lineup. The power top folded into a well behind the rear seat using a system of relay switches and hydraulic cylinders that Ford engineers considered class-leading complexity for the era. Because so much of the trunk and rear structure was dedicated to housing that folding mechanism, convertible production never came close to matching the hardtop’s volume, and clean survivors with a fully functioning top are correspondingly harder to find today than the coupe.

Inside the Personal Luxury Cabin

Inside, the 1964 Thunderbird pushed further into luxury territory than any Ford passenger car before it. Bucket seats, a full-length center console running front to rear, and a padded dashboard were standard, while options included a tilt-away steering column, power windows, and an AM radio with a rear-seat speaker for passengers. The dashboard itself used a wraparound design with the gauges canted toward the driver, a cockpit-style layout Ford would keep refining through the rest of the decade across multiple model lines.

What a 1964 Thunderbird Cost New

A 1964 Thunderbird convertible carried a base price of roughly $4,850, a significant premium over the $4,486 hardtop and well above a contemporary Ford Galaxie, let alone the Mustang that wouldn’t even exist until April of that model year. That price bought a car positioned squarely between mainstream Fords and the Lincoln-Mercury lineup, which is exactly where Ford’s marketing wanted the Thunderbird to sit in the buyer’s mind — aspirational, but still attainable for a successful professional.

The Fourth Generation’s Place in Thunderbird History

The fourth generation ran from 1964 through 1966 and is often treated by historians as the last Thunderbird generation to fully commit to the two-plus-two personal luxury formula before the nameplate grew larger and more formal later in the decade. For that reason, 1964-66 cars — and especially the convertibles — occupy a specific niche among Thunderbird collectors who want the swing-away wheel and the pre-sequential-taillight styling without the added heft and complexity of later models.

Collector Demand Today

Values for clean fourth-generation Thunderbird convertibles have climbed steadily as the generation that grew up wanting one has reached the stage of life where a weekend cruiser is a realistic purchase rather than a poster on a bedroom wall. Cars with the swing-away wheel intact and functioning, an unmolested 390, and honest paint routinely draw strong interest at both dedicated Ford shows and general-interest classic auctions, often outperforming pre-sale estimates.

Living With One

Owning a 1964 Thunderbird convertible today means committing to a car built before power steering assist and disc brakes were universal, which rewards a driver who respects its era rather than one expecting modern responsiveness at every corner. Parts support is strong thanks to the FE-series engine’s popularity across multiple Ford platforms, and the swing-away mechanism, while unusual, is a solved problem for anyone plugged into the active Thunderbird club and swap-meet network. Regular maintenance items like the top’s hydraulic pump and the power window motors are the pieces owners tend to watch most closely, since they see the most cycles over a typical ownership.

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