My friend has a 55 T-Bird with VIN P5FH100237. Was this the 237th T-Bird built? I have heard that all Ford came down the same assembly line, which would make this T-Bird probably something less than 237th. How could I determine for my friend just how many this T-Bird would be off the line. Thanks Dick

Tbirds were built along with Lincolns at the Wixom Assy plant and were issued separate VIN than the Lincolns. The 100237 was the 237th car IDed but may have been built before or after, say the 199th car. It may have been built on the second day of production but you would need the date code off of the VIN tag. It will have a number and a letter like 15C (day of the month,month) which would be March 15th.

Thunderbirds were not built at Wixom until the 1958 model year, specifically the first was built on December 22, 1957.

1955-1957 Thunderbirds were all built at the Dearborn Assembly Plant along with other Fords like Fairlanes, Customlines, and Station Wagons. For the most part, their VIN sequences shared those of the "other" Fords, meaning that 101299 may have been a Thunderbird but 101300 may have been a Fairlane.

However, the first 1,000 Thunderbirds (1955) were issued VIN sequences 100001 to 101000. But the first 4 numbered cars were never produced. This is why today we know that P5FH100005 was the first Thunderbird to be built.

It is correct that while cars were given identification numbers, they were built out of actual sequence. So 103999 may well have been built before 103800.

The car in question here 5FH100237, was identified some years ago by Jimmy Blackburn as once being owned by a Mr. Sprague of Maine. See: http://www.tbirdregistry.com/viewdatasheet.aspx?RegistryNumber=5467 If you are the current owner please contact the Thunderbird Registry (which I maintain).