Car Stuff: Out from Under Cover

I've gotten better at catching cars in traffic, and I scan parking lots looking for unusual stuff parked out along the far edges. But sometimes elusive cars have to be stalked, like this one. It lives in my general area but is about 15 minutes' walk from my house. I first became aware of it while poking around on Google Street View back in the spring, but when I went to check it out in person it was parked in the driveway with a cover over it.

I checked back about a month later, and it was in the same place but still covered. I knew as the weather got nicer it would come out from hiding eventually; Google had given me evidence of that. So I waited a while longer and went back again. It was on that third try, in June, that I finally found it uncovered.

It's a 1962 Ford Thunderbird in a lovely shade of burgundy. At this point Ford was giving the T-Bird a redesigned body every three model years, but made enough small yearly changes so individual years can be distinguished. These are mainly confined to pieces of side trim, grille texture, and other such details. This body style was new for 1961, and the trim that changed is at the rear of the car and hard to see from this angle, but the grille is unique to this year. (The '63s are the easiest of this design to identify at a glance, because Ford added a character line to the sheetmetal of the front fenders and doors.)

I wish I could've spotted this car out on the street in front of its home, or in the parking lot of the Stop & Shop that's just a couple of streets over, to get some additional pictures, but I suspect the owner avoids taking this car into parking lots as much as possible. It may not have indoor storage, but it is otherwise very well looked after (though in need of some wheel covers).