1960 Fords were great examples of cars that were probably too cool for the masses so they were labeled as not interesting for decades.
That was a big mistake. These cars really came and went in a heartbeat but fortunately there are some hardcore believers in the 1960 Ford.
Allan Huber is one of them.
Allan admits that he “always liked the body style and they’re starting to be more popular” so in car guy terms that meant he was willing to put blood, sweat, tears and buckets of money into the game. He found this 1960 Ford Starliner the old fashioned way with some serious sleuth work and the search ended in a farmer’s yard.
This particular farmer had a car crop of over 600 cars so the odds were pretty good.
The Starliner came from a relatively dry area so the initial report card on the project was a bare passing grade as George recalled, “The floors were quite good, there was a little rust in the rockers and the body mounts but there was no windshield and hood”.
Allan had a pretty solid game plan for the Starliner and he outlined the plan, “I wanted to keep it all basically original exactly the way it was new but make a few upgrades”.
“Upgrades and any kind of restoration” translates into long hours and this ’60 Starliner was no exception. Allan explained the process, “It was a full frame off rotisserie job and it actually took three winters to do it”.
There was some fabrication involved because 1960 Fords aren’t like ’69 Camaros where the parts catalogue is bigger than the 1987 New York City phone book. He summed up the process in one sentence, “If it wasn’t for eBay these cars would never get built”.
Allan admitted that he had a craftsman involved, “He made door panels and he did a beautiful job. I was a little concerned because he told me six months but it turned out to be lot longer than that”.
Allan ended up with an unusual mix of old and new in this Starliner because the car is superficially bone stock so it carries over with a few issues that were never considered like the huge greenhouse area, “It’s harder to cool because of the huge surface area and the fact that these cars aren’t tinted like new cars”.
That’s why Allan added the vintage air conditioning to the Starliner but even that can’t keep up with early 60s style.
Allan built this car to be a driver so he made a few more upgrades to the old Ford, “It’s got disc brakes and I’ve upgraded the power steering. It’s got a little bit of rake for the handling side and I’ve hidden the radio and the audio for things like the Mp3 player and speakers. I travel with the windows up and it’s actually pretty good inside the car”.
Despite all the creature comforts Allan admits “I don’t drive it too far in one day but it’s great on the road, it’s solid and straight down the road and it gets 18 miles per gallon if I keep it around 65. It does have a highway 3:00 gear so that helps”.
That’s a solid number for a 390 cubic inch 315 horse motor.
Some of these 1960 Starliners have been grabbed and customized by guys with a vision of how these cars should look and generally they’ve failed.
That’s because these ’60 Fords were already there.
Jerry Sutherland
