Le T-Bird: A 1957 Ford Thunderbird

Our blog page was initially created with the purpose of sharing the story behind the automobiles that come through our shop. This is the story of Le T-Bird, a 1957 Ford Thunderbird, which we took under our wing in February 2019. At the present moment we are putting the finishing touches on getting this car ready to deliver back to the owner, who hasn’t sat in the car for thirty years!

This car had always been in the Duron family, passed down from father to his children. Jeannine Duron-Ehnes aquired the car after trading her brother her 1969 Camaro for it. Her dad bought this car in December of 1957. It had just come off the production line in Detroit. He and his friend both went back to Detroit, each purchased a Thunderbird and drove back to Orange County in them. That is how this car came into their family.

Fast forward to 1978. Gary Ehnes, a postal worker at the time, saw his future wife driving by in in this beautiful bird. He recalls gawking at the car (and the girl). About a year and a half later they began dating and this T-Bird became a part of his life. He has fond memories of them taking the car out for dates and on road trips. Gary and Jeannine were married in 1981. They enjoyed taking the T-Bird to car shows and to Fifties parties in the years that followed but eventually the car was parked in the garage underneath a car cover and then the car cover became covered with numerous items stored in the garage, a little out of sight out of mind.

Does this story sound familiar? Where should we put this box? Oh, just set it on the T-Bird. Then next thing you know another thing gets placed on, in, or around the car. Then, when the weather is nice and you are thinking about taking the classic out for a cruise you are reminded how much work it would be to unbury it from the garage! So, then the car just becomes a part of the garage

Jeannine began telling her hubby that she wanted to drive the car again so Gary thought that it would be a great idea to get her car fixed up and back on the road for their 30th wedding anniversary in 2011. So, in 2010 he began looking for someone that could get the car running again, after all it ran decent before he parked it so he did not think it would require much. Being a mail man, Gary had a lot of connections on his route which led him to the shop that this car was previously at. He expressed his deadline to the builder to which he was reassured with, “No problem! No problem!”

Unfortunately, this was not the case. This builder may have just finished one of these T-Birds but he was incapable of completing Gary’s car in the time frame that they had established up front. Their 30th wedding anniversary came and passed and not much progress had been made. So then they were shooting for Christmas. The holidays came and passed and then Gary said ok, how about for her birthday, can you get this car completed in time for her birthday in August? Each time he was given a false sense of hope. The birthday passed then Gary said ok how about this Christmas?

Well, this back and forth went on for a few years and Jeannine was getting sick at the time and all she wanted was one last ride in her T-Bird. A her health began to fail this additional looming sense of urgency had been expressed to the shop that had the car at the time. When Gary and the family got preoccupied with Jeannine’s health he checked in on the shop less frequently and it wound up spending five years out in the shop’s yard on blocks. In 2017, Jeannine passed away, just two weeks after her 65th birthday. Needless to say, Gary was heartbroken and pissed off.

In March of 2018 Gary began searching online for another shop to help and that is when he came across Anaheim Rod and Custom. He visited us shared his story and we were more than happy to help this patient and kind man find some peace and resolution after the ordeal that he had been through. When we told Gary about how we host delivery parties for some of the completed vehicles, he thought that this would be a perfect celebration like he had envisioned for their 30th wedding anniversary. He loved the idea and decided then that this was where he wanted to bring Jeannine’s “Le T-Bird”.

Gary knew there would be a little bit of a wait before he could have the car and all of the pieces of the puzzle towed over to our shop. This worked out fine for him as well because it did take quite a while (and even some legal red tape) to get his car back in his possession. We stayed in communication with him all the while and assured him that when the car did arrive to our shop he would see visible progress. The T-Bird and all of it’s pieces arrived to Anaheim Rod and Custom on February 18th, 2019. Gary was (as all of our clients are) updated regularly and billed monthly for the work completed. He would come to the shop each month and see, as he put it , “it looking more like a car again”.

So in just roughly nine months time (the gestational period for a baby) Jeannine’s baby was reborn. As Gary explains it, this car IS Jeannine reborn. In fact, a portion of her cremated remains were even incorporated into the vehicle so when ever the car drives down the road, there goes Jeannine or Nina as her friends called her. Friend’s and family that know and understand the story of the car and Jeannine’s life long history with it will be in attendance at the T-Bird Delivery party to be held at the shop on December 14th, 2019.

We are more than honored to have been chosen to take part in such a special build and are all very excited to share in this ultra special delivery party. We were told that Jeannine was a big fan of anything French: Fluer de lis, The Eiffel Tower, Coco Chanel, etcetera. So, the delivery party will have a French theme in her honor. We are also extending an invitation to this delivery party to our current, past and potential clients. So, if you are interested in attending the celebratory send off of Le T-Bird please reach out to Becky Sue via email or call her at the shop. Merci beaucoup!