Leif-Ivan buys celebrety Alice Timanders Skyliner for his museum.

The year was 1959, and May 4^th  rolled a new Ford Skyliner out from the assembly line at a Ford plant in New Jersey. It was equipped with a speedometer is graduated in km / h and with fixed drilled circular reflectors in the rear bumper. The car was intended for export, and after a voyage across the Atlantic was that shortly thereafter the company Motor City, Authorized Ford Dealer on Birger Jarlsgatan in Stockholm.

The new Skyliner, one of only two Swedish sold 59’s, was an odd carriage in the showroom. The whim of the exclusive car, in addition, they sold not every day. We know nothing about the original price in Sweden, but Skyliner was almost twice as expensive as a regular Ford 59: ai then execution away in the United States at this time.

 At  same time kept the film director Olle Hellbom on the film “greaser”, that would have premiered forward winter.

Christina Schollin and Hans Wahlgren were two of the more famous actors in the film, which incidentally had a right decent budget.

Somehow we think that the film company managed to borrow the brand new car to the recordings.

The tri-color Skyliner glimpsed in several scenes in the film, clearly outside the “Café croft” about the middle of the film.

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The car was then sitting at the Motor City to May 13, 1960 before it was sold. New owner became Torsten Timander, then married to actress Alice Timander. We know that Alice immediately took a fancy to the new ford, and in her memoirs is mentioned in this manner:

“Torsten introduced Miranda. It was a Ford Fairlane, a large red battleship with hard top that automatically went down in the trunk if you wanted to go open. Because it really was worthy of admiration, I called the Miranda.”

The car changed hands a number of times over the years, including it was during one period of Gran Canaria. Perhaps a way to make use of the car a bit more with the roof down during the rainy Swedish summer. 

Eventually ended the car in Dalarna, first in Borlänge, where it was called down completely, then in Orsa with a guy who finally found her dream car. Unfortunately it turned out that the renovation would be overwhelming for him, and a good friend teased often because there seemed to happen with the renovation.

– “Buy you then, instead of standing there and be great in the mouth,” he said suddenly one day to his friend.

The good friend Hasse Jansson in Mora. The offer came suddenly, and Hasse who was then 22, had to reflect a little. Admittedly, he had, despite the age a very solid experience of bilrenoveringar, and the first renovation object, a Fairlane -64, he bought 17 years old.

With automotive technical school in the back, and the whole lot of time at the village’s local garage, Vika Car & Mechanical, got bilintresset a flying start. Additionally, Hasse had an uncle who ran Motor vehicle body repair and painting, so there was always someone to ask for advice. Vigilant enough hired Hasse also on the local Volvo workshop age of 17, and worked there alongside schooling. That said, the 22-year-old switched off his Cougar XR7 cab -71: a he carefully renovated, and became the owner of Skyliner 2000.

Then it was in a deplorable state, nedplockad in molecules, former vile rust cooked bodywork, interior upholstered in white vinyl and all chrome bubbly and corroded. Original 292 Y-block and 2-speed Cruise-O-Matic automatic accompanied, if just as a fixer. The garage was filled with boxes and skylinerdelar, and the project could start.

If this had now been a more common car model, it would course a lot of parts to be newly manufactured, and other stuff could be easily sourced from scrap yards in the US or being NOS parts. But Skyliner -59 was not a big seller, only 12,916 were manufactured. Therefore there is not, and never has been, any new manufacture of model-specific parts. No economy plate, no chrome, no parts to the advanced cabställningen.

The difficulties were piling up, but fortunately tagged this just Hasse even more. After a visit to the local blästerfirman it was only to start cutting into the body. Removed by one bit, produce a new, and then welded in place. But the wheel arches, rear on both sides were the old restorations so extensive that it could not determine how it looked from the beginning. Just going around a turn and look at some other Fords, it turns out soon, thought Hasse.

 
Leif-Ivan och Susanne Karlsson develops their museum 

Once home was the body upplagat minute detail, and completely according to original specifications. To get an idea of ​​how serious this was done, we can tell you that it was produced special tools to do exactly the grooves in the floor plate that was on this car. Another example is thresholds. The absolutely only in economics plate available for this model is the right thresholds. But the fit was lousy, and the profile was completely wrong. Hasse threw them into the scrap box and made new, instead, the only way to be truly satisfied, apparently.

Chassis and powertrain renovated and the body was painted. But then it was time for the wife, no children, and build houses. The renovation of the Skyliner had to be on the back burner a few years before the house became clear and the missus sold. Meanwhile nosades a oskruvad Skyliner -59: a top, just to pick parts from. Especially cabställningen and all electronics around this was a scourge. But with parts from two complete cars to piece with, went to get together even this. To gain a little insight into this we can mention that cabmekanismen including includes ten relays that must be turned on in the correct order through a bunch of micro switches. If you connect this error, something will break instantly, was so sure. Even the balancing of takrörelserna and fit in both the open and closed positions was a real nightmare, as well as the challenge to fix all the chrome trim and moldings.

After all the hardship the car could then be approved at the vehicle inspection program in spring 2015. The conservative estimate was when the renovation took 8000 hours distributed over 15 years. The car had time to test run a few laps, a total of maybe 10 mil, before Leif Ivan Karlsson had tracked down Hasse and Skyliner. Of course it was not the car for sale, but given how hard it is to use

Leif Ivan builds up in the Automobile Museum, World of Classics, and the thought of Skyliner would now be on the museum and have it nice and warm, while a piece of Swedish automotive history will be available to the public, helped Hasse to make the decision.

– “Oh yes, I could of course with some beer in it before it was musieföremål” laughs Hasse.

The car is now at  Leif-Ivan och Susanne and the  museum in  Tumba

The car is now at Leif Ivan and Susanne and museum at Tumba

– “Now I just towed into Galaxie 63 half-ball in the garage and ripped out the carpet. But now it will not need to take some 15 years this time, I hope …”

We keep our fingers crossed for Hasse, and to wish him a big thank you for the help with preserving this unique Skyliner for posterity.