Car Of The Week: 1963 Ford Fairlane 500 Sport Coupe

Some automobiles make an impression that outlasts the showroom lights. Bob Mannel was 13 when his father took the family to the Baltimore City Armory, where local dealers had gathered to display the new models. Among them was a yellow 1963 Fairlane turning slowly on a display turntable. To Bob, it was the car in the room. The salesman was ready to write the order, but practicality won the day. Bob’s father instead chose a Mercury Meteor, swayed by its larger trunk and full oil-pressure and ammeter gauges rather than the Fairlane’s warning lamps.

Bob learned to drive in the Meteor, but the Fairlane stayed with him. In 1968, when he bought his first car, he chose a 1962 Fairlane finished in Peacock Turquoise with a white roof. It served as his young family’s daily driver for nine years while Bob steadily improved its performance, at least until rust finally gained the upper hand. By then, his attention had shifted to a 1963 Fairlane Sports Coupe that he had bought for his future wife, Jane, in 1969. The move made both mechanical and emotional sense: Many of the 1962 car’s performance pieces could be transferred onto a 1963. Bob found a candidate on a small used-car lot in Bothell, Wash., and completed the restoration and modifications in six months, then drove the finished Sports Coupe daily for the next 20 years.

Eventually, that hard-used Sports Coupe was ready for another restoration, and other projects were competing for Bob’s attention. He sold it to a close friend, who restored it again, and the car survives today. Still, Bob missed the balance looks of that body style: compact proportions, a clean and formal roofline and just enough sporting intent to separate it from the sedans. 

A Fairlane like the one that started it

In 2014, word came of another 1963 Ford Fairlane 500 Sports Coupe in Phoenix, Ariz. It had three prior owners, all of whom had lived and used the car exclusively in Arizona. As a result, the Fairlane 500’s body showed the benefits of Arizona’s hot, dry climate that spared cars from the road salt and brine common in the Snow Belt. Finished in Tucson Yellow with a gold interior, it had been delivered from Ford’s San Jose, Calif., assembly plant with a two-barrel 260-cid V-8, factory Borg-Warner T-10 four-speed transmission, power steering and Selectaire air conditioning. The original rear axle was an 8-inch unit with a 7-1/4-in. ring gear and 3.25:1 ratio, and the car wore 14-in. tires, standard equipment when air conditioning was ordered. It was not simply the right color. It was the right car.

Arizona may spare a classic from salt, but the desert brings its own demands. The state’s intense sun and dry heat can weather a car’s paint and rubber components — even wiring — making shade and careful paint care important to preserving a car in the Grand Canyon state.

A Fairlane love story

Introduced as Ford’s intermediate for 1962, the Fairlane filled the space between the Falcon and Galaxie. For 1963, the line expanded to nine models, including sedans, wagons, a new hardtop and the bucket-seat Sports Coupe. The Fairlane 500 was the more upscale trim level, and just 28,268 Fairlane 500 Sports Coupes were built that year. Tucson Yellow, Ford paint code R, was a late-year Fairlane offering that gave Bob’s car a period-specific identity and echoed the turntable car he never forgot. With its low mileage, Arizona history, four-speed transmission, air conditioning, power steering, gold interior and small-block V-8, this example stood out as far more than a nostalgic purchase. More than the right color, it was the Fairlane Bob had been chasing since he was 13.

That experience viewing a new Fairlane spin on a turntable led Bob to develop deep Fairlane credentials. He and his wife, Jane, are founding members of the Fairlane Club of America, and for nearly 20 years, Bob and Jane edited The Fairlaner, the club magazine. Bob also authored “Mustang & Ford Small Block V8, 1962-1969: Restoration and Reference Guide,” a 736-page RPM Press reference book published in 1998. This Tucson Yellow Fairlane 500 Sports Coupe reflects that lifetime of hands-on knowledge.

The Fairlane 500 Sports Coupe was not near Bob, but its distance did not weaken its pull. Bob borrowed a neighbor’s trailer and headed west to bring the Fairlane 500 home to east Tennessee. The return trip nearly spoiled the whole affair. In Tuscaloosa, Ala., postgame traffic had packed the interstate when a truck stopped abruptly in front of him. Bob could not brake in time. The impact disabled the tow vehicle and broke the Fairlane’s safety chain, yet the yellow Sports Coupe stayed on the trailer. Stranded on an overpass with no shoulder and one lane blocked, Bob could only wait for help and hope the car behind him had survived the ordeal intact.

Help arrived, the rig was moved to the shoulder and both the trailer and tow vehicle were eventually taken to a motel. It took two days to sort out the logistics and get everything home. Through it all, the Fairlane came through without a scratch — a small miracle in a story already shaped by patience and timing.

The best from the Fairlane world

Restoration of the Fairlane 500  began in 2016 and was completed in 2023, guided by the restraint that separates a thoughtful build from an overstatement. Bob wanted the Fairlane to look factory stock, right down to its “260 V-8” fender badges and correct engine-color presentation, but he was willing to hide better hardware beneath the surface. The foundation became a 289 block fitted with late-1964 289 heads and their larger 1.78-in. intake valves. Inside, a 302 crankshaft and 1968 302 rods added strength, while a 1968-style damper kept the factory air-conditioning-pulley arrangement intact. Up top, a 1963 289 HiPo four-barrel intake and 1965 Autolite 4100 carburetor breathed through a 1964 air cleaner that preserved the period look. Bob retained standard camming for low-speed torque, then finished the package with a Fairlane 289 HiPo 9-in. rear carrying 3.50:1 gears. The result is a car that looks authentic at first glance, but carries the best Fairlane parts of the period.

The supporting pieces were chosen with the same eye for period correctness. For the exhaust, Bob used the 1965 Fairlane A-code dual system as the model and worked with Jon Shetler of Waldron’s Exhaust to reproduce it from NOS parts that Bob supplied. Power brakes were added with a 1965 Fairlane booster, and an F-150 wiper system brought two speeds and an intermittent setting without calling attention to itself. Each change improved the way the car drove while leaving its Fairlane character intact.

Other details are personal as much as mechanical. Bob had admired fender skirts since installing a set on his turquoise 1962 Fairlane. Although Ford offered accessory skirts, the set he bought way back in 1968 was made by Foxcraft. He preferred the aftermarket Foxcraft fender skirts’ shape to the factory pieces, and they also cleared the stock Sports Coupe spinner wheel covers. A small distinction, perhaps, but exactly the kind of detail that gives a car its owner’s signature.

More than half a century after that yellow Fairlane first caught his eye, Bob Mannel finally has the Sports Coupe he imagined before he was old enough to drive. It is carefully judged and deeply personal — the sort of automobile that proves a dream can mature without losing its original color.

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