Commercial Break: Hillman Minx, 1959/1960 (UK)

1960 Edsel Two-Door Sedan Convertible - Sledsel

An Edsel; surely not the greatest of base material to start with when building a top class custom; aren't they those 1950's cars with the grill that looks like someone's squashed it's lips together? Well yes and no.
The Edsel marque only existed for three model years (1958-1960); designed to fit between the Mercury and Lincoln marques as so to push the latter upmarket to do battle with Cadillac, which was at that time a rival for the likes of Buick and Oldsmobile. Poor build quality, together with a disastrous lack of market research led to releasing a product that didn't appeal to the majority of the car-buying public; the result was poor sales. The brand was canned in 1960 with losses of $350m; an expensive exercise in how not to launch a car company. Ford announced the end of the Edsel program on Thursday, November 19, 1959; however, production continued until late in November, with the final tally of 2,846 1960 model year cars, such as the example you see here.
Unlike the '58 & '59 cars the 1960 Edsel Ranger is a bit of a looker; this particular example started life as a 2-door saloon (the convertible is super-rare and hard to find) converted to a ragtop with a whole ton of work done to stop it shaking apart. That gorgeous rear end is original Edsel and the car has a lot more work done to get that low ride height. It makes the contemporary Ford Thunderbird, one of the supposed 'glamour' cars of the FoMoCo line-up look more than a little gawky in comparison.
Read more info about this oxmoronic Edsel here.

1960 Ford Fairlane 500 Club Sedan - Rolling Revival

Another 'new' quality 60's custom; it's a real treat to see cars of this quality being built again, but if you're squinting at the screen trying to work out what it is, let us put you out of your misery.
It's a 1960 Ford Fairlane Club 500, the base trim model in FoMoCo's mainstream full-sized line of cars that ran from 1960 to 1964. For all of the work done on this beauty, that body is near-standard, save for some trim details, fender skirts, bellflower tip exhausts - until you see the boot lid,which in a cunning piece of cross-marque inspiration, has a Lincoln-style continental wheel hump fashioned into it; factory looking too. Rolling stock is the ever-popular 48 series Supreme wheel, cut with Hercules MRX whitewalls. Driving that dynamic rolling combo is the original 292ci Y-block, rebuilt and warmed-up with traditional goodies. Going back to the subject of what is standard on this car, that interior is effectively standard spec, albeit completely new; why change something for the sake of it when it looks this good?
And we save the best 'til last: the paint. We're not going to spoil Street Rodder's prowse on that one as you should really drink in the words, then take a deep breath and take a good old swig of the pictures. A plethora of traditional-style paint tricks have been performed on that body; they'll keep you coming back to the pictures.